Acer Aspire Z3-105 Windows 8.1 Touchscreen not working

gypsyrain

I am looking for assistance in getting my computer touchscreen to work without having to pay to ship my system in for warranty work.  The computer is in warranty period, bought from HSN and outside of the return period, used a handful of times and touchscreen worked for the first few times used.  I paid for extended warranty via HSN warranty service, yet this company (king of poor warranty service) wants me to pay to ship my system to Texas for warranty work.  I asked if there is a local repair tech that I could carry to,but they don't even offer that anymore (used to be able to take ACER products to the Geek Squad for warranty work). 

 

The first time I called the service center, I was told to refresh my computer.  I followed this and the touchscreen worked again for another day.  The next day I was back on the phone with the service center, when I was instructed to refresh AGAIN.  It didn't work this time so they asked me to pay to ship my computer to Texas.  I was unable to do so during the period the ticket was open do to several unexpected hospitalizations. 

 

Yesterday, I began the tedious process of reinstalling everything that had been deleted during the second refresh.  The touchscreen was still not fonctioning, but I had 55 windows updates to install so thought I would try the updates to see if they could possibly fix this issue.  Somewhere around update 46 of 55, my touchscreen started working again.  However, at the end of the 55 updates, the touchscreen was once again unresponsive.  I uninstalled each and every one of the 55 updates that were reversable.  This left 4 that could not be uninstalled without a refresh.  As I uninstalled each individual update, I would check the touchscreen before moving to the next one.  Down to the last four updates, I completed a third refresh.  Touchscreen still not working.

 

I decided to look for updated drivers for my HDI device (it is hidden in my device manager, but says it has up to date drivers).  I cannot even find a driver download on the ACER site for the touchscreen or monitor.  Windows offers a solution to fix by downloading the drivers and reinstalling to see if that fixes the problem.  The only information I can find via google or bing applies to a diffferent model and dates back to 2012 as latest info. 

 

When I look in the device manager, the screen is listed as a generic device.  Is that what it's supposed to list?  Shouldn't the device manager list the HID Touchscreen in the visible list?  Is it appropriate for that to be hidden?  I am able to show it in the list of devices by choosing to show hidden devices.  I also see that one of my USB devices is in conflict.  I have unplugged all USB devices from my system and rechecked and still have a usb device in conflict.  I have tried to update the driver, but that is, again, up to date.  I have also tried changing the startup of the HID Touchscreen to Automatic (it was set at Manual when I initially viewed this in the Services tool).

 

While it is not completely necessary to be able to operate my system via touchscreen, it is very annoying to not be able to use a function that I see as part of the advertised capabilities and was part of what drove my decision to this system to begin with.  Is this a sign of a fatal flaw that is going to spiral out to complete collapse if I don't have it fixed?  My husband needs a new computer and doesn't need touchscreen abilities.  If this is not a sign of impending doom, I am considering passing this system to my husband (he spoils me, I know) and looking for a new, new system for me.  (As it is, I was already frustrated with the processor turning out to be less power than needed for my Cricut Explore minimum requirements.  And the Explore is older than this computer.  Go figure.)

-Justin

gypsyrain,

 

Sorry to hear you are having problems with the touch screen. I'd like to give you some kudos for the amount of troubleshooting that you've done so far, nice job. From your description, it sounds to me like it's a Windows update that is causing the issue to occur, a deduction that you've already made I'm sure.

 

that being said, the only real answer I can give is figure out exactly which update is causing the issue and don't install it. The simplest way to do that is only install and couple updates at a time and restart the computer to test those installed updates for touch screen functionality. I realize that it will be a little time consuming, but I think it's the best method to take in the long run.