Aspire R3-471T unusable - No touch pad options

I chatted with online support who was NO HELP and told me that perhaps an update may come out in the future. Instead of escalating this to a higher level, he considered the matter closed since he couldn't help. ACER, ARE YOU READING THIS? Please help.

Laptop has windows 8.1 The Synaptics touchpad (at least the support agent told me it has a synaptics touchpad) continuously zooms in inadvertently (pinch/zoom) and also autoscrolls constantly. There are NO SETTINGS in the control panel to adjust the Synaptics mouse options (other than the default basic windows 8.1 settings which do not help here). Thus, the touchpad is unusable and cannot be used for word processing, rendering the laptop unusable. The support agent kept trying to get the Synaptics touchpad options to appear in the control panel but they do not appear for some reason.

So how can I get the advanced Synaptics touch pad options to appear so I can turn off the god-awful settings that prevent me from working on this laptop?

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laurent_14

Hello,

This video can perhaps help you for the settings.

jhm115

Thanks Laurent but that video shows the specialized Synaptics touchpad settings that my laptop does NOT offer. If I could access those settings then all would be OK.

I still have yet to see an Acer technician come on here to try to assist. This product is unusable for anything but playing on Facebook. Great job, Acer.

jhm115

Problem still not solved so I am still hoping someone here can help. Thanks.

alicepattinson

You can search for a settings guide of your problem. Smiley Happy

jhm115

what does that mean?

plokivos

The setting for this on Win 8.1 is on the App side. Press Win logo on the bottom left between Fn and ALT, then search "TouchPad", and it'll pop up.

Also, for scrolling you have to do the FN+F12 to lock the scrolls to able to scroll.

jhm115

Sorry Plokivos but that isn't the problem. As I wrote originally, the pinch/zoom is the trouble, it is overly senstive and as I type in word the font size continuously increases and decreases (among other screwy settings). Synaptics (and all touchpads) have an advanced settings options in control panel where you can adjust all of these advanced settings (and turn off pinch/zoom). See the video that Laurent posted which shows these advanced settings.

I see there are many other threads here with people having the same issues with various Acer models. Tech support understood the problem but told me i should wait and prehaps an update will come out one day and closed the matter because they had no solution.

Blayn-Acer

Sorry for the problems you are having with your touchpad. Our newer Windows 8.1 systems use a precision touchpad specification provided by Microsoft. These touchpads work differently and use different gestures than previous touchpads. I am providing a link to support articles that explain this style of touchpad and the supported gestures.

http://acer.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/33950

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/touchpad

Unfortunately, I do not know of a way to load a synaptics driver for this system that will allow for the configuration options you want, or if Windows 8 will even allow you to do this. Possibly someone else in the community may know of a way, or you can check with Synaptics to see if they have any ideas of troubleshooting you can try.

jhm115

Blayn, Thanks for your response. Is there some way that on behalf of Acer you can contact Microsoft and ask them how to disable the pinch/zoom on precision touchpads? They may respond to you better than any of us.

What would happen if I downgrade to Windows 7 on this laptop? Do you think that would solve the problem?

The Microsoft precision touchpad spec seems like a train wreck and I would suggest Acer (and all laptop manufacturers) to stay away from it until Microsoft works the kinks out.

Blayn-Acer

Did you check out the supported gestures from Microsoft to make sure you are using the correct gesture for pinch and zoom? Unfortunately, I do not have a contact at Microsoft I can contact on this issue. You may submit your request to the ideas forum for further consideration from our product development team. I will also forward your comments to the appropriate people in our organization for review, and will provide an update if I can get an answer for how to disable these features.

In response to your question about Windows 7....You can install any OS you choose, and shouldn't have a problem installing Windows 7. You will need to make sure Windows 7 drivers are available for your system. Drivers can be found at http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/drivers.

jhm115

Yes, the issue is the touchpad pinches/zooms on its own (among other over-sensitive gestures that are not intended to be swiped on the touchpad) and this option needs to be turned off.

Downgrading to windows 7 would be a pain, but I will do it if I knew for sure I would be able to access the "old" touch pad advanced settings. Can you confirm that if I downgraded to windows 7 then the standard Synaptics drivers would kick in and allow me access to the advanced settings on the control panel? Thanks.

Blayn-Acer

It does not appear we have Windows 7 drivers posted for this system, so I can't confirm what options the synaptics touchpad would have with Windows 7. You would need to check with the vendor of the touchpad (synaptics), to see what options their driver would provide.

Did the touchpad always pinch and zoom on its own (without you touching the touchpad). If so, there could be a hardware problem that requires repair. If you feel this is the case, I suggest you contact technical support in your region to inquire about repair.

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