Predator G9-793 with erratic touchpad

I got a new Predator G9-793, a nice machine but mine has a bad touchpad. It's an HID Precision Touchpad. The arrow jumps and bounces in an erratic manner and occasionally, without any identifiable pattern, except that it only happens with two-finger actions such as tapping to open the context menu or scrolling. Scrolling becomes very annoying due to bouncing, and it's impossible to reliably use the computer due to the jumping arrow. It's not related to static: happens under power and battery and doesn't change if I ground myself to the computer. It happens under Windows 10 with many different drivers, updated or OEM, after reinstalling Windows from scrap, during boot with the USB recovery pen, and when running Ubuntu: always the same identical misbehavior. It can only be hardware, or bios if not hardware. Changed the bios from 1.04 to 1.06 and 1.08, it didn't change the problem. Putting the bios on basic instead of advanced makes it better with some old Synaptics drivers but mostly because it reduces the use of two fingers. The problem is still there with the basic setting anyway.

I sent it to maintenance and they changed the touchpad, but the misbehavior continued as before. I suspect therefore that it's the controller on the motherboard, but maintenance until now hasn't offered to replace it. Do you have any similar experience with this or another model? I tested other Acer models on the local shop and none of them shows this kind of misbehavior. How to convince maintenance that they must try changing the controller? One of the technicians have suggested that this erratic behavior is normal, when it obviously isn't, what's kind of irritating. Tips on how to proceed?

Accepted answers

Dr_Cool

The technician from the specialized shop where I bought the laptop was very nice and verified that there is indeed a problem with the touchpad. It isn't easy to diagnose because the misbehavior tends to come and go in waves. It appears to happen more frequently once the laptop warms up, after 15 minutes or more of use if it starts chilly. Given the price of the computer, and Acer's refusal to offer adequate technical support, they offered to restock the machine under their newly purchased restocking fee program and allowed me to purchase a better laptop, even though the time limit to do so expired long ago. And they will return me the restocking fee once they are able to recover their losses from Acer. I could feel that they were really sorry for selling me an expensive product that wasn't functioning correctly and that lacked trustworthy warranty. Next step: to recover the time, money and effort that I lost during the last two months.

PS: I consider this thread solved and closed since this particular G9-793 isn't anymore under my care.

All comments

Dr_Cool

Just had a very disagreeable conversation with the responsible for the maintenance service of Acer in France (where I live). They say that the computer is not defective, when I have videos that show that it is defective. The lady insists that I should "spread my fingers" to use the touchpad, when the problem persists even if I "spread my fingers." The request itself is absolutely crazy, I have used many other laptops in my life and never had to "spread my fingers" to make them work. They want me to pay 40 euros (43 dollars) if I want to have my computer back to cover non-defective product evaluation costs or they won't send the computer back to me, even though it was just bought and still has two years of global warranty to run.
This has been a bad experience until now.

[edited to comply with guidelines]

Dr_Cool

Had a second lady from maintenance on the phone. She offered to have one of the technicians calling me on Monday to go over the computer misbehavior. Let's see now if the fixing will advance.

[edited to comply with guidelines]

Dr_Cool

The technician on the phone today told me, after using the touchpad for 30 seconds, that it's perfect. He rejects my claim that the computer cannot be used as it is. No way to convince him from far, over the phone, that the problem is real and makes it impossible to use the machine. He informed me that the case will be sent back to the hotline staff.

Dr_Cool

Here's a short segment of many long videos that I collected documenting the problem:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/00d1cvxkl4fe45v/VIDEO0052.avi?dl=0

As I scroll using two fingers on the touchpad, the app column of the start menu will jump up, bounce back, or stop suddenly due to erratic touchpad information being sent to the OS. You can clearly see the problem, and why it's impossible to use a computer presenting such a malfunction.

It also happens when I double tap, and the cursor jumps erratically to a different part of the screen, sometimes a short jump and sometimes a long jump.

Acer, please, this problem needs fixing. I kindly request you to contact your technical service in France and ask them to provide a solution.

PS: could anyone please confirm that this misbehavior isn't present in other Predator laptops?

vorob

While i can confirm that touchpad here is extremely sensitive and sometimes, when you put your finger away it can react and move cursor, i must say its not a big deal, and for sure its nothing like in your video. No sudden jumps across the screen or scrolling back while you are trying to do it opposite.

Did you met with tech guy face to face, to demonstrate your issue?

Dr_Cool

Thanks a lot for your reply. I understand what you mean, our Lenovo Y70-70 touchpad is very sensitive to light touching, but not erratic. What you say confirms my guess that it's a hardware fault of this particular Predator, not a design flaw. Unfortunately the Acer service center is located in Angers, not where I live, so all communication took place by phone. Traveling to Paris doesn't look like an option unless Acer pays for travel, stay and hours of work wasted. I suppose this wouldn't be economical for Acer anyway, it should be much cheaper to just fix the machine and send it back to me.

Dr_Cool

Here is a video that shows the cursor jumping when tapping with two fingers. You can see erratic jumps at 3 and 19 seconds.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/l8uy4v5b0vkme9f/VIDEO0052_sec_3_19.avi?dl=0

Dr_Cool

Found a way to have the computer sent back to me, once it arrives I will update the bios with v1.09, test it for the fourth time, and post a video with the results here.

Dr_Cool

Today I received the computer back after I sent it for the third time to the Acer SAV in Angers. As a reminder, the computer was bought in December and is covered by a two-year global warranty. The technical repport seen in the picture below (in French) tells me to "spread my fingers." It's quite surreal, here's my translation:

"To use the touchpad, use only one finger to scroll and two for scroll funtions. Please don't keep your fingers too close to one another, it disturbs the good functioning of the touchpad."

For the third time they refuse to fix the computer. Since the computer came back as it was sent, the malfunction evidently remains the same as before. I'll post some newly made videos showing the misbehaviors again later.

TechRep.jpg

Dr_Cool

As promised, here is the link to the video made on February 10 after the third SAV "diservice" exchange, showing how the touchpad fails sometimes to open the context menu (1:21 and 1:25) and how the arrow sometimes jumps when I use two-finger tapping (1:32). Later I'll post a video showing how the same touchpad malfuntion causes scrolling misbehavior.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dae8n9fjgsbmjin/Context_menu.avi?dl=0

Dr_Cool

Here's a video showing how scrolling with two fingers will cause bouncing due to touchpad erratic behavior. In this case, it happened three times in a roll.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ngzhkcp9p0j0ru2/Scrolling.avi?dl=0

Dr_Cool

Traveling tomorrow to see the technician at the shop where the computer was bought. Will keep you posted on how it went.

Dr_Cool

The technician from the specialized shop where I bought the laptop was very nice and verified that there is indeed a problem with the touchpad. It isn't easy to diagnose because the misbehavior tends to come and go in waves. It appears to happen more frequently once the laptop warms up, after 15 minutes or more of use if it starts chilly. Given the price of the computer, and Acer's refusal to offer adequate technical support, they offered to restock the machine under their newly purchased restocking fee program and allowed me to purchase a better laptop, even though the time limit to do so expired long ago. And they will return me the restocking fee once they are able to recover their losses from Acer. I could feel that they were really sorry for selling me an expensive product that wasn't functioning correctly and that lacked trustworthy warranty. Next step: to recover the time, money and effort that I lost during the last two months.

PS: I consider this thread solved and closed since this particular G9-793 isn't anymore under my care.

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