15-bs162sa touchpad erratic behaviour

[ClydeLFC]

I bought this laptop about 15 months ago. Ever since I've had it the touchpad has had intermittent issues but seems to be getting worse. I am fully up to date with all Windows updates and drivers and have no viruses.

What happens is when I am scrolling down using the 2 finger scroll option it will scroll back up again without me doing anything. It also sometimes will automatically highlight text as if I am holding the button while scrolling. It also zooms the page sometimes while trying to scroll. It will also sometimes move the pointer all by itself to the bottom of the window where the search box is.

Even worse, sometimes it completely stops working requiring me to use the keyboard to navigate. Restarting the computer solves the problem for a time before I get a repeat, which can be anything from an hour to a few days use. When it stops working if I navigate to device manager and uninstall the touchpad I can use the basic touchpad again with the standard ps2 mouse driver, but without gestures.

It is not a driver issue. I have tried several drivers off the HP support page for this machine. I have tried uninstalling and removing driver software and then restarting and reinstalling.

This shouldn't be happening on a laptop of this age and it clearly is either a device fault or a bug in the driver software that has not been fixed with updates.

Anyone offer any advice

[Christyxo]

I have the same issue. My laptop of the same make and model is 2 years old and somewhere between 12 and 18 months into it's life the trackpad started to become unresponsive, and now doesn't work at all. I've tried reinstalling drivers and software with no luck. Any solution you receive may help me as well.

[ClydeLFC]

It seems to be getting worse. I am fully up to date with everything, including BIOS updates. If I go in to the UEFI tests pre boot it passes all tests. I've tried removing the driver and installing an older driver off the HP website but nothing seems to stop the problem. I suspect the next stage is like you have where the touchpad fails completely.

I bought HP thinking it would be a good buy. I have a 6 year old Acer laptop that is perfectly good, I only bought this one because the Acer screen hinges broke and damaged the cable feeding the display. I have since repaired that.

At the moment restarting solves the problem but it returns. It's frustrating when I'm in the middle of something and it just stops working.

Surely someone must know a solution, or am I going to have to buy a new touchpad? Will that even fix it?

[Riddle_Decipher]

@ClydeLFC Welcome to HP Community!

Please follow the below steps to resolve the issue:

Check the Mouse options under control panel:

Start → Control Panel → Mouse → Buttons tab.

Check the box labeled "Use MS Office compatible scroll only."

Also, check the box below labeled "Scroll in active window only."

If the issue persists, attempt the below steps:

Attempt using an alternate/external mouse.

(If that works when the touchpad is disabled on Synaptic software, it would mean that it's a touchpad failure,

However, if the external mouse doesn't work either, it could be a software/driver issue).

Uninstall and reinstall the drivers for your mouse:

Go to the Device Manager and select your mouse. Uninstall it and then restart your computer. During restart, your mouse driver will automatically be reinstalled.

• 1.   Click on Start and type ‘Device Manager’.
• 2.   Click Device Manager.
• 3.   Click + sign next to Mouse.
• 4.   Right-click on mouse entry and choose "uninstall".
• 5.   Restart your computer.

Keep me posted, as I (Or a trusted colleague) shall follow-up on this case to ensure the concern has been addressed, 

And your device is up and running again, only in case you don't get back to us, first! 

That said, If the information I've provided was helpful, give us some reinforcement by clicking the solution and kudos buttons, 

That'll help us, and others see that we've got the answers!

Good Luck.

[ClydeLFC]

Hi. Thanks for the reply.  Unfortunately the options you suggest don't appear to be available in control panel. I have looked but can't find them. I will try an external mouse when it next crashes but I suspect it will work. If I uninstall the driver and use the touchpad with the Standard PS2 mouse driver the touchpad works, but I am left without the ability to 2 finger scroll. I suspect it will work fine with a mouse, however this is a portable device and I do not expect to have to carry a mouse with me.

If I need to replace the touchpad then so be it, however how do I know this will solve the problem? My personal view is this is a driver problem which none of the drivers on your website seem to fix. I don't recall having this problem when I first bought the laptop and am thinking one of the major windows updates may have broken the drivers.

[ClydeLFC]

Just stopped working again as I was about to click the close button on a webpage. No response from the pointer.

Plugged in a mouse and the mouse works fine. Went to device manager and expanded Synaptics SM bus touchpad. In Device status it says This device is working properly. If I go to the mouse properties from the tray icon and under the Synaptics tab click reset devices, it works again. This option is only available since I installed an older driver - this option is missing on the latest driver which still has the same problems with the touchpad stopping working.

There is clearly some issue and this is not a good workaround. I still think this is a driver problem. All the HP supplied drivers suffer the same problems. 

[Riddle_Decipher]

@ClydeLFC To be on a safe side, let's run a hardware test and ensure this isn't a hardware malfunction and just a driver issue as you've concluded:

Install the latest version of the HP Hardware diagnostics (UEFI) on your device using this link: Click here for details

• Hold the power button for at least five seconds to turn off the computer.
• Turn on the computer and immediately press Esc repeatedly, about once every second. When the menu appears, press the F2 key.
• On the HP PC Hardware Diagnostics (UEFI) main menu, click Component Tests.
• Click Mouse/Touchpad Test.
• Click Run once, or Loop until error.
• While the test is running, the time remaining and test result for each component display on the screen.

If a component fails a test, write down the failure ID (24-digit code) for when you respond back to us.

If you wish to thank me for my efforts, you could click on "Accept as solution" on my post as the solution should help others too.