Brand new acer predator helios 500-61 (AMD) - the touchpad randomly freezes

Bellatori

This is very annoying. I noted that another acer (Nitro?) user has a similar problem. At first I used keys to shut down and restart which meant that I lost a lot of work every time. I have updated the driver with the latest one from the ACER web site. Still no improvement. I have given a lot of thought to what I am doing at the time but so far I see no common factor.

There is a work around which I have discovered. I plug a mouse in and that takes control. I then go to settings and turn the touch pad off and then on. LO and behold it will now work when I unplug the mouse. It may be a work around but frankly it sucks.

A proper fix would be good!!

Commodore_1995#

Is the correct model the PH517-61-R0GX? Is there a function called touchpad in bios-uefi? If so, try switching to basic.

Bellatori

egydiocoelho said:

Is the correct model the PH517-61-R0GX? Is there a function called touchpad in bios-uefi? If so, try switching to basic.

Thanks for that... I'll give it a go tomorrow, hopefully and let you know.

bobzdar

Bellatori said:

This is very annoying. I noted that another acer (Nitro?) user has a similar problem. At first I used keys to shut down and restart which meant that I lost a lot of work every time. I have updated the driver with the latest one from the ACER web site. Still no improvement. I have given a lot of thought to what I am doing at the time but so far I see no common factor.

There is a work around which I have discovered. I plug a mouse in and that takes control. I then go to settings and turn the touch pad off and then on. LO and behold it will now work when I unplug the mouse. It may be a work around but frankly it sucks.

A proper fix would be good!!

Mine has done it a couple of times, but there's a keyboard shortcut that enables/disables the touchpad that's most likely (accidentally) triggering it - fn+f7.  If it does it again, just hit that and it should turn back on.  The first time it did it it drove me nuts, but the other 2 or 3 times I just hit that and it worked again, no reboots or anything needed.  I'm thinking I accidentally hit the keys doing something and shut it off, luckily figured it out the 2nd time so it didn't drive me crazy. 

xapim

Yup FN+F7 its the universal for all acer laptops to enable and disable the touchpad and probably for other manufacturers also

Bellatori

Thank you all for the replies. I am truly very grateful. This is an awesome machine in many ways and if this iis the most serious problem I encounter then I really have no cause for complaint. The information you have supplied reduces the problem to trivial.

I have tried the bios fix which works as did plugging in the mouse but it is not a solution. It simply reduces the functionality.

I haven't reset the bios yet but will do so later and then will check through the Fn+F7 situation. However, like the mouse insert and switching on and off I am pretty sure that it will work but I do have a thought before I start. This is also not a solution; it is a temporary fix. What is triggering the Fn+F7 toggle in the first place? |If my hand brushes a key  as I am typing then this would be understandable BUT F7 is beyond my normal reach when resting my hands on the front of the machine AND I would have to be pressing the function key as well. It is this two key situation that makes this unlikely. ALSO it has occurred when I am swapping between windows and starting programs with only one hand using the track pad itself. This does suggest a software glitch to me. I will have a play and let you know.

xapim

Bellatori FN+F7 its the universal shortcut to enable /disable the touchpad completely for when you using a mouse for ex

Commodore_1995#

I'm not sure if this will solve the problem, but uefi version 1.08 for ph517-51 adds support for windows 10 rs6: https://global-download.acer.com/GDFiles/BIOS/BIOS/BIOS_Acer_1.08_A_A.zip?acerid=636934032482015873&Step1=NOTEBOOK&Step2=PREDATOR&Step3=PREDATOR PH517-61&OS=ALL&LC=pt&BC=ACER&SC=PA_3#_ga=2.50885161.1239920009.1560705065-1187228471.1523479791

Bellatori

Thanks for the bios update... if all else fails...!!

I run my kit fairly hard. At the moment I am running a chess program doing analysis running 16 threads at below normal priority and also, because I am trying to reproduce the effect, Dragon Age Origins. The fan is running flat out to bring the temperature below 60C. The cpu is at 100%

The touchpad froze during the game, Fn+F7 would not restart it. I had to use a mouse to open settings and turning off and on again does restart the touchpad when the function key did not.
So there we are. It is not a game changer but it is annoying.

Bellatori

I have found by extensive testing that if I am running Fritz (a chess program) using the Stockfish 10 chess engine on a problem set to below normal priority the computer runs fine. Stockfish uses all 16 threads if they are available and releases them to other programs under w10 priority. It has a 12GB hash table in memory leaving 4GB for W10 and anything else that may be going on. I am careful not to run it (Fritz/Stockfish) so deep that it pages to HD. This simply runs it much slower. If I run anything else of normal priority then generally they run fine. No problems of interaction and competition. I have used Word, Excel, Adobe and games (Civ IV, Dragon Age) and no problem until at some point ALWAYS the track pad locks up. This morning it did so as I wrote this using Google Chrome. Only Fritz has been running since a restart. I can use the Alt, Tab and arrow keys to navigate but the track pad is completely unresponsive.

WORK AROUND - These are the a number of work arounds that can be tried (in this order). 
For simplicity work in this order.
Try 1 Fn+F7 - This is the toggle on the Predator for the track pad. In normal use it turns the track pad on and off. I have not found this has any effect on this problem however but it is possible someone did turn the track  pad off accidentally.

Try 2 USB Mouse - Plugging in a USB mouse should quickly take over the pointer. Go to Settings...Devices...Touchpad and turn the touchpad off (mine always shows it is on even though it is frozen) and on again.

Try 3 use Mouse Keys - If you do not have a USB mouse handy then things get a bit more complicated. One way is to start mouse keys with ***** + ALT + NumLk to start - it should give a distinctive beep - when you can use the numeric key pad to guide the mouse (holding Ctrl at the same time moves the pointer faster) and then go to try two. Slightly quicker is to use Tab and Arrow keys to do Try 2 and use Shift + SpaceBar to toggle the switch.

Try 4 - The Bios 'fix' from above works but it does so simply by disabling the main touchpad functions and leaves something that is not very useful. I'd rather have a mouse. I do not recommend this especially as one of 1->3 should fix the problem temporarily.

Thanks to those who gave suggestions.