Aspire R14 Touchscreen Problem

I've had my R14 for about a year and am very happy with it overall, but the touchscreen has started acting up recently. It sometimes goes mad and looks as if a ghost is tapping all over it really fast! If the background was a picture of a lake, you would think it's animated and rain is falling on the water surface. The tap marks appear really fast and all over the screen, but they're more concentrated around the edges. It gets almost impossible to use the keyboard and/or the touchpad as the "taps" cancel every command/click before you can complete it. I have to shut down the laptop manually and power it on again to fix it, but this has been happening more often over the past week and I'm now concerned because the manual reset is affecting my data and my hard disk. Any suggestions?

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IronFly

If disabling the touchscreen solves the issue, i suspect a grounding issue when tje carger is connected.

I suppose this is an hardware issue and if you are under warranty contact the Acee support service.

@Acer-Manny do you have any infos about this issue?

JackE

I agree with IronFly I think your charger is not properly isolated from the AC wall plug and getting some AC leakage into the charger plug. When weird things like this happen, it's often a grounding problem or lack thereof. Jack E/NJ

Manny-Acer_Retired

Thanks IronFly,

Unfortunately, i found no information on this, i have to agree that the best option will be contacting your local Acer support center to have it check/repaired by the service center technicians.

If you need technical assistance you can go to our page https://www.acer.com/worldwide/ where you can select the country of your location and under support tab you can find the available service centers and technical support phone numbers.

Thanks,

Acer-Manny

MrStafford

Here it is August 2019 and I have an Aspire R5-471T and I am experiencing that same ghosting problem, and have been for at least six months. I completely uninstalled and reinstalled the Windows 10 operating system that seemed a minor improvement. It can be fine for hours, or only minutes. It can be fine, I look away, and then I look back and it's going nuts and four new apps have opened all by themselves. It is literally like invisible fingers are poking at the screen. It sounds like the consensus was that this is a hardware problem, i.e. a not very durable touch screen. Was there ever a fix, or do I need to bite the bullet and replace the device? Thanks for all the info above. I was worried I had been hacked, but after reading your posts I'm pretty sure it's a more benign problem.

StuHatch

I have had the same problem for more than a year. In my case, the ghost clicks seem to start if the laptop is idle. For example, if I leave it open and running and go fix myself a cup of coffee, often when I come back it's opened a bunch of new apps and the ghost clicking (like drops of rain on a pond, someone said) is happening. If I close the lap top and wait a minute, it's usually okay when I open back up, although sometimes I have to try that a couple of times. As a precaution, when I walk away from it now I usually put it in sleep mode and that seems to prevent it. I have thought about replacing the touch screen, which I have seen for sale online for about $120 ( https://www.cdsparts.com/p-7531-acer-aspire-r5-471t-laptop-lcd-touch-screen-w-bezel-14-6mg7tn5002.aspx?gclid=Cj0KCQjw1qL6BRCmARIsADV9Jta3hePMjel6zcPVSE8IBykIjTFcI85A_ZzGbbrCxb41uAxRBxopAYcaAgW3EALw_wcB). The replacement itself doesn't seem too difficult, and is better than spending the $600 Acer would charge me. Has anybody else tried replacing the screen, apart from Alenzie? I'd actually be happy if this was fixed for a year.

ughbug007

I bought this R14 in 2016 and have had the Cursed Cursor for at least 3 years, thanks for the tip to unplug the power supply, has really helped with managing this online school stuff we have to do now!

I have always interpreted this issue to be a trackpad sensor issue, not a touchscreen issue, because when I watch the computer freak out the cursor jerks around constantly while clicking and I just always related it to the touchpad because the touch screen does not utilize or require the cursor, it is a component of the touchpad and the mouse, so if the cursor is moving itself around and clicking then I would say it's the touchpad that's malfunctioning. When I attempt to control the mouse during these episodes, the mouse can move the cursor but it's erratic because the touchpad is fighting for control.

Of course, I don't really know anything, I'm just a user making observations. But what I thought was interesting is that we also have two Amazon Kindles (just the cheap ones, not HDX or kids version) and suddenly, after a software update, they BOTH started doing this same thing while plugged in. Except that the screen doesn't do it on it's own, it's when you touch it while plugged in, it duplicates the touch point all over the screen and starts selecting a bunch of ****. It's different because there is no cursor ready to recieve input as there is on the computer. So, there is an apparent issue with touch-screen/touchpad devices and the charging interfering with the sensors (?). It's frustrating as hell, all of the devices we're having trouble with are being used by kids for school and this really screws things up. I came home last night and my computer had attempted to move internal files, opened about 15 old programs, 12 Microsoft Edge (ew) search pages, 8 PDF's and a slew of angry errors had occurred. I think it even updated my AVG....thanks?

Anyway. Does anyone have any thoughts about the trackpad being the source of the issue?

Max77

ughbug007 said:

I bought this R14 in 2016 and have had the Cursed Cursor for at least 3 years, thanks for the tip to unplug the power supply, has really helped with managing this online school stuff we have to do now!

I have always interpreted this issue to be a trackpad sensor issue, not a touchscreen issue, because when I watch the computer freak out the cursor jerks around constantly while clicking and I just always related it to the touchpad because the touch screen does not utilize or require the cursor, it is a component of the touchpad and the mouse, so if the cursor is moving itself around and clicking then I would say it's the touchpad that's malfunctioning. When I attempt to control the mouse during these episodes, the mouse can move the cursor but it's erratic because the touchpad is fighting for control.

Of course, I don't really know anything, I'm just a user making observations. But what I thought was interesting is that we also have two Amazon Kindles (just the cheap ones, not HDX or kids version) and suddenly, after a software update, they BOTH started doing this same thing while plugged in. Except that the screen doesn't do it on it's own, it's when you touch it while plugged in, it duplicates the touch point all over the screen and starts selecting a bunch of *****. It's different because there is no cursor ready to recieve input as there is on the computer. So, there is an apparent issue with touch-screen/touchpad devices and the charging interfering with the sensors (?). It's frustrating as hell, all of the devices we're having trouble with are being used by kids for school and this really screws things up. I came home last night and my computer had attempted to move internal files, opened about 15 old programs, 12 Microsoft Edge (ew) search pages, 8 PDF's and a slew of angry errors had occurred. I think it even updated my AVG....thanks?

Anyway. Does anyone have any thoughts about the trackpad being the source of the issue?

I def think it is a track pad issue and after a few years of using mine as a backup laptop it became completely unusable today so I am about to pop it open and see if I can find anything that might be causing it from the inside.

alenzie

Trackpad seems to be the more likely culprit. The haunted cursor is tranquilized after disabling and re-enabling the trackpad.

JackE

>>>they BOTH started doing this same thing while plugged in>>> when you touch it while plugged in, it duplicates the touch point all over the screen>>>

Charger involvement also continues to be a suspect here. If you have a two-prong wall plug, you might try reversing the plug. Odd behavior like this is often due to improper or poor grounding or leakage through the charger due to poor AC isolation from the mains. Jack E/NJ

Max77

alenzie said:

I've had my R14 for about a year and am very happy with it overall, but the touchscreen has started acting up recently. It sometimes goes mad and looks as if a ghost is tapping all over it really fast! If the background was a picture of a lake, you would think it's animated and rain is falling on the water surface. The tap marks appear really fast and all over the screen, but they're more concentrated around the edges. It gets almost impossible to use the keyboard and/or the touchpad as the "taps" cancel every command/click before you can complete it. I have to shut down the laptop manually and power it on again to fix it, but this has been happening more often over the past week and I'm now concerned because the manual reset is affecting my data and my hard disk. Any suggestions?

An update to my comment from a few minutes ago. I have used mine as a backup laptop on and off for several years...maybe 40 hours total use during that entire time. It has intermittently had the same ghost touching on the screen which I have always been able to fix by wiping down the screen and touchpad and blowing out the keyboard or if I didn't have the patience to do any of that I'd just close it and open it up later and the issue would be resoled. Until today...when none of that helped and I actually need to use the stupid thing. So I unplugged the power/USB devices/etc, removed the battery and popped off the panel that covers the drive/memory and then unscrewed the 18 or so screws holding the back panel on and carefully popped it off. I have done this to every laptop I have ever owned at some point because I am one of those people...and I am here to tell you that this laptop was nasty inside...full of dust/dirt/hair/etc that none of my everyday laptops have had. In addition, there were hairlike strands of the green heat/flex tape all over the interior from when it was originally assembled. I removed all of those and then gently blew the inside out with canned air...and was careful to not blow any moisture/etc inside. Then I put the battery back in and fired it up...and the ghost touching is completely gone. I reattached the back and drive panel by popping it back in place but I am going to wait on putting the screws back in until I feel like I am in the clear on the ghost touching. I am guessing some of the dirt/debris/etc was contacting a circuit that involved the touchpad and interfering with it...specifically the green tape strands which were in the right location to do so. Since I will be regularly using the laptop starting today I will post updates on if the fix lasted. I am guessing that if any of the dirt/debris was the culprit and not just the tape it will become a problem again because the design of the laptop seems to cause dirt/etc to gather on the inside unlike my other devices. Hope this helps.

Max77

Max77 said:

alenzie said:

I've had my R14 for about a year and am very happy with it overall, but the touchscreen has started acting up recently. It sometimes goes mad and looks as if a ghost is tapping all over it really fast! If the background was a picture of a lake, you would think it's animated and rain is falling on the water surface. The tap marks appear really fast and all over the screen, but they're more concentrated around the edges. It gets almost impossible to use the keyboard and/or the touchpad as the "taps" cancel every command/click before you can complete it. I have to shut down the laptop manually and power it on again to fix it, but this has been happening more often over the past week and I'm now concerned because the manual reset is affecting my data and my hard disk. Any suggestions?

An update to my comment from a few minutes ago. I have used mine as a backup laptop on and off for several years...maybe 40 hours total use during that entire time. It has intermittently had the same ghost touching on the screen which I have always been able to fix by wiping down the screen and touchpad and blowing out the keyboard or if I didn't have the patience to do any of that I'd just close it and open it up later and the issue would be resoled. Until today...when none of that helped and I actually need to use the stupid thing. So I unplugged the power/USB devices/etc, removed the battery and popped off the panel that covers the drive/memory and then unscrewed the 18 or so screws holding the back panel on and carefully popped it off. I have done this to every laptop I have ever owned at some point because I am one of those people...and I am here to tell you that this laptop was nasty inside...full of dust/dirt/hair/etc that none of my everyday laptops have had. In addition, there were hairlike strands of the green heat/flex tape all over the interior from when it was originally assembled. I removed all of those and then gently blew the inside out with canned air...and was careful to not blow any moisture/etc inside. Then I put the battery back in and fired it up...and the ghost touching is completely gone. I reattached the back and drive panel by popping it back in place but I am going to wait on putting the screws back in until I feel like I am in the clear on the ghost touching. I am guessing some of the dirt/debris/etc was contacting a circuit that involved the touchpad and interfering with it...specifically the green tape strands which were in the right location to do so. Since I will be regularly using the laptop starting today I will post updates on if the fix lasted. I am guessing that if any of the dirt/debris was the culprit and not just the tape it will become a problem again because the design of the laptop seems to cause dirt/etc to gather on the inside unlike my other devices. Hope this helps.

In addition...I have tried all of the other physical fixes listed here such as removing the battery, unplugging, removing USB devices/etc...none of that helped. I am guessing that doing any of those temp fixes might have worked for some people temporarily because it involved moving the laptop around which might have caused the debris on the inside to move around. Who knows....

alenzie

What's for sure is, this model is screwed up, and we all know screw-ups happen in technology. What I'm really mad about is that Acer "experts" were clueless and the company didn't even try to at least pretend that they cared about customer service.

JackE

All the evidence suggests to me that @IronFly 's guess nearly two years ago is the root cause for the problem. Jack E/NJ

alenzie

JackE said:

All the evidence suggests to me that @IronFly 's guess nearly two years ago is the root cause for the problem. Jack E/NJ

Thank you, Jack. @IronFly's 'guess' came 13 months after my initial post and a year after I had taken the laptop back to Acer for repair under warranty- needless to say that my warranty had expired by then. All MY evidence suggests that I've been stuck with a faulty laptop for 2 years, and that there have been several speculations but no solution.

JackE

A new replacement charger might be worth a try. Only about $10USD. Jack E/NJ

DDaGhost

Hello all,

I've been experiencing the same problem with my Acer NLK48EC, which is a tablet PC with removable keyboard. Had this problem for years, to the point I stopped using it. Fast forward to today, saw it in my storage decided to take it out and what do you know, same problem. So, after reading all of your posts and opinions, I stopped using the wall plug to charge it and plugged it into a power bank and it stopped. So I can only assume the problem is how power gets distributed to the system.

I know many of you have real laptops so I dont know how my find can assist you, but I hope it does.

Blessed day

DDaGhost

Also, after further investigation, I've realized that the power bank is just powering the device, shows 0% charge. Something definitely seems amiss with charging