I don't feel like testing the patience yet again of the UK homebuilt ng
by serial OTness, so I'll inflict this here.

I've got a really nice Lenovo X201 laptop from ebay that I would like to
make my main machine. It's not long out of warranty and looks almost
new.
It has a touchpad and the usual Lenovo Trackpoint.

The Trackpoint works fine at all times.
The touchpad works fine for the first few minutes or more. Then
I continue to use my 2nd finger right hand, but the cursor responds in a
progressively more jerky and annoying way.
I switch to my 3rd finger and the cursor response is fine for quite a
while, but eventually it develops a similar trait.
I then switch to the left hand and the touchpad is fine again.

After a bit I can revert to my right hand and that seems to have
recovered for a short time.

I have applied the fingers to pads on other laptops and they all work
fine.

Licking a finger seems to help a bit, but not a lot. Connections inside
all look fine and when the pad works, it responds smoothly everywhere.

I believe that the touchpad is made by Synaptic and uses a matrix grid
beneath the pad with a signal, perhaps of 200 to 300kHz to provide the
capacitive sensing.
I've used a medium wave radio to compare 2 pen-tablet laptop screen
matrices, where the frequency is higher. I don't have a small LW radio,
and it probably wouldn't show anything up.

I'm not sure whether it's likely to be the pad, the signals fed to it or
some problem with my fingers. Is anyone here an expert on this?
--
Bill

Bill wrote:
I don't feel like testing the patience yet again of the UK homebuilt ng
by serial OTness, so I'll inflict this here.

snip very weird tale

No idea. I'd plug a mouse in. ;-)

Just a thought though, you're not unconsciously touching the pad with
another part of your hand after a while? An errant pinkie getting too close
perhaps?

Tim

In message
-septembe
r.org, Tim+ writes
No idea. I'd plug a mouse in. ;-)

Just a thought though, you're not unconsciously touching the pad with
another part of your hand after a while? An errant pinkie getting too
close perhaps?

These are small, like laptops used to be. A mouse isn't really small
enough to be handy, especially for holding the machine and walking
around.

I've just checked and there is no errant body part or item of clothing
dangling in there. The pad, like the machine, is pretty small. Good
question, though.
--
Bill

Are you using the correct driver, is the pad surface clean and free of
residue and does this happen both plugged into the AC adapter and on
battery?

In message , Lee
writes
Are you using the correct driver,
I'm using the one from the Lenovo support site for this machine (you
select quite a detailed part number). The machine has the original
recovery partition and had been reloaded from that.
I will check again, but I have checked and reloaded a fresh copy of the
driver. Device Manager says it is working correctly.

is the pad surface clean and free of residue

Yes. I haven't tried any alcohol yet, but I have scrubbed it with the
sealed lens cleaner pads sold in supermarkets. These seem to clean
screens OK and don't seem to leave any residue.
The machine was very clean when I first got it. Now there's just the
usual hair falling out and getting stuck under the keys.

and does this happen both plugged into the AC adapter and on battery?

Yes, I've tried that.
--
Bill

On 19/05/2014 19:01, Bill wrote:
I don't feel like testing the patience yet again of the UK homebuilt ng
by serial OTness, so I'll inflict this here.

I've got a really nice Lenovo X201 laptop from ebay that I would like to
make my main machine. It's not long out of warranty and looks almost new.
It has a touchpad and the usual Lenovo Trackpoint.

The Trackpoint works fine at all times.
The touchpad works fine for the first few minutes or more. Then
I continue to use my 2nd finger right hand, but the cursor responds in a
progressively more jerky and annoying way.
I switch to my 3rd finger and the cursor response is fine for quite a
while, but eventually it develops a similar trait.
I then switch to the left hand and the touchpad is fine again.

After a bit I can revert to my right hand and that seems to have
recovered for a short time.

I have applied the fingers to pads on other laptops and they all work fine.

Licking a finger seems to help a bit, but not a lot. Connections inside
all look fine and when the pad works, it responds smoothly everywhere.

I believe that the touchpad is made by Synaptic and uses a matrix grid
beneath the pad with a signal, perhaps of 200 to 300kHz to provide the
capacitive sensing.
I've used a medium wave radio to compare 2 pen-tablet laptop screen
matrices, where the frequency is higher. I don't have a small LW radio,
and it probably wouldn't show anything up.

I'm not sure whether it's likely to be the pad, the signals fed to it or
some problem with my fingers. Is anyone here an expert on this?

I've had erratic trackpad operation and found it coincides with using my
right hand while my left hand is resting on the body of the laptop (not
the trackpad, just the body). Doesn't happen all the time but I suspect
the right combination of humidity (or summat) means my left hand is
upsetting the way the pad works.

I had one of these on a Dell, and that one was affected by my breath, it
just jumped about. I now end up turning off these blasted things in the
control panel.

Of course, for me they are a menace, but I fully understand that sighted
folk need them to work, so the only thoughts I have is to do more testing.
IE don't swap fingers when it happens, get an inanimate object and poke it a
few times and see if the original finger then makes it work. What you also
need to perhaps look at is any kind of polish or cleaner around the place or
flexing of the case near it.
Hopefully you do not have the problem I read about some time ago, where
the pet cat tended to go to sleep on the open laptop when nobody was around
and it had gone into standby.
Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
"Bill" wrote in message
...
In message
-septembe
r.org, Tim+ writes
No idea. I'd plug a mouse in. ;-)

Just a thought though, you're not unconsciously touching the pad with
another part of your hand after a while? An errant pinkie getting too
close perhaps?

These are small, like laptops used to be. A mouse isn't really small
enough to be handy, especially for holding the machine and walking around.

I've just checked and there is no errant body part or item of clothing
dangling in there. The pad, like the machine, is pretty small. Good
question, though.
--
Bill

On 19/05/14 20:35, Bill wrote:
In message
-septembe
r.org, Tim+ writes
No idea. I'd plug a mouse in. ;-)

Just a thought though, you're not unconsciously touching the pad with
another part of your hand after a while? An errant pinkie getting too
close perhaps?

These are small, like laptops used to be. A mouse isn't really small
enough to be handy, especially for holding the machine and walking around.

I've just checked and there is no errant body part or item of clothing
dangling in there. The pad, like the machine, is pretty small. Good
question, though.

I occasionally got the same, and it seemed to be caused by the finger
drying out with the friction on the pad. "Huffing" on the finger worked
for a few minutes, so I turned up the pad touch sensitivity in the
driver. Problem solved. Don't go too far, though, as if you have "Tap to
click" enabled, you'll start getting phantom clicks instead.

--
Tciao for Now!

John.

On 19/05/2014 19:01, Bill wrote:

I'm not sure whether it's likely to be the pad, the signals fed to it or
some problem with my fingers. Is anyone here an expert on this?

Well, expert with ONE resolved issue under my belt. :-)

That was a MacBook (the old white one, something like seven years old?).
The touchpad started to misbehave. Eventually realised that the battery
lies immediately under the touchpad. That had become swollen and was
applying pressure to the underside of the touchpad. Realised the if you
took the battery out and ran mains only, all was well. Replace battery
and it misbehaved. Others have reported similarly.

--
Rod

Must be you then!
Are you by any chance acting as an antenna for a strong local RF source?

I did have one netbook that had an erratic pad whenever BT was enabled,
but I always assumed that one was broken.

On Mon, 19 May 2014 21:25:46 +0100, polygonum
wrote:

On 19/05/2014 19:01, Bill wrote:

I'm not sure whether it's likely to be the pad, the signals fed to it or
some problem with my fingers. Is anyone here an expert on this?

Well, expert with ONE resolved issue under my belt. :-)

That was a MacBook (the old white one, something like seven years old?).
The touchpad started to misbehave. Eventually realised that the battery
lies immediately under the touchpad. That had become swollen and was
applying pressure to the underside of the touchpad. Realised the if you
took the battery out and ran mains only, all was well. Replace battery
and it misbehaved. Others have reported similarly.

The touch screen on my satnav is rendered unusable under certain
conditions. seems to be when the sun heats it ununiformly, but I'm not
100% sure why it happens.

--

Graham.

%Profound_observation%

On 19/05/2014 19:01, Bill wrote:
I don't feel like testing the patience yet again of the UK homebuilt ng
by serial OTness, so I'll inflict this here.

I've got a really nice Lenovo X201 laptop from ebay that I would like to
make my main machine. It's not long out of warranty and looks almost new.
It has a touchpad and the usual Lenovo Trackpoint.

The Trackpoint works fine at all times.
The touchpad works fine for the first few minutes or more. Then
I continue to use my 2nd finger right hand, but the cursor responds in a
progressively more jerky and annoying way.
I switch to my 3rd finger and the cursor response is fine for quite a
while, but eventually it develops a similar trait.
I then switch to the left hand and the touchpad is fine again.

After a bit I can revert to my right hand and that seems to have
recovered for a short time.

I have applied the fingers to pads on other laptops and they all work fine.

Licking a finger seems to help a bit, but not a lot. Connections inside
all look fine and when the pad works, it responds smoothly everywhere.

I believe that the touchpad is made by Synaptic and uses a matrix grid
beneath the pad with a signal, perhaps of 200 to 300kHz to provide the
capacitive sensing.
I've used a medium wave radio to compare 2 pen-tablet laptop screen
matrices, where the frequency is higher. I don't have a small LW radio,
and it probably wouldn't show anything up.

I'm not sure whether it's likely to be the pad, the signals fed to it or
some problem with my fingers. Is anyone here an expert on this?

Perhaps you should try it with one of those soft ended styli designed
for touch screen use. Failing that, try some moisturiser!


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

In message , John Williamson
writes
On 19/05/14 20:35, Bill wrote:
In message
-septembe
r.org, Tim+ writes
No idea. I'd plug a mouse in. ;-)

Just a thought though, you're not unconsciously touching the pad with
another part of your hand after a while? An errant pinkie getting too
close perhaps?

These are small, like laptops used to be. A mouse isn't really small
enough to be handy, especially for holding the machine and walking around.

I've just checked and there is no errant body part or item of clothing
dangling in there. The pad, like the machine, is pretty small. Good
question, though.

I occasionally got the same, and it seemed to be caused by the finger
drying out with the friction on the pad. "Huffing" on the finger worked
for a few minutes, so I turned up the pad touch sensitivity in the
driver. Problem solved. Don't go too far, though, as if you have "Tap
to click" enabled, you'll start getting phantom clicks instead.


Thanks, John (and everyone else). I think it is sorted.

After the torrential rain yesterday, it was a lot better but then this
morning, even though there was still rain, it seemed to be starting to
happen again.

I had previously thought I had gone through all the touchpad settings,
but none of them seemed to help.
Adjusting the sensitivity (which has a note saying it might be necessary
in humid conditions) on its own made no difference.
There is a setting called "Palmcheck", which I had missed. Adjusting
this in conjunction with the sensitivity seems to have cured the
problem. I've now tested for most of the morning.

Because the touchpad is recessed, unlike most current machines, I can't
see there being a problem from accidental grazes of the pad while
typing, so, if it keeps working, it's a win-win situation.
--
Bill