My laptop locks up and freezes when I use the touchpad, but never freezes when I use the attached mouse
Hi, I’ve been experiencing lock-up or freezing problems with my laptop for about 6 months. The model is Satellite A55-S306. I’ve spoke with a few repair shops and they insisted I must have a virus or adware. My antivirus is up to date and detects no virus, also I’ve downloaded Spybot Search and Destroy and it detects no adware. Here is the odd thing we’ve noticed the last few days. I always use the touchpad and my fiancé always uses an attached mouse. The laptop never freezes up when using the attached mouse. The last 2 days I’ve attached the mouse but continued to use the touchpad—-no freezing for hours. Detach the mouse instant freeze???? Does this make sense??? Have you ever come across this problem before or any ideas??
Yeah, that’s a very odd problem. I think that if it would be a hardware problem, then the laptop would freeze up regardless the attached mouse. It’s possible that you have some kind of software problem. Not necessary a virus or an adware, may be just a corrupted driver or corrupted system file. But it doesn’t make any sense why the touchpad works fine when the external mouse attached.
Here’s what I would try to do to troubleshoot, detect and eliminate the problem:
1. Go the Device Manager and locate Mice and other pointing devices entry. Click on “+” to expand it and uninstall PS/2 Compatible Mouse. Restart the laptop and see if the problem is fixed.
2. Restart the laptop in Safe Mode by pressing F8 key as soon as Toshiba logo appears on the screen and selecting the Safe Mode line. If the touchpad works fine in Safe Mode, then you have a piece of software that conflicts with the touchpad in Normal Mode. Go to step 5.
3. Another troubleshooting step (more advanced) is to boot laptop with Knoppix CD (live Linux CD). This OS runs directly from the CD bypassing Windows installation on the hard drive. If you still experience the same problem in Linux then the problem is not related to Windows. Knoppix CD will boot the laptop into a Windows like environment where you can use the touchpad.
4. I would also try to reflash/upgrade the laptop BIOS.
5. The final step would be reloading the hard drive back to original Toshiba defaults. You’ll have to boot the laptop from the recovery CD and follow the wizard. Reloading the hard drive will erase all your personal data, so do not forget to back it up before you run the restore CD/DVD.
If re-flashing the BIOS and reloading the hard drive doesn’t help, then you might have a hardware related problem.
January 12th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Another touchpad problem…
Have a month old LG Notepad and since two days ago, the synaptics touchpad is giving me a nervous breakdown!
- It works during starup but freezes when booting is finished
- Freezing can be prolonged by moving the cursor but will eventually freeze (strange)
- Mouse workes in safe mode
Any suggestions out there? Have of course guarnty but has recently moved to another coutry making support to a hazzel
Thanks
Gustaf
January 12th, 2007 at 10:06 am
I had the same problem. In my case, the keyboard driver was corrupted. I went in Control panel, Keyboard, Hardware, then properties for the keyboard then pressed the Driver tab, and pressed the ‘Roll back driver’.
That solved the problem for me
January 12th, 2007 at 5:25 am
Ok — I’m back and I may have a problem bigger than a jumping cursor. Each time I try to restart my laptop in Safe Mode, I have problems. What happens is that I get to the screen that give the option to start in Safe Mode and I select that, then it asks for my operating system and I pick Windows XP (the only choice). Then the screen fills up with a lot of info about drivers and freezes up. I turn it off and then try to restart and it gets to the blue screen with the blinking cursor and then shuts down. If I wait long enough, when I restart it boots up normally.
One thing about my original question I noticed is that it only does the ‘jumping’ when typing in AOL. Very weird — HELP!
Jeff
January 11th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
KTAustin,
Satellite A85 comes with a DVD/CD-RW burner and there should be a software that allows you to burn Data CDs (I believe it’s called Sonics). You can burn all personal files on a CD.
I would prefer this method. Buy an external USB hard drive, connect it to the laptop and transfer all personal files to a new drive. This method is good if you have a lot of data, for example tons of iTunes. When you back up iTunes music, just transfer entire folder to an external hard drive, and later, after you reinstall the operating system, you can move it back to the laptop. It’s always nice to have an external hard drive, so you can make regular data backups.
You cannot backup applications already installed on your laptop, you’ll have to reinstall them from scratch. You backup only files like spreadsheets, word documents, pictures, music, etc… but not installed applications.
You are correct. The restore process erases everything from the hard drive and loads factory defaults. Check if everything is backed up before you run the restore.
January 11th, 2007 at 6:25 am
Thanks so much for the quick reply. Yes, Fn/F9 was first thing I tried. I have also reloaded the utility that loads in the system tray to do the same thing. I will try system restore further back. I did try to reload alps driver, got an error code 39, and later an error 10 and indication of something that looked like a failure to init. Maybe the device just isn’t talking to the rest. Nothing shows up in device manager that says alps pointing device or touchpad. I am still confused as to which driver the touchpad uses and how it connects to the computer. Is it a USB inside, or seen as a PS2 mouse? None of the troubleshooting utilities seem to address touchpads. Can you point me to something that tells me how to back up data? Should I go buy Norton or something? I can reload all my programs, and all my files are legitimate. I just don’t want to miss copying stuff. I don’t know how to save the music my son bought through itunes. If I do a full wipe and recovery do I have to reregister the computer and Windows, etc? Sorry I am so ignorant. Thanks again.
January 11th, 2007 at 4:21 am
Just wanted to follow-up on response of January 8th, 2007 at 6:12 pm .
I can not find the ‘tap’ option in control panel\mouse properties. There are many other controls (click speed etc.) However, none that pertain to the ‘tap’ option.
Any other thoughts?
January 10th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
KTAustin,
Try Fn+F9 key combination to enable/disable the touchpad. Press down Fn and tap on F9. You tried system restore or system recovery? Did you reimage the entire drive using the recovery DVD? That’s would be the next step.
If Fn+F9 and system RECOVERY will not help, probably you have a hardware related issue.
January 10th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Sorry Sesar,
I have some experience with Toshiba laptops but I do not work on the component level.
January 10th, 2007 at 10:54 am
Hi–great site, thanks. My son’s A85S107 Toshiba was fine and suddenly, no response from touchpad. Ran and bought USB minimouse and it works fine. Tried: system restore, safe mode, remove and reinstall keyboard and alps drivers. Toshiba notebook maximizer system info lists touchpad status with “Error”. Have cheapo Yahoo online protection (McAfee expired). Recently used with iTunes 7 and new Shuffle. Son visits mySpace a lot. Soooo don’t know if hardware or software issue. Do touchpads just quit like that? We had to send it in twice thru Office Depot extended warranty for the AC power adapter looseness (they didn’t quite fix it first time). Hate to send it again, but maybe should since it’s free. Not quite sure how to back up everything for system redo–couldn’t figure how to do administrative windows install mentioned above. Help! I’m just a mom trying to save her teenager’s laptop! Thanks in advance for any advice. K.T. in Austin, TX
January 10th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Hello,
I see that you have a lot of experience with Toshiba laptops. So I hope you can help me with this problem:
I’m having some difficulties with a touchpad from a Toshiba Satellite M30 which I want to repare. It is connected to the mainboard through an 8-pin connector named PJ3201, which is common to other Toshibas. If you have any information about the pinouts for these connectors, or you know where to find it, it’ll be of great help.
PS: I think they work with serial protocol, but I’m not sure.
Thank you.
January 8th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
Chantelle,
I believe you can control “tap” option in the control panel. You can enable or disable the touchpad “tap”, probably right now you have this option disabled. I don’t have a Windows machine if front of me right now and cannot confirm this. Go through the mouse/touchpad properties in the control panel.
January 5th, 2007 at 7:46 pm
I have basic to no knowledge of computer hardware/drivers. However, I am having an issue with the ‘tap’ on my touchpad. I am able to use the touchpad and drag/move my mouse. But, I can no longer select/double click the mouse. I uninstalled the mouse driver and when it restarts it works fine. It then prompts me to restart again (because it had completed the install) and then it restarts for a second time and the ‘tap’ does not work again. I can not recall if any updates were made to my windows – which was suggested. If it is due to a windows update, where to a find another to fix the problem?
Thanks in advance for you help.
PS. Great Site!
January 3rd, 2007 at 6:00 am
I haven’t tried it in Safe Mode, but I will. By way of further explanation, where ever the pointer is on the page, the blinking cursor will jump to that point.
I seem to remember on a different machine an option to turn this function off, but I can’t find it on my current machine.
I’ll let you know if it does it in Safe Mode as well…
January 2nd, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Vishal,
I think it could be a software related issue. Test if the same problem appears in safe mode, does it?
January 2nd, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Jeff,
Getting swamped. Could you please explain what you mean by “If you linger too long, wherever the cursor is acts like you pressed the mouse button”? What if you boot the laptop into safe mode (press F8 on startup and chose safe mode), the problem still exists even in safe mode?
No you haven’t, I just don’t have enough time to answer all incoming questions on time.
January 2nd, 2007 at 5:12 pm
Wow! Have I stumped the laptop freak with my cursor question of 12/29?????
January 1st, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Hello,
I have a dell 600m Inspiron which bought 2 ys back. For last 2 weeks, the touchpad hangs after i have been working on my laptop for 20-25 mins. I can navigate using keyboard fine, but touchpad does not work at all.
If i restart, the touchpad again works fine for 15-20 mins and again same problem.
Could you please help me troubleshoot this ?
Thanks,
Vishal
December 29th, 2006 at 2:34 pm
I have an issue with my Averatec laptop. If you linger too long, wherever the cursor is acts like you pressed the mouse button. I’ve looked everywhere in the Control Panel to shut this option off, but I can’t find it anywhere! Please help!
December 25th, 2006 at 3:05 pm
Try to press Fn+F9 key combination. This key combination enables/disables the touchpad. Try it first.
I read this after hours trying to solve and OK !!!
Congratulations and thank you !
December 16th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
Andrea,
What I did, was simply an “administrative reinstall” of Windows: Install and when prompted select “repair existant Windows installation”… It worked like a charm w/o having lost _any_ software or data.
On the newer laptops and with vendors like Toshiba, Dell, Packard Bell etc… there is an option to do this from the so called “recovery environment” (normally using a function key during start up) in 10-15 Minutes.
Good old Window´s System Restore can also be a good option, the only thin it needs is some attention from time to time. It really works and comes quite handy.
December 16th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
Andrea,
It’s hard to say if your problem is hardware or software related. If it’s a hardware failure, Toshiba will cover it under warranty. If it’s a software issue, it will not be covered. Here’s what you can try before you ship it to Toshiba. Back up all personal data on the hard drive, and re-image the drive using the recovery DVD you got with your laptop. It will load original factory software. If you still experience the same problem then you have a faulty hardware. Call Toshiba and explain that you re-imaged the drive but it didn’t help. After that they should accept the laptop for repair.
December 16th, 2006 at 9:53 am
I have a similar problem. Every once in a while my mouse becomes very slow. I have to push down very hard on the mouse pad in order for it to move. Also, when this happens the left and right click buttons do not work until it eventually catches up with the computer. Once this happens, I need to restart inorder for it to stop. Unfortunately, when i restart it, most of the time it starts up with the mouse frozen in the middle of the screen. In order to get it back to normal, I must shut the computer off for several minutes. I am still under warenty, however, whenever Icall Toshiba they just have me install drivers, but a week later it will happen again. Does anyone have an idea of what could be wrong so i could tell toshiba and send it back??
November 25th, 2006 at 8:57 pm
Holly,
To fix the problem it would be necessary to dismantle the laptop and remove the top cover assembly, as it shown on the page 135 of the maintenance and service guide. It’s possible but I’m not sure if you want to do it yourself. According to the picture of the top cover I found in the maintenance guide, the touchpad buttons could be a part of the top cover and if the button gets broken it’s necessary to replace the whole top cover assembly.
November 24th, 2006 at 12:03 pm
The left mouse key on my touchpad is loose. It works but jiggles when touched. Is there anyway I can fix this to avoid having to send it in? It is a HP Pavillion dv8000t. The right mouse key is fine.
October 2nd, 2006 at 8:03 am
Runlevel0,
If the touchpad and the keyboard work fine in Linux but not in Windows, then it must be a software issue. Try to uninstall the driver in the device manager (right click – uninstall). After that restart the laptop, Windows should find and install the driver automatically.
October 2nd, 2006 at 4:41 am
Same problem here on a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo K 7600.
The touchpad and the keyboard freezes when tocuhing a key.
If I open the device manager I can find a “Microsoft Natural Keyboard PC 101/102″ driver detected (not installed, there is a “!”in front of it).
From Linux (SUSE 10.0) it works just fine (oddly enough, without even having configured anything, it just works out of the box), thus a HW problem has to be excluded.
I tryed disabling this device, letting the driver there but disabling the device on the hardware profile does also not work…
I am 100% sure that there are no kind of malware on my box (Spybot, Hijackthis, Clamav AV, Windows Defender, Windows Baseline Security and some more stuff I use for a living).
I will now try removing the PS/2 mouse driver, just to see what happens.
I can keep you informed if you want
September 21st, 2006 at 11:15 am
John,
You can remove the keyboard and check if there are any corrosion spots on the motherboards.
To eliminate a possibility of software issue, you can re-image the hard drive using a factory recovery DVD. If the mouse doesn’t work even after you re-image the drive, it’s a hardware issue.
You can also boot the laptop from a Knoppix (Linux on CD). In this case you will not have to reinstall Windows, because Knoppix runs from a CD. Knoppix has a GUI interface and the mouse should work. You don’t have to know Linux to test the mouse. I just tested my Satellite A60 with Knoppix v3.9 and touchpad is detected and mouse works fine (BTW, v5.0.1 locked up the laptop).
September 21st, 2006 at 10:59 am
Nope, not that. Also, under the hardware tab on the mouse properties section of the control panel, there is no mouse listed, so I think it’s a hardware problem. But I really don’t know much.
Thanks for the reply.
September 21st, 2006 at 10:10 am
John,
Try to press Fn+F9 key combination. This key combination enables/disables the touchpad. Try it first.
September 21st, 2006 at 9:13 am
The touchpad on my A60 1591s has stopped working. What can I do to, first, make sure it’s a hardware problem, and second, if it is, replace the thing myself. Some water spilled on the keypad about two months ago, but the touchpad didn’t quit until just now.
Thanks