Controlling my laptop's keypad and cursor

[W. eWatson]

Often I use the pad on my laptop to move the cursor. However, I began
using the mouse more recently. I have a Gateway MX6453 laptop about 4
years old. My thumbs often accidentally hit the pad while typing, and
the cursor goes to some random place where I'm typing, brings up a new
window, or to a lot of other unintended places. How do I turn off the pad?

 

[SC Tom]

Often I use the pad on my laptop to move the cursor. However, I began
using the mouse more recently. I have a Gateway MX6453 laptop about 4
years old. My thumbs often accidentally hit the pad while typing, and the
cursor goes to some random place where I'm typing, brings up a new window,
or to a lot of other unintended places. How do I turn off the pad?

Go to Control Panel > Mouse, and click on the Device Settings tab. Your
touchpad should be listed there (on my M6850-fx, it's a Synaptics TouchPad
V5.10; yours may be similar). Highlight it and click on Disable, Apply, and
OK. That will allow your mouse to still work without it being distracted by
the touch pad.

 

[W. eWatson]

Go to Control Panel > Mouse, and click on the Device Settings tab. Your
touchpad should be listed there (on my M6850-fx, it's a Synaptics
TouchPad V5.10; yours may be similar). Highlight it and click on
Disable, Apply, and OK. That will allow your mouse to still work without
it being distracted by the touch pad.

Ah, touchpad, not keypad. OK, I went there are no Device tabs. Pointers,
Pointer Options, Wheels, Hardware. OK, I'm on Hardware. I've looked here
before. I an HID-compliant mouse and PS/2 Compatible Mouse under
devices. No touchpad.

I may be going by a Best Buy store in awhile. That's who I bought it
froml. Maybe they know.

 

[SC Tom]

Ah, touchpad, not keypad. OK, I went there are no Device tabs. Pointers,
Pointer Options, Wheels, Hardware. OK, I'm on Hardware. I've looked here
before. I an HID-compliant mouse and PS/2 Compatible Mouse under devices.
No touchpad.

I may be going by a Best Buy store in awhile. That's who I bought it
froml. Maybe they know.

According to site
http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/Q106/BladeK8F/1013913Rsp2.shtml yours
should have the same touchpad as mine. Did your laptop come with Windows 7,
or did you upgrade it from Vista? If an upgrade, then you would need to
install the Gateway Synaptics driver to see it in Mouse settings. If you
look here
http://support.gateway.com/us/en/product/default.aspx?partNumber=1013913R
you'll see there are no Windows 7 drivers for that laptop; you can install
the Vista one for your version, and then follow the instructions I posted.
The pretty much what I did with mine since there were no Windows 7 drivers
for mine either.

 

[Thip]

Often I use the pad on my laptop to move the cursor. However, I began
using the mouse more recently. I have a Gateway MX6453 laptop about 4
years old. My thumbs often accidentally hit the pad while typing, and the
cursor goes to some random place where I'm typing, brings up a new window,
or to a lot of other unintended places. How do I turn off the pad?

Same problem here with a very low-end Compaq. I had to download a little
app called Touchpad Blocker (freeware). It's not 100% perfect but it it
solves most of the problems.

 

[charlie]

Same problem here with a very low-end Compaq. I had to download a little
app called Touchpad Blocker (freeware). It's not 100% perfect but it it
solves most of the problems.

Some of the laptops have touch-pad support in BIOS. If so, the touch-pad
may work if it is specifically enabled, or "legacy" BIOS support is
active. The touch-pad may have only basic functionality that is enhanced
when touch-pad support drivers are loaded.
I usually use my laptops with with a mouse or trackball, and although
the touch-pad advanced options are deliberately disabled, The touch-pad
will work anyway. (Even before any windows drivers are loaded)

Confusing? Yes!

 

[John Williamson]

Some of the laptops have touch-pad support in BIOS. If so, the touch-pad
may work if it is specifically enabled, or "legacy" BIOS support is
active. The touch-pad may have only basic functionality that is enhanced
when touch-pad support drivers are loaded.
I usually use my laptops with with a mouse or trackball, and although
the touch-pad advanced options are deliberately disabled, The touch-pad
will work anyway. (Even before any windows drivers are loaded)

Confusing? Yes!

Something that may help is turning the sensitivity of the touchpad all
the way down. On the ALPS pad on this Toshiba, the setting is buried way
down in the advanced settings section of the control panel mouse
section. Synaptics pads that I've used have a setting to ignore
accidental touches while typing, similarly buried deep within the
advanced settings.

 

[W. eWatson]

....

According to site
http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/Q106/BladeK8F/1013913Rsp2.shtml
yours should have the same touchpad as mine. Did your laptop come with
Windows 7, or did you upgrade it from Vista? If an upgrade, then you
would need to install the Gateway Synaptics driver to see it in Mouse
settings. If you look here

I had Win 7 put on about 3 weeks ago. XP Pro 32bit (I think) was the
forerunner. I think I'm on Win 7 pro.

http://support.gateway.com/us/en/product/default.aspx?partNumber=1013913R you'll
see there are no Windows 7 drivers for that laptop; you can install the
Vista one for your version, and then follow the instructions I posted.
The pretty much what I did with mine since there were no Windows 7
drivers for mine either.

Maybe I can put paper across it with scotch tape.

I the driver link for XP Pro had a touchpad driver, but no messages
there from you. The drive shows x64.

 

[W. eWatson]

Same problem here with a very low-end Compaq. I had to download a little
app called Touchpad Blocker (freeware). It's not 100% perfect but it it
solves most of the problems.

Google for it?

 

[W. eWatson]

Some of the laptops have touch-pad support in BIOS. If so, the touch-pad
may work if it is specifically enabled, or "legacy" BIOS support is
active. The touch-pad may have only basic functionality that is enhanced
when touch-pad support drivers are loaded.
I usually use my laptops with with a mouse or trackball, and although
the touch-pad advanced options are deliberately disabled, The touch-pad
will work anyway. (Even before any windows drivers are loaded)

Confusing? Yes!

Certainly strange, but I'll check bios next time I boot.

 

[Thip]

On 2/18/2012 3:46 PM, Thip wrote:
Google for it?

http://touchpad-blocker.com/

 

[W. eWatson]

....

Something that may help is turning the sensitivity of the touchpad all
the way down. On the ALPS pad on this Toshiba, the setting is buried way
down in the advanced settings section of the control panel mouse
section. Synaptics pads that I've used have a setting to ignore
accidental touches while typing, similarly buried deep within the
advanced settings.

No such luck here. Maybe I'll just scotch tape paper across the area.

Actually, my typing seems to be getting better. I avoided the touch pad
altogether in writing this.

 

[SC Tom]

...
I had Win 7 put on about 3 weeks ago. XP Pro 32bit (I think) was the forerunner. I think I'm on Win 7 pro.

Maybe I can put paper across it with scotch tape.

I the driver link for XP Pro had a touchpad driver, but no messages there from you. The drive shows x64.

Use the Vista 64-bit driver. This is the download link:

http://global-download.gateway.com/...id=634164315199721614&Step1=NOTEBOOK&Step2=MX
SERIES&Step3=MX6450&OS=ALL&LC=en&BC=GATEWAY&SC=PA_6G

or the tiny.url link if that one doesn't show well:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/8833tgp

The "preview" shows you where it's going so you can verify that really IS where it's going

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

[]
Ah, touchpad, not keypad. OK, I went there are no Device tabs.
Pointers, Pointer Options, Wheels, Hardware. OK, I'm on Hardware. I've
looked here before. I an HID-compliant mouse and PS/2 Compatible Mouse
under devices. No touchpad.

[]
If you see (I presume the word "see" is missing from the above!) "an
HID-compliant mouse and PS/2 Compatible Mouse", after plugging in your
mouse (you say you are using "the mouse", so I presume you are plugging
one in), then one of those probably _is_ the touchpad; after all, for
most software, it functions as a mouse. Try disabling each of those! (I
suspect it'll be the PS/2 one.) [Don't disable both - that includes
making sure the re-enabled one has started working again - if you find
it's the wrong one, unless you're familiar with how to use the computer
without a mouse; it's usually possible, but many people these days don't
know how to.]

Alternatively, and you'll kick yourself if you have something similar:
on this Samsung NC-20, Fn-F10 toggles he touchpad on and off ... (-:

 

[SC Tom]

Often I use the pad on my laptop to move the cursor. However, I began
using the mouse more recently. I have a Gateway MX6453 laptop about 4
years old. My thumbs often accidentally hit the pad while typing, and
the cursor goes to some random place where I'm typing, brings up a new
window, or to a lot of other unintended places. How do I turn off the
pad?

[]
Ah, touchpad, not keypad. OK, I went there are no Device tabs. Pointers, Pointer Options, Wheels, Hardware. OK, I'm on
Hardware. I've looked here before. I an HID-compliant mouse and PS/2 Compatible Mouse under devices. No touchpad.

[]
If you see (I presume the word "see" is missing from the above!) "an HID-compliant mouse and PS/2 Compatible Mouse",
after plugging in your mouse (you say you are using "the mouse", so I presume you are plugging one in), then one of
those probably _is_ the touchpad; after all, for most software, it functions as a mouse. Try disabling each of those!
(I suspect it'll be the PS/2 one.) [Don't disable both - that includes making sure the re-enabled one has started
working again - if you find it's the wrong one, unless you're familiar with how to use the computer without a mouse;
it's usually possible, but many people these days don't know how to.]

Alternatively, and you'll kick yourself if you have something similar: on this Samsung NC-20, Fn-F10 toggles he
touchpad on and off ... (-:

I wish mine had that, or like my old Compaq had, an on/off pushbutton right above the touchpad.

According to the manual for the OP's laptop, there IS a Fn toggle for the touchpad (I missed that earlier). It shows a
finger touching a rectangular box with a "not" circle on it. Unfortunately, it doesn't show a picture of the keyboard
clear enough to tell which key it is. It seems to be between the "Screen Blank" and "Play" F-keys, but doesn't state
definitively which ones they are; it just shows the icons to look for.

 

[W. eWatson]

Use the Vista 64-bit driver. This is the download link:

http://global-download.gateway.com/...id=634164315199721614&Step1=NOTEBOOK&Step2=MX
SERIES&Step3=MX6450&OS=ALL&LC=en&BC=GATEWAY&SC=PA_6G

or the tiny.url link if that one doesn't show well:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/8833tgp

The "preview" shows you where it's going so you can verify that really
IS where it's going

I do not understand this. I went to preview.tnyurl.....

I did get the driver down, but have not applied it. Shouldn't I save
the old driver somehow?

 

[W. eWatson]

On 2/18/2012 12:34 PM, SC Tom wrote:


Often I use the pad on my laptop to move the cursor. However, I began
using the mouse more recently. I have a Gateway MX6453 laptop about 4
years old. My thumbs often accidentally hit the pad while typing, and
the cursor goes to some random place where I'm typing, brings up a new
window, or to a lot of other unintended places. How do I turn off the
pad? []
Ah, touchpad, not keypad. OK, I went there are no Device tabs.
Pointers, Pointer Options, Wheels, Hardware. OK, I'm on Hardware.
I've looked here before. I an HID-compliant mouse and PS/2 Compatible
Mouse under devices. No touchpad.

[]
If you see (I presume the word "see" is missing from the above!) "an
HID-compliant mouse and PS/2 Compatible Mouse", after plugging in your
mouse (you say you are using "the mouse", so I presume you are
plugging one in), then one of those probably _is_ the touchpad; after
all, for most software, it functions as a mouse. Try disabling each of
those! (I suspect it'll be the PS/2 one.) [Don't disable both - that
includes making sure the re-enabled one has started working again - if
you find it's the wrong one, unless you're familiar with how to use
the computer without a mouse; it's usually possible, but many people
these days don't know how to.]

Alternatively, and you'll kick yourself if you have something similar:
on this Samsung NC-20, Fn-F10 toggles he touchpad on and off ... (-:

I wish mine had that, or like my old Compaq had, an on/off pushbutton
right above the touchpad.

According to the manual for the OP's laptop, there IS a Fn toggle for
the touchpad (I missed that earlier). It shows a finger touching a
rectangular box with a "not" circle on it. Unfortunately, it doesn't
show a picture of the keyboard clear enough to tell which key it is. It
seems to be between the "Screen Blank" and "Play" F-keys, but doesn't
state definitively which ones they are; it just shows the icons to look
for.

I wish I had my Gateway manuals with me. In any case, I tried every
blue F-key and otherwise, and found nothing to indicate the pad was
disabled. It did rattle me a little when f3 turned the screen black. I
had to press the power button to get on. Then I got a little rattled
again when I started to get numbers instead of letters when I tried
typing a response here. The Scroll blue key is actually numlock. My wife
noticed that. F4 sort of look like the right key. It has a rectangle
with an ellipse in it, slash, then just a rectangle. It didn't help.


Maybe I can find the manual on Gateway's site.

 

[SC Tom]

In message <[email protected]>, W. eWatson
On 2/18/2012 12:34 PM, SC Tom wrote:


Often I use the pad on my laptop to move the cursor. However, I began
using the mouse more recently. I have a Gateway MX6453 laptop about 4
years old. My thumbs often accidentally hit the pad while typing, and
the cursor goes to some random place where I'm typing, brings up a new
window, or to a lot of other unintended places. How do I turn off the
pad?
[]
Ah, touchpad, not keypad. OK, I went there are no Device tabs.
Pointers, Pointer Options, Wheels, Hardware. OK, I'm on Hardware.
I've looked here before. I an HID-compliant mouse and PS/2 Compatible
Mouse under devices. No touchpad.
[]
If you see (I presume the word "see" is missing from the above!) "an
HID-compliant mouse and PS/2 Compatible Mouse", after plugging in your
mouse (you say you are using "the mouse", so I presume you are
plugging one in), then one of those probably _is_ the touchpad; after
all, for most software, it functions as a mouse. Try disabling each of
those! (I suspect it'll be the PS/2 one.) [Don't disable both - that
includes making sure the re-enabled one has started working again - if
you find it's the wrong one, unless you're familiar with how to use
the computer without a mouse; it's usually possible, but many people
these days don't know how to.]

Alternatively, and you'll kick yourself if you have something similar:
on this Samsung NC-20, Fn-F10 toggles he touchpad on and off ... (-:

I wish mine had that, or like my old Compaq had, an on/off pushbutton
right above the touchpad.

According to the manual for the OP's laptop, there IS a Fn toggle for
the touchpad (I missed that earlier). It shows a finger touching a
rectangular box with a "not" circle on it. Unfortunately, it doesn't
show a picture of the keyboard clear enough to tell which key it is. It
seems to be between the "Screen Blank" and "Play" F-keys, but doesn't
state definitively which ones they are; it just shows the icons to look
for.

I wish I had my Gateway manuals with me. In any case, I tried every blue F-key and otherwise, and found nothing to
indicate the pad was disabled. It did rattle me a little when f3 turned the screen black. I had to press the power
button to get on. Then I got a little rattled again when I started to get numbers instead of letters when I tried
typing a response here. The Scroll blue key is actually numlock. My wife noticed that. F4 sort of look like the right
key. It has a rectangle with an ellipse in it, slash, then just a rectangle. It didn't help.


Maybe I can find the manual on Gateway's site.

Here's the link to your stuff:

http://support.gateway.com/us/en/product/default.aspx?tab=1&modelId=3143

Go to the User Guides tab. Get the ones you want. In typical Gateway support fashion, all the zip files are the same
name, so change the name as you download, or unzip them one at a time, then overwrite the first zip on the next
download.

I'm sorry I misled you on the Fn key to disable the touchpad; I was helping someone else with their NV laptop, and that
was the manual I was looking at, not yours.

To answer your other question about the driver installation, you really don't have a full driver installed, or the
touchpad would show in Control Panel, whether under the Mouse item or Synaptics itself. You're basically running the
generic Windows 7 touchpad driver, which is probably why it's not showing up anywhere. By installing the Gateway driver,
you'll have the option to enable/disable it, adjust the sensitivity, scroll speed, etc., just like you can with a real
mouse.

 

[W. eWatson]

Here's the link to your stuff:

http://support.gateway.com/us/en/product/default.aspx?tab=1&modelId=3143

Go to the User Guides tab. Get the ones you want. In typical Gateway
support fashion, all the zip files are the same name, so change the name
as you download, or unzip them one at a time, then overwrite the first
zip on the next download.

I'm sorry I misled you on the Fn key to disable the touchpad; I was
helping someone else with their NV laptop, and that was the manual I was
looking at, not yours.

To answer your other question about the driver installation, you really
don't have a full driver installed, or the touchpad would show in
Control Panel, whether under the Mouse item or Synaptics itself. You're
basically running the generic Windows 7 touchpad driver, which is
probably why it's not showing up anywhere. By installing the Gateway
driver, you'll have the option to enable/disable it, adjust the
sensitivity, scroll speed, etc., just like you can with a real mouse.

I have an MX6453, but I guess 6450 is close enough. I don't see
anything in either manual about disabling with the keys. They seem to
have missed Scroll, Pause, Ins,Del.

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, W. eWatson

I wish I had my Gateway manuals with me. In any case, I tried every
blue F-key and otherwise, and found nothing to indicate the pad was
disabled. It did rattle me a little when f3 turned the screen black. I

(Did you find what that is _supposed_ to do?)

had to press the power button to get on. Then I got a little rattled
again when I started to get numbers instead of letters when I tried
typing a response here. The Scroll blue key is actually numlock. My
wife noticed that. F4 sort of look like the right key. It has a
rectangle with an ellipse in it, slash, then just a rectangle. It
didn't help.

I think that's display switch - switch between laptop screen and
external monitor, or toggle external monitor off/on, or cycle round
between external/laptop/both. Does rectangle-with-ellipse have another
rectangle under it, i. e. crude drawing of laptop?

Maybe I can find the manual on Gateway's site.

Have you tried just disabling one of your two mice (you said you had a
PS/2 and a HID one according to Display Manager) to see if one is the
touchpad?