hp control zone trackpad incredibly glitchy

[Eddie6277]

Hey everyone, well I guess I spoke to soon because the night of the 15th the touchpad started acting up again. This time it wasn't as bad but was still moving erratically and highlighting and selecting things on the screen by itself. I did the usual reboot and then the two finger vertical scroll would no longer work. I would reboot and it still didn't work, so because I sent my laptop in for repair they provide me with a phone number that goes directly to the repair center. I called and explained the situation and the rep immediately says he thinks it's the touchpad controller since they already replaced the touchpad. He said the the controller is located close to the cpu and if it gets too hot it will malfunction. He tried to tell me if I had the laptop on my lap too long, that it may have got too hot causing this controller to malfunction. He sounded as if he knew what he was talking about, but I guess we will see! I sent it out back to the HP repair center last night so should have it back next week sometime. I will update once I get it back, this makes me think what happens when the warranty is up, our we going to have to be paying for unnecessary repairs. After all this I really regret buying this laptop. I may want to just sell it off when I get it back, but would hate to pass on the problems to the next person.

[mikey32230]

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@Eddie6277 wrote:
Hey everyone, well I guess I spoke to soon because the night of the 15th the touchpad started acting up again. This time it wasn't as bad but was still moving erratically and highlighting and selecting things on the screen by itself. I did the usual reboot and then the two finger vertical scroll would no longer work. I would reboot and it still didn't work, so because I sent my laptop in for repair they provide me with a phone number that goes directly to the repair center. I called and explained the situation and the rep immediately says he thinks it's the touchpad controller since they already replaced the touchpad. He said the the controller is located close to the cpu and if it gets too hot it will malfunction. He tried to tell me if I had the laptop on my lap too long, that it may have got too hot causing this controller to malfunction. He sounded as if he knew what he was talking about, but I guess we will see! I sent it out back to the HP repair center last night so should have it back next week sometime. I will update once I get it back, this makes me think what happens when the warranty is up, our we going to have to be paying for unnecessary repairs. After all this I really regret buying this laptop. I may want to just sell it off when I get it back, but would hate to pass on the problems to the next person.

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Did they say what they were going to do to mitigate this issue?

You are sending it in but, if the control really is all that close to the CPU then it is a hardware/design issue, so it makes me wonder what they will do, if anything to actually fix that. Im going to assume they will simply replace the controller and wait for you to complain that the problem come back. 

My brother will be returning today with the laptop so i can FINALLY begining testing the actual hardware today & this weekend. I will be reporting back here with my finds 🙂

BTW, each time you have been shipping your laptop in for repair, what has been the total down time that you have not had your laptop? (with shipping time/repair time) all included?

[Eddie6277]

Well I wish HP would address the issue if it is a design issue. The downtime isn't bad, the first HP hardware manager told me it would take up to three weeks and asked me if I wanted to pay for express shipping, which I denied. But HP only had my laptop one day and shipped it back to me the next day via two day shipping. So I would say total down time was about 7 days.

[Jeff_HPEnvy]

That is a seriously worrisome bit of news..."the controller getting too hot" because the laptop

is on your lap too long or too close to the hot cpu.

It makes me think that as soon as this thing is out of warranty, I'm going to

be paying and paying and paying. I also am sorry I bought this unit.

[MrWoodchuck]

For what it's worth, the problem IS NOT caused by heat build up due to sitting on a person's lap too long. I use my laptop sitting on a cooling platform and still have this issue. As further proof, I find the issue occurring immediately after I wake it from hibernation almost everytime. The problem is, unfortunately, that this touch zone is a faulty design that HP can't figure out how to fix. The "zone" causes problems even when it's not in its most glitchy condition. As some people have mentioned typing on the keyboard is horriby frustrating because the zone reads your hand movement incorrectly and causes the curser to move unexpectedly! This touch zone needs complete replacement with an older but more functional and reliable touch pad. I'm the guy that found the temporary fix using control panel/mouse/control zone reset and I've been working on computers since the days when Radio Shacks Tandy computers were the most powerful computer a private citizen could own. I know a little bit about what I'm talking about . I only hope that someone that's not a simpleton yes man at HP is reading this and is willing to face the powers that be and TELL them this "zone" is junk and if a recall isn't issued, future sales WILL SUFFER.
This lengthy message was typed on much much more typing friendly phone. I doubt it would have been possible on my HP laptop!

[Grahf]

Hello all! Thought I would post this here and help in any way that I can. I'm basically cosigning what Eddie has been saying...

So I purchased a refurb HP ENVY TouchSmart M7-J120DX from NewEgg. It arrived quickly with some expensive shipping. I figured if I was dropping 700$ why not another 25 to get it here right away! 

I tore the box open, turned the laptop on and could barely setup the OS because the mouse had a mind of its own, wildly clicking all over the place. Thankfully the touchscreen is very nice, extremely responsive and can override the touchpad if you're quick enough! lol

Being someone who's had problems with new PCs and drivers in the past I decided to completely disable the touchpad and go through the whole uninstall/reinstall of any and every touchpad driver I could locate, some of them thanks to people in this forum.

Randomly one would work for a few hours then go nuts again. Then Id uninstall and reinstall with the same one and it wouldn't work from the get-go. Confusing but very telling... 

The issue a lot of us are having(perhaps not everyone) is a defective part. I do believe the vast majority of the refurb models were sent back, refurbed and moved to distributors like NewEgg before the issue was known to HP. If when being refurbed it was during one of those moments when it works then it was never and issue to be fixed.

I realized that by depressing the control zone pad (clicking it) it would make the mouse go wild, then by doing it again a few times it would stop the crazy pointer and return to normal. I then tired this with several drivers, new and old and it was indeed firm pressure on the control zone touchpad that started/stopped the wild movements and clicking.

I logged into HP support, allowed them to remote access my machine and watched as the support agent tried all the same things i did with drivers and then after watching the mouse move all over the place on its own setup a repair order for me.

I paid 15$ to overnight ship both ways and had the laptop back within the week.

Attached is the repair order for you all to perhaps use to reference when having yours replaced. They did indeed replace the touchpad (it has protective plastic on it when it returned to me so I could tell it wasn't the old one).

Looking eye level with the keyboard/touchpad with the original part showed a gap at the front of the touchpad you could stick your fingernail in there easily it was so open. The one they replaced it with contains no gap and feels firmer  when I depress it(using it to click) and seems to be shaped ever-so-slightly different.

If anyone wants it I can get a picture of the now missing gap in the front of it. I wish I had thought of taking a picture of it before sending it away so people could compare to the faulty one I had.

If anyone would like any information or screen caps of anything please let me know. I'll keep an eye on this thread and help in any way I can because while it didn't solve the issue it lead me in the directions I needed to test some stuff out.

I do believe this is a hardware issue for most if not all of us.

[mikey32230]

Okay guys,

 I have the laptop back in my hands so i can finally start doing some hardware testing.

First i have been trying to figure out a sure way to create the problem, so i can attempt to recreate the issue during testing.

Do any of you have any ideas, or experience with specific gesures or actions that cause the problem to show up majority of the time?

I have tried putting lots of pressure on the touch pad, using two fingers and moving the cursor irradically, but nothing have really been consistent at initializing the issue.

Please reply back if you have any suggestions. 

[Carlosj_2009]

One that used (or still does, idk im away from the computer right now) was trying to move an icon. For this put the cursor on top of the icon, with your left hand click the touchpad (dont release) and with the right move the icon wherever you want to put it (still having the touchpad clicked) usually it would move erratically or after youre done moving the icon youd have problems..hope it helps!

[Grahf]

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@mikey32230 wrote:

Okay guys,

 I have the laptop back in my hands so i can finally start doing some hardware testing.

First i have been trying to figure out a sure way to create the problem, so i can attempt to recreate the issue during testing.

Do any of you have any ideas, or experience with specific gesures or actions that cause the problem to show up majority of the time?

I have tried putting lots of pressure on the touch pad, using two fingers and moving the cursor irradically, but nothing have really been consistent at initializing the issue.

Please reply back if you have any suggestions. 

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So yeah if you read my post above your I mentioned the ways that it happened for me. Pressure was the cause with the old part that came with the laptop. Once pressure was applied it would almost get "stuck" and could be fixed by applying pressure again. Almost like an alternator in a vehical could have one single dead spot and your car won't start. If you move it spindle on it a fraction of an inch your car will start right up.

The new touchpad they installed in mine is slightly different and isn't as soft when using it to "click". You can even visbily see the diferences in the two because one sat up higher and had a gap under the front of it while the new one is a bit sleeker and has no gap.

My model is however a HP ENVY TouchSmart M7-J120DX so I don't know if this is the same with everyone.

[mikey32230]

Okay guys, I have the laptop open. I Was going to try to test things using the synaptics mood graph but to my surprise it doesn't work right.. At least for me at this moment. Can you all test yours and see if you get any pressure readings on the mood pad?

If you don't know how to access the mood pad:
Go to the start menu and type in "synmood"

The mood pad is a black box that displays a sort of thermal reading of your touches on the touchpad. When I touch my toucchpad however I get no reading.

But I know it's not 100% completely broken because I did get a very small color reading 1 time at the bottom left hand corner of the Moodpad. I'm curious to see if it work for any of you.