How to disable "Smartsense" on Synaptics Touchpad?

[IanKul]

- I've got a new HP Spectre x360 - 13-4111tu

- When I'm typing the mouse pointer can not be moved

- This appears to be a deliberate thing. There is a slider in Mouse & Touchpad Settings | Additional Mouse Options | ClickPad Settings | SmartSense that appears (from the little video in the settings) to disable the disabling.

- I've tried that, but it doesn't appear to make any difference

- Interestingly, the setting turns itself back on after a restart

- I've been through three chat sessions with HP support, they've tried reinstalling the driver, apdating the driver, and in one anoying session, disabling the touchpad entirely and restarting

- I'm wondering if there is another windows based setting for this fuction somewhere I'm missing, or if this is just broken

[Tardis40]

Hi there @IanKul,

Welcome to the HP Support Forums! It is a great place to find the help you need, from other users, HP experts and other support personnel. I understand you are having an issue with the Smart Sense. I will be glad to help you.

Here is a youtube video on How To Disable SmartSense.

If is not solving your issue, try a USB mouse.

Please keep me informed of how things went. If you require further assistance, let me know and I will gladly do all I can to help you.

Please let me know if this resolves the issue by marking this post as "Accept as Solution". To simply say thanks, click the Thumbs up below! 

Thanks.

[IanKul]

Thanks Tardis40,

That's exactly what should disable the SmartSense, but on this laptop on Windows 10 it does not. Interestingly after a reboot, the setting is turned back on.

Sorry I accidentially marked your suggestion as a solution, it's not.

This is easily reproducable, and is being experienced by many other people on all sorts of Windows 10 + Synaptics hardware. It needs to be esculated to someone in HP who can confirm it and then bring it up with Synaptics.

[stecrz]

Hey, I know what the problem is and how you'll get it work in about 30 seconds!

First of all, sorry for my English and the late reply. I am from Germany and normally on the german Support Forum. Hope you still need an answer (please mark the question as answered so that others can find this solution).

1. Type WIN+R and start "regedit" (or simply use the Windows Search and type regedit).
2. Confirm that you're an admin (a window may pop up).
3. Navigate to KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTP\Install
4. Change DeleteUserSettingsOnUpgrade from 1 to 0
5. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTPCpl
6. Change RestoreAllDefaults from 1 to 0
7. Now you can change the ClickPad-Settings (of course, they will not be deleted after a restart, and you can change them as many times as you want to)

Rgds, STECRZ

[MouseAndKeyboar]

A solution…

Since the common solutions (setting win 10 to “no delay”- & turning off synaptics “smart sense”) doesn’t work for many of us – I had to spend hours searching for a needle in a haystack. Luckily more intelligent people than myself has actually came up with an solution solving this headache of a problem. I’m now spreading that solution so more people can start using the mouse and the keyboard at the same time.

Let me quote:

Solution:
In the Registry, go to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTP\Defaults, and set the value of all string entries of the form PalmKms…, to 0. (Of course, they probably don't all need to be 0, but have fun finding out which one(s) you actually need!) These values determine the amount of ms that the touchpad stays disabled after keyboard input has been detected.

In my own case I turned them all off at first, and through the method of trial and error I found that only the first three keys were necessary to set to value “0” for it to work. I also found that the changes won’t start working until the computer is rebooted.

Therefore don’t forget: You actually have to restart windows for it to work.

Here’s also another solution found to the synaptics “RESETTING OF CHANGES” made, every time one reboot the system.

Quote:

1. Type WIN+R and start "regedit" (or simply use the Windows Search and type regedit).
2. Confirm that you're an admin (a window may pop up).
3. Navigate to KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTP\Install
4. Change DeleteUserSettingsOnUpgrade from 1 to 0
5. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTPCpl
6. Change RestoreAllDefaultsfrom 1 to 0
7. Now you can change the ClickPad-Settings (of course, they will not be deleted after a restart, and you can change them as many times as you want to)

Good luck!

[0ra]

I've read the posts above and I'm having the exact same issue. I like to play games and use wsad to move around while I use the mouse. I did the regedit thing, but all that does is let me save the settings so that they won't be deleted after I restart my computer. The settings themselves don't work. I changed the settings and restarted my computer to check that they saved and to apply the changes. I still can't move my mouse while typing or pressing keys. I set the smartsense to off and I unchecked the box for hiding the mouse while typing. I there anything else I can do? Maybe something I'm missing?

---

@MouseAndKeyboar wrote:

A solution…

Since the common solutions (setting win 10 to “no delay”- & turning off synaptics “smart sense”) doesn’t work for many of us – I had to spend hours searching for a needle in a haystack. Luckily more intelligent people than myself has actually came up with an solution solving this headache of a problem. I’m now spreading that solution so more people can start using the mouse and the keyboard at the same time.

Let me quote:

Solution:
In the Registry, go to the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTP\Defaults, and set the value of all string entries of the form PalmKms…, to 0. (Of course, they probably don't all need to be 0, but have fun finding out which one(s) you actually need!) These values determine the amount of ms that the touchpad stays disabled after keyboard input has been detected.

In my own case I turned them all off at first, and through the method of trial and error I found that only the first three keys were necessary to set to value “0” for it to work. I also found that the changes won’t start working until the computer is rebooted.

Therefore don’t forget: You actually have to restart windows for it to work.

Here’s also another solution found to the synaptics “RESETTING OF CHANGES” made, every time one reboot the system.

Quote:

1. Type WIN+R and start "regedit" (or simply use the Windows Search and type regedit).
2. Confirm that you're an admin (a window may pop up).
3. Navigate to KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTP\Install
4. Change DeleteUserSettingsOnUpgrade from 1 to 0
5. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTPCpl
6. Change RestoreAllDefaultsfrom 1 to 0
7. Now you can change the ClickPad-Settings (of course, they will not be deleted after a restart, and you can change them as many times as you want to)

Good luck!

---

[MouseAndKeyboar]

Perhaps this solution (posted by another member), is what you are looking for?

Quote:

Thanks for your help! Your solution didn't fix it for me (I might be running more recent drivers), but it got me in the right direction!

I had to install older drivers where the "settings menu" wasn't hidden like in the newer drivers. The setting for palm detection that disables the mouse while typing is in the following registry location (on my computer):

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTP\TouchPadPS2_2TM3139]
"PalmRT"=dword:00000005

To set it off, so that mouse is no longer disabled while typing, the setting becomes:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTP\TouchPadPS2_2TM3139]
"PalmRT"=dword:00000000

The "PalmKms..." only worked sometimes, but when I pressed enough buttons the mouse would get disabled occasionally. However the PalmRT in "HKEY_CURRENT_USER", rather than in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE", works reliably.

[Thomas_Riddle]

Here's How:

1)  you have to go to the windows update section in windows and rollback the driver windows 10 installs almost immediately when you got your laptop.   reboot

you may have to un-install the HP driver and install it again

2)  use the MS tool to prevent windows from installing the driver again and again

  http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/2/2/f22d5fdb-59cd-4275-8c95-1be17bf70b21/wushowhide.diagcab

3)  the tool will show a list of drivers to hide from MS Update.  click on SM synaptics touchpad driver

i dont remember the exact sequence of the above steps but you get the general idea of what you have to do

the fix is to prevent WU from installing the updated driver over the original HP one.

The HP driver works correctly in keeping the Smartsense setting off.

you dont have to do any of the REG tweaks either

It's the MS driver itself that is the problem

[DigitalHarmony]

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I've searched for hours for a solution, tried everything and lo and behold, nothing...until you. LIFESAVER!

[ChiliCharlie]

I have been trying to figure out how to fix this problem, and this finally fixed it. I also went into HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/SYNAPTICS/SYNTP and changed all of the Palmtms values to "0" 

This is the amount of milliseconds of delay between a keystroke and the use of the touchpad.