Pavilion DV7 touchpad buttons not responding

[ericpjohn]

I was actually only tapping. Pressing worked just fine. Thank you!

[Cyclops]

You are always welcome!

[bobwp59]

Thanks! I'd spent an hour or two searching for instructions and looking for settings to make the right click button work and was about ready to start looking for new drivers to try. I was guilty of just 'tapping' and not 'clicking.' I like the new design, but with no physical division between the left and right button areas and the main touch pad, and because the left and right buttons do respond to touch, I had assumed they worked on 'touching,' or 'tapping,' and had not pressed down hard enough to find out that they actually do 'click' just like the older style physical buttons. Perhaps there should be more explanation of this in the user guide for the slower among us who have not experienced this technology before.

[ax171]

I wish I saw this on a label, as it would have saved me time. Considering you have to actually click than tap the sections as regular buttons, why even bother not using buttons?

[bluetulip18]

Having the same problem with a DV4. The left and right buttons have stopped working. It was gradual: at first, the left click would get me the scroll (circle with two arrows); later it would start opening web links in other tabs or closing tabs without me clicking on close.

After I reinstalled drivers, both buttons acted like a right click. After system restore, both stopped responding.

Two days later, some functioning is back. But I'm starting to see problems with the left click again (scroll, tabs).

Took the laptop to three repair shops and all say it's a hardware issue. This computer is only 1 year and 5 months old.

Called HP tech support and was told this problem is really rare (maybe 50 out of a million computers). Are you serious? Are you really trying to defend a design flaw? Just what I need to hear.

[Orion_Nipp]

First: I purchased a new HP dv7 at Best Buy - the dvd would not open at all, and the touchpad was acting as described by OP. I returned it for a new unit. The new system's dvd drive works fine but the touchpad is still garbage.

Now: I have tapping disabled, yet it still will react to an accidental tap 3 out of 5 times.

I have 1-finger scrolling disabled yet once in every 20 motions it will still give a undesired horizontal or vertical scroll

I have pinch zoom enabled, which works 3 out of 4 times.

My touch sensitivity is set about halfway yet occasionally a gentle breeze will activate a command.

I have the left button set to the standard [Normal Select - Normal Drag] yet 2 out of 5 clicks will result in a right-click action

I have the right button set to secondary click {context menu, special drag] yet 1 out of 5 clicks results in a left-click action

When I touch in the right button area 2 out of 5 times the cursor jumps to the far left side of the screen

I have continually downloaded the latest drivers, including the one you linked. I have checked to make sure I am not touching the pad with my left hand to no avail, I have tried adjusting or disabling settings in different combinations, tried touching the pad in more controlled manner, and on and on...

To reiterate one persons post, the "features" described above worsened over time, as if some sort of cascade failure in the software which doesn't seem to make sense, but: when I first purchased this system the pad seemed to work fine. Within a hour I noticed that the right button began responding as the left button. As I continued to work with the device the frequency increased from about 1 error in 20 to the current rate. The left button continued to work fine for several more hours before it started to react as if it were the right button. The other errors have appeared and grown over the last two months of ownership...

Before you respond with the terse reply companies seem to give these days, assuming that people are young and inexperienced, I should point out that I was corporate CAD Lead for a multinational A&E firm for 10 years. Responsible for training engineers and designers, developing cad tools, evaluating hardware and software systems, and occasionally filling in as assistant hardware tech... I currently will not recommend or approve purchasing any laptop using this touchpad system.

The impact on my productivity both in business, and my return to college to gain my engineering degree have been horrible, and if I could hold HP accountable for the financial impact in lost time, the need to purchase mice for systems where none have been necessary previously, time handling complaints, and so on, as well as the impact to my studies as I must focus on trying to force this new system to do the things my older laptop did just fine....

That this is some rare 5 in 50 million, I think one poster was told, then it seems odd that I would get two in a row. That the problem seems to grow over time and did not reach crisis stage until after it was too late to return this system is frustrating to say the least. That I might be able to send it in on warranty is shallow comfort when one considers the impact of not having the system to work with, and in the end It is 1000's of times cheaper to just carry a mouse.

[royevatom]

I am the proud owner of a Pavilion DV6 1030us. I have had six months of nightmare trying to get my Laptop fixed as the left click button quit working.

HP refuses to acknowledge this issue I think because it seems to be a design flaw as the buttons and actuator are integral to the Palmrest and the whole thing must be replaced to install a new Touchpad and Buttons.

The first thing that happens is the Fan and Heatsink need to be replaced and the Left click button deteriorates to the point of not being usable. This is probably the most used thing on the laptop and other than the fan the weakest.

So off to warranty, Laptop comes back and the fan has been replaced but the left click button is not working, back again to repair, Hard Drive replaced, OS replaced, System Board replaced, Keyboard replaced !

Six months later HP starts playing Games saying they will repair my Laptop for 326$, but they will not guarantee that it will be fixed and there is no way they will refund the money if it is not fixed or give a partial refund if it is fixed and it costs less.

Believe it or not I got a private message from a person called JeffHelp who is someone at the national level of Customer Care saying that if I gave him my contact information he would have someone contact me. Guess what? No one ever did and my Laptop sits in the corner unused as the software is so screwed up it can't be used.

It seems that after the latest visit to the repair shop there is no Synaptics driver and the the touchpad/buttons are tied into the USB mouse driver. I tried to download the Synaptics driver and my Laptop went berserk so I uninstalled the Synaptics driver which allowed the Laptop to return to its previous condition. Also some strange version of Windows Vista has been loaded on the Laptop which I am no longer the Owner of and there is no backup disk or hard drive backup for the OS even though I paid for it.

I think HP knows about the inherent issues of left click and right click button malfunction in both the software integration and the absurd Palmrest Touchpad hardware design.

HP is just now entering the market with a Touchpad Notebook, I wonder do they care how much misery they are selling.

I don't care to be used by these people who are consumed by profiteering and shuffle you off to someone who speaks english as a second language and is trained to make you think they understand the problem you are having with your machine.

 I can't say enough about the lack of prudence that HP has used  concerning this Customer Care issue and I tell everyone.

They got my money and that is what is important; I am sure it is reflected in Stock Value somewhere in the land of vacuous men and women who belittle others to make themselves feel acceptable.

[derekc123]

the touchpad is [text deleted].  I would have paid 500 bucks more to get on that didn't suck so bad.  the entire keyboard is cheap crap.  my  best suggestion for the touchpad is abandon it and use an usb mouse.

[shawnagent007]

Hi,

I was working on a Pavilion dv41222nr of a friends and replaced the screen on it.  After I replaced the screen my friend said that the internal mouse wouldn't work which was an odd thing.  I verified that the left click and touchpad double click wouldn't function.  I then that this is a common problem with several of these laptops.  I removed the left button plunger on the unit and cleaned the surface mount button area with a qtip and some isopropyl alchohol.  This solved the problem and the computer is operating fine now.  I can't believe so many people had this problem and it wasn't addressed by HP - It was an easy fix LOL!  I had been a technician for years and now that any foreign substance by buttons will cause erradic behavior of electronics Hope this helps people with this problem.

[jamesmdaugherty]

Please give detail on cleaning the touchpad mouse buttons. Specifically, how to remove the buttons. I can get the keyboard keys removed to clean sticky keys. However, the mouse buttons below are more of a challenge.  Thank you in advance. Jim