Acer Aspire 5 Laptop | A515-56 touchpad is erratic - Can I make it more like my old Acer

My newish Acer Aspire 5 Laptop | A515-56 touchpad is erratic - how can I make it more like my 8 year old Acer Aspire E5 -772-35M?

I bought my Aspire 5 Laptop | A515-56 nearly a year ago as my aged 7 year old Acer was in poor health. I started to use the new laptop but was frustrated with getting to know Windows 11 and the new laptop, especially the touchpad. I have lost many forms by just moving when I'm typing something into a forum like this. I kept returning to the old and familiar one. I had improved the performance of the old laptop with a repair install of Windows 10 and it worked reasonably OK. I feel that I should be using the new one and getting it to work for me, especially as I'm now more familiar with Windows 11, but I don't know how I can set up the touchpad to work like my old one.

I set the cursor speed to 2 from 3 and Medium sensitivity.

I keep forgetting 2 fingers to right click (right click is something I use all the time on old PC)
Pressing the bottom left corner to right click is counterintuitive, why is it not the bottom r/h?

I have always used the touchpad since the first laptop as it freed me from the separate mouse when I use it on my lap - that is almost all of the time. I believe the settings should be able to be changed for right click and am disappointed that Acer would consider a setting of pressing the bottom left as a choice for right click.

As well as the erratic Touchpad, I find the very bright backlit keys too distracting. How can I turn the brightness down?

Accepted answers

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1235349#Comment_1235349

You will love your touchpad once you master the gestures and get it to work properly, I used to be a MS Mouse guy, but I would not touch an external mouse now, far too clumsy and slow. Actually, this is a MS Precision Touchpad little to do with Acer, Elan or Synaptics, the main drivers are from Microsoft.

I never noticed that left click=right click option in Gestures, sorry, maybe be for the Lefties or Apple users that have one mouse button.

You either boot to BIOS by pressing F2 after you turned on your laptop with the power button or in Windows you type UEFI or BIOS in Search and it will ask if you want to restart to Troubleshoot, then you click on UEFI in the Troubleshoot menu. The other way to get the Troubleshoot menu is keeping the Shift key down while clicking on Restart in Start>Power>Restart (taskbar).

https://community.acer.com/en/kb/articles/15699-how-to-use-the-acer-nitro-5-precision-touchpad
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/precision-touchpad-settings-windows-10

BTW: When I wrote Google I meant go online and browse using your favorite search engine.

All comments

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/693162/acer-aspire-5-laptop-a515-56-touchpad-is-erratic-can-i-make-it-more-like-my-old-acer

You can turn backlight off but not control the KB LED brightness. It sounds you have to uninstall the touchpad driver, in Device manager uninstall 12C HID device and the touchpad driver, meanwhile connect a USB external mouse as you will lose control. Check internet is working and reboot.

Commodore_1995#

Regarding the touchpad, have you checked the bios version?

Figgis

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1235089#Comment_1235089

Thank you for replying.

Backlit keys
I read elsewhere that you could dim the backlit keys on Acer by pressing Fn & F10 or F9 several times to dim until the light was out. I tried it but it did not work. I would like a little light as it would save having another light on to see the keys.

Touchpad
If I uninstall the Touchpad driver, will I be able to set the botton RH corner as the right mouse click?
It feels alien to designate the bottom LH of touch pad for the right click.

Just to check: if I uninstall the touchpad driver, will the correct one be installed when I restart the PC or will I have to look for it and install it myself?

Figgis

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1235168#Comment_1235168

No, I know nothing about it. I was once told to not touch the BIOS or Registry unless I knew what I was doing. I think I should persevere with the slow down settings and try to get used to them. I may reinstall the touchpad driver.

Figgis

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1235182#Comment_1235182

I discovered on YouTube that I can toggle off and on the backlight on keys by pressing F8. That will do for now as I can turn off the glare when my laptop is at a certain angle on my lap. I would be very pleased if there was a way to dim the lights.

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1235182#Comment_1235182

You are overthinking this far too much, Windows will reinstall whatever driver is missing on your system, you should never have to install anything, there is no such thing as "a left click on the touchpad causes the right click", Open Touchpad app in Windows and reset settings to defaults, if that did not fix your issue your touchpad driver is corrupted therefore you should uninstall and let Windows reinstall that driver, you may also have installed the wrong driver (Elan instead of Synaptics). You heard wrong about BIOS, you cannot use any brand PC without editing some settings in BIOS or resetting BIOS, Registry yes, let Windows reset the registry in Restore "System to an earlier point" Google how to use an Acer Touchpad there is a lot available on the web, no need to click you just tap lightly with 1 finger anywhere to left click and with two fingers to right click unless you changed that in Touchpad settings Gestures, use the default settings. you can also press with one finger instead of tap, very few are using that option as you have to press hard till you feel it click. 😉

Figgis

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1235251#Comment_1235251

That is the choice I referred to.

I updated the Touchpad Driver and it said I had the best one installed. I will uninstall it and restart it.
I need to spend more time on the laptop to see if I can become accustomed to the different touchpad actions. I have googled 'using the touchpad' but a lot of the options seem very old. One was referring to Windows XT or XP. Can you suggest an up to date one for Acer.I was using a property website last night where there were many pages of flats with about 20 per page and I was so frustrated trying to use it. I concluded that I would be better off using my Samsung tablet to move through the listing and view properties that interest me. I would never have thought of using the tablet for that before now. I bought a laptop because I need the keyboard to be accurate.

The BIOS: I don't know how to access it or what I should look to change when I get there. The screenshot was unclear.

I will think about this after I use the laptop more and after uninstalling the Driver.

The laptop is nice and fast and enjoyable to use if I don't have to use the Touchpad.

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1235349#Comment_1235349

You will love your touchpad once you master the gestures and get it to work properly, I used to be a MS Mouse guy, but I would not touch an external mouse now, far too clumsy and slow. Actually, this is a MS Precision Touchpad little to do with Acer, Elan or Synaptics, the main drivers are from Microsoft.

I never noticed that left click=right click option in Gestures, sorry, maybe be for the Lefties or Apple users that have one mouse button.

You either boot to BIOS by pressing F2 after you turned on your laptop with the power button or in Windows you type UEFI or BIOS in Search and it will ask if you want to restart to Troubleshoot, then you click on UEFI in the Troubleshoot menu. The other way to get the Troubleshoot menu is keeping the Shift key down while clicking on Restart in Start>Power>Restart (taskbar).

https://community.acer.com/en/kb/articles/15699-how-to-use-the-acer-nitro-5-precision-touchpad
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/precision-touchpad-settings-windows-10

BTW: When I wrote Google I meant go online and browse using your favorite search engine.

Figgis

I hate a separate mouse too but I had to buy one and now use it when the Touchpad does not work on my old Acer. When I couldn't find a permanent fix I bought the new Acer. As I use the laptop on my lap, not a desk or table, a separate mouse is a hindrance.
The Touchpad driver has been reinstalled and the 'click left of the pad for right click' is now set to click right. I don't remember changing it previously but may have done so.

I will leave the BIOS alone for now until I give my better knowledge of the Touchpad a bit of time to improve things - hopefully.

I use Google as my search engine all the time as I am used to it. On my phone, I use it to speak my requests as the on screen keyboard is too fiddly for accuracy. I haven't found a recent video tutorial for the Touchpad. Show and Tell works better for my brain than just tell. I will look at the links you provided and hope it helps. I'm using the 2-finger scroll at present and it's improved things.