touch pad gone a bit dodgy - help requested

[darkside]

my nannan has asked me round to help me sort out her laptop, the touch pad doesnt work and neither do the left/right click buttons.

i checked the control panel and the drivers and it says the device is functioning properly, which its obviously not

i uninstalled drivers and then reebooted to let XP do its thang and that didnt work either.

i suspected a virus so im runnung house call now but ive plugged in a USB mouse form the other PC and that works so that makes me think its not a virus.

im just about to go and check for device drivers on the manufacturers website and see if that works.

she says it stopped working while she was using it so it didnt just happen one day when she booted .

anyone know whats up/got any ideas to try?

its a HP Pavilion ze4800 laptop, the toucpd is a 'synatics touchpad v5.9 on ps/2 port'

any informtion is helpful at this point, i running out of ideas, short of reinstaling windows i think ive done everything

Cheers for any replies
Nathan

[EzyStvy]

Did you look in control panel->Mouse for the various settings?

[darkside]

i messed around in control panel and it didnt change a thing, still wont work :/

i booted a linux live-cd to see if it was a windows problem and it appears not, it didnt work in knoppix either :/

whats the chance of a touchpad dieing?

Nathan

[glc]

whats the chance of a touchpad dieing?

Actually, quite good. You have proved that it's the touchpad by successfully using a USB mouse. This assumes that it's not turned off in the bios. Touchpads do NOT need specific drivers to operate with basic functions, the default Windows PS/2 mouse driver will provide basic functionality.

[darkside]

ok cheers, ill phone support tomorrow, looks like its gonna have to be replaced :/

[Auriga]

They are quite sensitive bits of kit and (as mentioned previously) it's surprising how often they go nutty.

[darkside]

guys, how daft do i feel right now, after all that i tryed i ended up goin to the tech support after a 30 second call it worked, turns out theres a power button for the pad so you can disable/enable it while your working after all my messing about for about 2 hours+ and that final phone call i found out the power button was off :/

can i just say.....MAJOR design flaw lol, it should at least bootup in 'enabled' and after looking thourhg a full pile of documnets that came with it not one mentioned that button :@

i aint v happy

Nathan

[Auriga]

Blimey, never thought it could be that!

At least you saved yourself some headaches and £££!

[Jaggannath]

I didn't realise there was a power button for the touchpad on any lappies... I wish my Dell came with one, I want to switch my touchpad off, it gets on my wick

[glc]

I think you can turn a Dell touchpad off in the bios.

[Statica]

Most laptops I've seen come with a hotkey or a method to turn it off .. either from the BIOS or from within the OS.

[Jaggannath]

There's no option within the OS, believe me I've searched everywhere. I'll have a look at the BIOS next time I get around to it

[darkside]

hmm when i was wondering around the control panel im fairly sure i saw an option to disable 'tapping' on the touchpad it could have been anywhere tho and it minght only be availble on some touchpads/laptops

Nathan

[Jaggannath]

Yeah, I've seen it on some touchpads, just not mine