Is there a place to file bug reports for drivers?

[ddddavo]

I am trying to figure out how to file a bug report, either in these Forums or in the Support area.  I don't see a way to file a bug.

Note, I'm not expecting any support -- not at all.  I can live with my machine as is.  But if there's no way to file bugs, how can HP know which ones need to be fixed?

Any pointers / info would be much appreciated.

[Daniel_Potyrala]

Hi,

You may just write about it here in this topic.

[ddddavo]

I have a dv7-7012nr running windows7 pro 64-bit with all the latest patches and drivers.

There is definitely a bug in the driver for the synaptics mousepad that comes with the unit.  Have done weeks of testing to isolate the issue:  it is definitely not hardware or applications software or OS.  Symptom is 100% repeatable, and if I use the MSFT-standard "PS/2 Compatible Mouse" (v6.1.7600.16385) instead of the Synaptics driver that the system came with (v15.3.29), the symptom goes away.  But then again, so do all the value-added features of the Synaptic mouse pad.

Symptom:  when using the mousepad (whether or not an external mouse is also connected) in a fairly mouse-intensive application (e.g., powerpoint, graphics, web 2.0 app in a browser), after a few minutes of mousing around the "select" mouse events are ignored.  (This is normally the left-mouse button, but for SAGs I did the mouse-button-reverse action using the windows control panel, and then the symptom has its effect on the right-mouse-button instead.)  Seems to happen most frequently when there's a lot of scrolling within windows of an application.  During the symptom,  windows cannot be minimized or closed, item selections cannot be made, and dialog boxes/wizards cannot be completed.  This makes the system almost useless, even though all the apps are happily awaiting some user input.  During the symptom, CPU utilization, disk, and network activity are nearly zero.  Memory utilization on my machine is typically about 40% free RAM.

Work-around:  putting the system through a suspend-resume cycle brings the mouse button back to life.  Hibernation cycle, same thing.  Occasionally, changing application window focus (by running through the application windows using windowsButton+tab) will bring the mouse button back to life, but that's not very reliable.

Work arounds that have no effect:  switching tabs in a multi-tab app (such as a browser); killing applications (using keyboard actions); mouse activity from an external (USB) mouse; mouse-pad "tapping"; waiting; plugging/unplugging power, external display, USB connections.

Request:  Please fiel a bug against this driver.  If available, it would be great to have a down-rev version of this driver to test -- maybe it won't have the same problem.

[ddddavo]

Two updates:

1. There seems to be no way to report a software bug to HP.  Spent a couple of hours on the phone with various "support" people discovering this.  Silly.
   
   
2. My immediate problem was partially solved through trial and error.  By completely uninstalling Box and GoToMeeting and the touchpad driver, then reinstalling them, the problem is much less severe.  What's weird is that killing the Box and GTM processes didn't solve the problem.  I'm guessing that the multiple installs that are inevitable with GTM had somehow corrupted some registry keys.