Anyone ever have a touchpad "spontaneously die" only for pointer movement, and when not in use?

[britechguy]

There really are times when I'd like to throw things across the room, sometimes including my partner, as he manages to introduce "situations" I've never encountered before and have no idea of how to fix.

This morning, when his laptop woke up (LG Gram 15, i7-11th Gen, 16GB RAM, Win11 Pro v23H2) the mouse pointer was effectively immobile. Even when I played with it, I could sometimes get it to move a pixel or two, but no more. The click part of the touchpad function, whether done using the corners (this one has no buttons) or single finger tapping works just fine.

I have an external USB trackball that works absolutely perfectly when connected.

Things I have tried, with no change:
1. Running DISM and SFC. SFC reported corruptions found and fixed.
2. Removing the mouse in Device Manager and restarting the machine. It was automatically detected and the MS driver reinstalled (which is what had been in use before).
3. Doing a System Restore to 2 days ago, when everything was working normally.

I have checked LGs site just to see if there were a dedicated touchpad/mouse driver, and there is not.

I've dealt with touchpads going out before, but usually it's an "all or nothing" affair. Either everything doesn't work, or everything does.

I really don't want to have to even think about trying to replace this thing unless I absolutely, positively must. I'd even consider a "stick on" trackpad that is wireless USB or Bluetooth rather than having to tear down the machine to try to do a touchpad replacement as everything is so packed in on these devices to make them as light and thin as they are.

Ideas, anyone?

 

[nlinecomputers]

Sounds normal to me. I’ve seen plenty of touch pads that died intermittently. Replace it is probably the only fix. It can also be a motherboard issue.

 

[ThatPlace928]

Maybe the touchpad cable is loose? Easy fix, if it's easy to get to.

 

[britechguy]

I'll have to watch YouTube videos to see how ugly a task this might be (whether replacing or just getting to the cable).

I didn't have much trouble removing the underside to upgrade the SSDs when I did that, but they're "right there, on top."

I've found one, and only one so far, replacement touchpad of Chinese origin on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Laptop-Touchpad-16Z90P-G-16Z90P-K-16Z90P-N/dp/B0CZL1F745

 

[britechguy]

Well, at the very least, it appears to be simple to get to the touchpad:

Once the battery is removed, it's right there (see at 5:00).

 

[Porthos]

Also seen it happen with battery bloat/bulging.

 

[britechguy]

Also seen it happen with battery bloat/bulging.

True, but if that's the case here, the bulge is at the incredibly subtle stage. But as razor thin as the device is, it probably wouldn't take much, either. I appreciate the insight.

 

[Markverhyden]

"when his laptop woke up"

Try not using standby. Shutdown when not in use. Another thing I've seen done is to turn off the ability for devices to put windows in standby mode. These vary but are usually some where in the properties panels for each respective device.

Example: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...vices-on/680df071-54f6-4242-bee7-40e9bb8330b5

 

[britechguy]

@Markverhyden

Thanks. I definitely have problems with my own LG Gram with regard to waking up from sleep. Most of the time it does just fine, but there are repeated incidents of the device waking up, the mouse working but nothing else responding. Also, the little flashing light next to the power button keeps flashing (which can mean charging, but shouldn't after it's been charging overnight) so it stays in a state of "semi sleep" unless I resort to either a hard power button shutdown or kick off an immediate shutdown using a BAT file I have for that purpose.

What's interesting, and maddening, is that this morning, when I pulled the USB dongle from the trackball that we'd been using as a workaround on the partner's laptop, the touchpad and mouse work perfectly normally and have continued doing so throughout the day. I hate this kind of thing, as I'm sure a repeat will be coming, but who knows when. But until the issue persists I'm not opening up the case to deal with it.

 

[Markverhyden]

@britechguy you should still take a look at disabling the feature for devices. Gremlins like those always pop their head up at the wrong time. AKA Murphy's Law along with Finagle's Corollary.

 

[britechguy]

you should still take a look at disabling the feature for devices.

And I shall, and I thank you for bringing it to my attention. I was just trying to make the cohort aware that I have had one of those damnable "self healing" situations.

 

[Markverhyden]

I was just trying to make the cohort aware that I have had one of those damnable "self healing" situations.

That's just part of Murphy's scheme to make life miserable for all....... LOL

 

[britechguy]

look at disabling the feature for devices

By this, I presume you mean following the directions with this as step 3: Navigate to this path in the registry editor: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\238C9FA8-0AAD-41ED-83F4-97BE242C8F20\A4B195F5-8225-47EB-89C6-43CDD82A19B6

There is a slight issue, and that is that the closest low level key is a4b195f5-8225-47d8-8012-9d41369786e2 which does have three subkeys as well as an Attributes value associated with it (set to 1). I just have no idea whether this is the equivalent of the one mentioned.

I hate editing the registry without as close to absolute certainty as is possible. I'll also never understand who comes up with these key names!

 

[Markverhyden]

By this, I presume you mean following the directions with this as step 3: Navigate to this path in the registry editor: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\238C9FA8-0AAD-41ED-83F4-97BE242C8F20\A4B195F5-8225-47EB-89C6-43CDD82A19B6

There is a slight issue, and that is that the closest low level key is a4b195f5-8225-47d8-8012-9d41369786e2 which does have three subkeys as well as an Attributes value associated with it (set to 1). I just have no idea whether this is the equivalent of the one mentioned.

I hate editing the registry without as close to absolute certainty as is possible. I'll also never understand who comes up with these key names!

No so much that regedit part. It was just the concept in general. More specifically further up where the OP posted "
- Adjusted the advanced Power Plan settings to disable USB selective suspend

- Disallowed Windows from suspending pretty much all devices via Device Manager"

I'm venturing that the touch pad is a USB device on your machine. Link below may be a better example. If you go into DM each device has a properties popup. Somewhere in many of them there may be an option to keep that device from putting Windows to sleep. And another thought just popped up. Turn off sleep/standby mode but keep the LCD off timer set to something reasonable.

Elo Customer Service

myelo.elotouch.com

 

[Philippe]

I really don't want to have to even think about trying to replace this thing unless I absolutely, positively must.

Don't forget to test it in BIOS/UEFI or in Linux next time it happens...