Can't turn off Palm check /Smartsense on touchpad for E515-51G-53MR

Coalford
Coalford Member Posts: 6 New User
edited October 2023 in 2020 Archives
Immediately after typing the touchpad is frozen for a second. From previous experience with old laptop this is caused by a setting called 'Palm Check' or 'Smart Sense' or some mixture of the two in the advanced mouses settings.

Normally, I can just change it in the Elan or Synaptics tab, but regardless of what driver I have, this tab is not visible on the mouse settings menu. The options in windows presicion touchpad settings do not affect this. 

Have fully uninstalled and installed numerous drivers, including the most recent and when that failed, every other one I could find online even ones for Windows 7.
I looked high and low online, and all to no avail. Apparently some others have this similar issue with the Elan tab not appearing but they were also unsolved. Device manager shows it as an Elan pointing device.

Any help or next step would be great. Primarily intentend to use this laptop for audio editing with touchpad, and is unusable in current state without an external mouse.

Answers

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,328 Trailblazer
    Open Device Manager. If no red or yellow warnings, uninstall the Elantech driver. Exit. Don't try to re-install anything. Cold boot. Let Windows auto detect and install the driver. If still no joy, go back into Device Manager while connected and try to let Windows auto update the driver online. Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • Coalford
    Coalford Member Posts: 6 New User
    Hey Jack
    Thanks for the suggestion, but have already tried all of the above to no avail. Uninstalled and reinstalled several different versions of the driver.
    Changing Bios input to Basic from Advanced prevents this from happening but turns off two finger scrolling (the only gesture I use). 
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,328 Trailblazer
    >>>Uninstalled and reinstalled several different versions of the driver.>>>

    Just to make sure, you uninstalled but also tried to NOT manually re-install, correct? And when the auto-install still didn't work, you also tried to update the auto-install while connected, correct? Also, is your model perhaps A515-51g not E? Jack E/NJ 

    Jack E/NJ

  • Coalford
    Coalford Member Posts: 6 New User
    Hey Jack, thanks again for helping me through this.

    Double checked and the Model is infact A515-51G-53MR
    Apologies for my incorrect posting.

     When you say "Update auto install while connected", what do you mean by "While connected"? 
    Connected to internet?
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,328 Trailblazer
    edited December 2018
    Yes, while connected to the internet. If the update doesn't work then press the WIN key + R Key. Enter msinfo32. In the right panel, what BIOS version number do you see? If earlier than 1.06, then go here to download and install v1.06. https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7244?b=1  Make sure your battery is fully charged, laptop plugged in, and double-check your model number before attempting this BIOS change as the machine could be bricked if change is done incorrectly. Jack E/NJ



    Jack E/NJ

  • I would just like to give you a tip! Do not download version 1.21, as this version is exclusive to models with the mx130 card. I also suggest you download the version shown by colleague JackE!
    Oi! Eu não sou sou a cortana! Mas estou aqui para ajudar! Hi! I'm not the cortana! But I'm here to help!
    Se você gostou da minha resposta, marque como solução clicando em sim! If you liked my answer, mark it as a solution by clicking on yes!
    Aceite somente a resposta que ajudou a solucionar o seu problema! Please accept only the response that helped to solve your problem!
    Detection tool click here to find the serial number or partnumber of your model!                                                          

               
      egydiocoelho Trailblazer
     
    ProductKey clique aqui para descobrir o serial do windows! click here to discover the windows serial!
    Para usuários da comunidade inglesa, espanhola, francesa e alemã, usarei o google tradutor! :)
    For users of the English, Spanish, French and German community, I will be using google translator! :) 
  • Coalford
    Coalford Member Posts: 6 New User
    Welp, in my previous attempts at fixing this myself, I ended up downloading Version 1.21 because I thought it was a good idea to update all of my drivers just in case that was the issue. Won't let me roll back to a previous version.

    This no Synaptic / Elan tab seems to be a pretty common issue from what I can tell in the forums.

    Any other suggestions?
  • As I told you before, version 1.21 is exclusive to the mx130 video card! Your model has the mx150 video card! Did you check if this video card disappeared in the device manager?
    Oi! Eu não sou sou a cortana! Mas estou aqui para ajudar! Hi! I'm not the cortana! But I'm here to help!
    Se você gostou da minha resposta, marque como solução clicando em sim! If you liked my answer, mark it as a solution by clicking on yes!
    Aceite somente a resposta que ajudou a solucionar o seu problema! Please accept only the response that helped to solve your problem!
    Detection tool click here to find the serial number or partnumber of your model!                                                          

               
      egydiocoelho Trailblazer
     
    ProductKey clique aqui para descobrir o serial do windows! click here to discover the windows serial!
    Para usuários da comunidade inglesa, espanhola, francesa e alemã, usarei o google tradutor! :)
    For users of the English, Spanish, French and German community, I will be using google translator! :) 
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,328 Trailblazer
    As  egydiocoelho suggests, v1.21 has other video issues that only complicate the situation. While it's risky, I think you should try to rollback to BIOS v1.06 following the user instructions in one of these two links. Jack E/NJ

    https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/400696/#Comment_400696
    https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/551907#Comment_551907


     



    Jack E/NJ

  • Coalford
    Coalford Member Posts: 6 New User
    So, an update on this.
    Spent 3 hours with Acer customer support, and their final verdict was that this model ships with a standard PTP touchpad and not a Synaptics or Elan touchpad.

    There are NO DRIVERS for it available from Acer. 
    Apparently "all products that ship with Windows 10 come with this hardware, and it was a Windows Decision"

    The newest drivers that update automatically are from 2006. 

    When asked about newer drivers, they informed me they were only available through windows Windows updates automatically, and that no options within those drivers existed to turn off the "Smart Sense" / "Palm Check" equivalent.

    Basically, this computer is unusable to me without a wireless mouse, as I cannot do any video or audio editing, or even gaming without one due to the inability to utilize the keyboard and touchpad simultaneously.

    Thank you to everyone on this forum for your help in trying to get through this issue. Really upset that I spent almost 900 Canadian on a Netflix machine.
  • Commodore_1995#
    Commodore_1995# ACE Posts: 97,695 Trailblazer
    edited March 2019
    Do not give up yet man! I'd like you to copy the touchpad idhardware here in the community, see:

    In addition, there is a new version of bios that adds some touchpad function to linux: https://www.acer.com/ac/pt/BR/content/support-product/7244?b=1I do not know if this update will help you, since you are using windows 7. Also, this update was released recently and we do not know yet if there are any bugs!
    Oi! Eu não sou sou a cortana! Mas estou aqui para ajudar! Hi! I'm not the cortana! But I'm here to help!
    Se você gostou da minha resposta, marque como solução clicando em sim! If you liked my answer, mark it as a solution by clicking on yes!
    Aceite somente a resposta que ajudou a solucionar o seu problema! Please accept only the response that helped to solve your problem!
    Detection tool click here to find the serial number or partnumber of your model!                                                          

               
      egydiocoelho Trailblazer
     
    ProductKey clique aqui para descobrir o serial do windows! click here to discover the windows serial!
    Para usuários da comunidade inglesa, espanhola, francesa e alemã, usarei o google tradutor! :)
    For users of the English, Spanish, French and German community, I will be using google translator! :) 
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,328 Trailblazer
    >>>Spent 3 hours with Acer customer support>>>standard PTP touchpad and not a Synaptics or Elan touchpad.>>>

    You have either one or the other of these two precision touchpads for the A515-51g. Were the old drivers you tried to install executed in old Windows compatibility mode? Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • Steam_Engenius
    Steam_Engenius Member Posts: 1 New User
    Had this problem with a new laptop, just fixed (independently) after hours of customer support and anger. Go to your registry editor and find SOFTWARE/Synaptics, burrow round till' you find SYNTP, then 'touchpad' and there'll be palmcheckconfig, change the value to 0 and restart. Worked for me with new Windows 10, good luck! 
  • It would be interesting if you post the exact key @Steam_Engenius!
    Oi! Eu não sou sou a cortana! Mas estou aqui para ajudar! Hi! I'm not the cortana! But I'm here to help!
    Se você gostou da minha resposta, marque como solução clicando em sim! If you liked my answer, mark it as a solution by clicking on yes!
    Aceite somente a resposta que ajudou a solucionar o seu problema! Please accept only the response that helped to solve your problem!
    Detection tool click here to find the serial number or partnumber of your model!                                                          

               
      egydiocoelho Trailblazer
     
    ProductKey clique aqui para descobrir o serial do windows! click here to discover the windows serial!
    Para usuários da comunidade inglesa, espanhola, francesa e alemã, usarei o google tradutor! :)
    For users of the English, Spanish, French and German community, I will be using google translator! :) 
  • tetristower
    tetristower Member Posts: 1 New User
    Had this problem with a new laptop, just fixed (independently) after hours of customer support and anger. Go to your registry editor and find SOFTWARE/Synaptics, burrow round till' you find SYNTP, then 'touchpad' and there'll be palmcheckconfig, change the value to 0 and restart. Worked for me with new Windows 10, good luck! 
    I have the same issue and was told the same thing by customer support. Tried to do this and SOFTWARE/Synaptics doesnt exist on my computer. I cant find anything in the registry to disable this. Anyone have any recent adivce?
  • @tetristower Ideally, you should create a new topic. Add me by putting an @.
    Oi! Eu não sou sou a cortana! Mas estou aqui para ajudar! Hi! I'm not the cortana! But I'm here to help!
    Se você gostou da minha resposta, marque como solução clicando em sim! If you liked my answer, mark it as a solution by clicking on yes!
    Aceite somente a resposta que ajudou a solucionar o seu problema! Please accept only the response that helped to solve your problem!
    Detection tool click here to find the serial number or partnumber of your model!                                                          

               
      egydiocoelho Trailblazer
     
    ProductKey clique aqui para descobrir o serial do windows! click here to discover the windows serial!
    Para usuários da comunidade inglesa, espanhola, francesa e alemã, usarei o google tradutor! :)
    For users of the English, Spanish, French and German community, I will be using google translator! :)