Touchpad problem on HP Sepctre

[DL2020]

Hi everyone

I have an HP Spectre running WIndows 10 64 Bit (all latest updates). It has an Synaptics SM Bus Clickpad. Most up to date driver is installed 19.5.35.47 (same as purchase version). 

Occasionally the UI and interaction via the touchpad gets into a strange state with seemingly right/left mouse button and button press events reversed, which makes the UI very difficult to escape from. ie to move the mouse requires holding a button and dragging to the correct location. The only escape seems to be via other keyboard controls Alt keys, tabs, ctrl et to try and close down applications and save work prior to a reboot. When exiting from applications it seems that there are often Menu display problems too. Mostly I can escape without losing everything but its very annoying. Possibly a resource issue, dodgy driver, somehting else. Anyone had similar problems. Very hard to diagnose

Thanks

[Riddle_Decipher]

@DL2020 I suggest you attempt using an alternate/external .

(If that works when the touchpad is disabled on device manager, 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.

P.S: Welcome to HP Community 😉

Keep us posted,

If you would like to thank us for our efforts to help you, 

Give us a virtual high-five by clicking the 'Thumbs Up' icon below, followed by clicking on the "Accept as solution" on this post, 

Have a great day!

[DL2020]

Hi there

Thanks for the tips

I think I may have tried an external mouse to escape once. Will try that next time. I may also have tried reinstalling the driver (will try that too). Something I have found interesting is that when trying to escape from applications the menu painting is disrupted too. Thats why I wondered about resources/memory. Maybe there is a memory leak somewhere. 

I will keep monitoring it. I have the hang of escaping without losing much (using keyboard controls) but its annoying. It happens rarely and unpredictably so who knows when the next time will be.

I'm not sure if I'm supposed to mark as a solution yet because I havent had chance to test everything, and as I said I think I have tried the two options already. I need to wait for it to happen again and test the external. Use of an external isnt really a solution. I will try and find a way to force it to happen. I cant promise when I will be able to give a progress message.

But thankyou

Duncan

[DL2020]

Hi there

A further update with thanks for the advice so far.

External mouse does indeed help when needed but can be a problem if the USB is being used for something else. Its often what I rely on for my interent access via phone on the road.

What seems to happen with the touchpad is that it occasionally gets into a state where the interaction between it/the driver and the OS thinks there is an extra key pressed (such as a shift lock). It often gets very draggy too and causes errors with dragging items in the OS. Also very sensitive to having a fingernail more than a millimete over the end of the finger - maybe its double touches - and/or humidity and perspiration

I am also noticing many additional UI issues. Not sure how many are hardware related, memory/disk/file system, driver related, OS related, internet related. Everything is starting to get very jumpy and unpredictable. A whole mix of issues going on, not necessarily all linked with the same problem etc

etc

 Many thanks

[DL2020]

Hi there

A further update on possible causes for intermittent problems as desribed above.

I just discovered that accidentally making one or more light taps on the touchpad with a fingernail (often done by accident) can lead to a click event or one of the other events lwading to problematic UI states.

I have tried switching off these or reducing sensitivity but don't seem to be able to do so in my Windows 10 interface. Is it possible

Thanks

[DL2020]

After more research and reading and finding others had not received a solution to their posts, there is an interface missing under mouse settings (assuming anyone thought it would be there anyway)

The clickpad setting are hidden away in the Synaptics software. You can start it up as a standalone app but I do not recommend doing so. I tried and it was a very flaky interface and by trying to adjust the click options I resorted to having to use a mouse to get it back the way it was.

Clearly some unspported interfaces going on somewhere. Very weird stuff. Whateve happened to providing easy to access UI options

[DL2020]

Hi there

Further progress if you can call it that. As mentioned above checking for latest drivers and updating had not fixed the issue. I rolled back the driver to a pre .41 build which fixed the Mouse-Synaptics interface issue. I then reinstalled the lates driver from the HP cloud (not the one on my machine) and the problem with that interface reappeared.

I have also sourced a page suggesting that the latest Windows Feature release fixes some HP problems although my machine does not seem to be listed on the problem pages.

Am currently installing the latest Feature release of Windows 10. I usually just do essential security and other updates and leave big unnecessary changes to another day. I also prefer to avoid doing factroy resets of mass storage and other hardware. Its rather inconvenient. I know its the default recommended solution for many, and the kind of unfortunate Format Data mentality I have come to expect from Android people - not Windows

Some of us don't have time to back up almost 300GB of very complex configured software and data (across wireless) to try and fix  minor UI inconvenience

Still downloading. Its as if its being done by hand with a shovel. Will post an update soon assuming the update doesn't trash my whole system. I'm just hoping that a straightforward feature update doesnt require a backup and restore, or involve anunavoidable factory reset at some stage of the process

Bye for now