Aspire R7-372T trackpad no longer scrolling

bmurphy7

I've had my R7 for a few years now and recently the trackpad stopped responding to the two-finger scroll gesture. I only started noticing it when I unplugged a USB mouse that I was using while I was traveling. I couldn't find any specific settings in Windows that would rectify the problem. I tried uninstalling the drivers for the trackpad but I'm pretty sure it didn't work. I got frustrated and did a full factory reset hoping that would work but it didn't have any effect. I tried again to uninstall the drivers so that windows could rediscover the trackpad again and that didn't work. I'm not even sure that Windows actually uninstalled the drivers when I told it to.

It's registering the trackpad as a standard PS/2 compatible mouse. I've been searching the internet for any answers at all and I have yet to find anything that works. Clicking and single taps still work but any gesture that uses two fingers is nonfunctional. If anyone has any suggestions or solutions I'd be very grateful. I'm not sure what kind of technical info someone would need to help me diagnose and fix the issue but I will provide anything I can.

Thanks

ven98

Enter in BIOS(press F2 on startup), go to main tab and make sure ''Touchpad' is set to Advanced.

bmurphy7

ven98 said:

Enter in BIOS(press F2 on startup), go to main tab and make sure ''Touchpad' is set to Advanced.

I've now done this. It was set to Basic. After changing it there is still no change in functionality.

ven98

Did you press F10 for save and exit?

bmurphy7

Yes, I did. I also went back into the bios to check that it was saved. The touchpad is currently set to Advanced.

ven98

You said that you have been searching the internet for answers, but I am going to ask these thing anyway:

-Did you try going to windows settings>devices>touchpad make sure drag two fingers to scroll is enabled

-Did you try going to control panel>large/small icons>mouse to see if you have a tab called 'device settings'. Let me know if there is.

bmurphy7

The only settings available under Settings>Touchpad is Taps Sensitivity. There's no Two Finger Scroll options and no Gestures options at all.

The Control Panel>Mouse Properties screen does not have a Device Settings tab. Buttons, Pointers, Pointer Options, and Hardware are the only ones visible.

bmurphy7

At this point, I'm pretty sure that this has to be a mismatched driver issue. Windows is not recognizing the touchpad as a touchpad but instead as a standard PS/2 mouse. I've been looking for a source for a driver that I can replace the Windows default one with but I haven't been able to find one. I'm assuming that I need a Synaptics driver so if anyone can point me towards a source for those, I would appreciate it.

ven98

Windows always displays the touchpad as a mouse. If you go to device manager>human interface devices you will find the touchpad there.

I don't why the touchpad wouldn't register 2-finger scrolling.

As there is no synaptic touchpad driver on your device's driver page, I don't think synptics driver will work. 

JordanB

Does it work in safe mode?    You could try safe mode with touchpad set to Advanced in the BIOS and try it with touchpad set to Basic in BIOS.

https://www.digitalcitizen.life/4-ways-boot-safe-mode-windows-10

I'm going to be honest with you.......when you said you did a full factory reset, it didn't really give you an Acer OEM factory reset unless you created a USB factory recovery drive when you first took the computer out of the box.  So if you've updated your computer, from example, Windows 1703 to Windows 1709 to windows 1809, it doesn't go back to 1703 when you reset your PC with something like Alt+F10.  Personally, I would make sure I had the latest BIOS.

If it works in safe mode, you could assume it's not a hardware problem and order your Acer OEM factory software from Acer and get a fresh start.  I would probably reset the BIOS to defaults (F9) and then save/exit (F10) before installing.  If it doesn't work in safe mode, you **might** have a hardware problem.

https://store.acer.com/en-us/extended/recovery

bmurphy7

JordanB said:

Does it work in safe mode?    You could try safe mode with touchpad set to Advanced in the BIOS and try it with touchpad set to Basic in BIOS.

https://www.digitalcitizen.life/4-ways-boot-safe-mode-windows-10

I'm going to be honest with you.......when you said you did a full factory reset, it didn't really give you an Acer OEM factory reset unless you created a USB factory recovery drive when you first took the computer out of the box.  So if you've updated your computer, from example, Windows 1703 to Windows 1709 to windows 1809, it doesn't go back to 1703 when you reset your PC with something like Alt+F10.  Personally, I would make sure I had the latest BIOS.

If it works in safe mode, you could assume it's not a hardware problem and order your Acer OEM factory software from Acer and get a fresh start.  I would probably reset the BIOS to defaults (F9) and then save/exit (F10) before installing.  If it doesn't work in safe mode, you **might** have a hardware problem.

https://store.acer.com/en-us/extended/recovery

I did the factory reset because several searches for answers gave that as a possible solution. I didn't have much hope for it but I wanted to make sure I tried everything before I claimed it was a hardware issue.

I have now updated my BIOS and tried it on Basic and Advanced in and out of Safe Mode. The results are still the same and no two-finger scrolling works. I'm not convinced that it's a hardware issue since I can still click and drag which requires the trackpad to still register two fingers. I'm not an expert by any extent but from all the research I've done on this issue, I'm more convinced that this is some kind of driver mismatch since Windows is not providing the correct settings for a trackpad.

I'm going to request the OEM from Acer to try that but if there are any other ideas for solutions, I'd gladly try them. I'm grateful for the help provided thus far.

UPDATE: Acer no longer has the OEM for my model of R7. I'm now fully back on the market for any help available.

JordanB

Ok, I'm going to give you a list of suggestions that I would personally try if I had your computer problem. 

1. Call Acer and double check about your recovery media.

http://www.acer.com/worldwide/support/

2.  Try a battery reset

https://us.answers.acer.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/34843/~/acer-internal-battery-reset



3.  Create a USB recovery drive with acer care center app.

https://uk.answers.acer.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/38145/~/windows-10:-create-a-usb-recovery-drive-using-acer-care-center

4.  Backup my important personal files.

5. Perform a clean install of vanilla Windows 10 using the latest Windows

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

6.  Perform a clean install of the windows 10 version that came pre-installed on your computer (I don't know which version of windows 10 came pre-installed on your computer)

https://rufus.ie/

https://www.heidoc.net/joomla//67-microsoft-windows-iso-download-tool


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How to create vanilla Windows 10 installation media (this doesn't contain Acer software or drivers) and clean install?

1. Purchase an 8 GB or higher USB flash drive
2. Download rufus
3. Download the Windows 10 iso using microsoft's media creation tool
4. Use rufus settings: UEFI (non-CSM), GPT, FAT32 and then create the USB media
5. Go in to BIOS settings and load the defaults (F9) and then save/exit (F10)
6.  Go back in to BIOS and enable the F12 boot menu and then save/exit.
7.  Boot the Windows USB media by tapping F12 at Acer post logo
8.  Select Install, and then Custom Installation
9.  Delete all of your partitions (this will delete your current windows installation and wipe your HDD)
10.  Click Next, and then Windows installer will automatically partition and format your HDD and automatically install windows 
11.  Let Windows automatically install all of your drivers.  (this can take a while depending on your internet speed)
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Where to find older versions of vanilla Windows 10.....i.e. the version that came pre-installed on your computer?

https://www.heidoc.net/joomla//67-microsoft-windows-iso-download-tool

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I'm all out of ideas.  Hopefully @ven98 can think of something else.  Good luck.