Got "left button stuck" syndrome? An experiment:

Discussion in 'Laptop Hardware' started by hrpatton, Nov 18, 2008.

  1. hrpatton

    hrpatton

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    Some of you have posted about your touchpads behaving as if the left button were depressed constantly. Clicking the left button does nothing, and neither does tapping the touchpad, even if tapping is enabled.

    Other users may have the same problem without realizing it. I initially thought my buttons didn't work at all. If you have any or all of the following symptoms:

    -- left button doesn't seem to work, and neither does tapping;
    -- mouse pointer draws a selection rectangle upon reaching the desktop;
    -- right button does work;

    ... you may have Left Button Stuck syndrome. It appears to afflict Windows and Linux installations equally. It happens to me both in XP and in Ubuntu. I suspect, therefore, that it's a hardware problem, possibly the keyswitch under the left button becoming jammed or stuck.

    If you have this dread disease, please try disabling the touchpad buttons and see if tapping works again. It does for me. Unfortunately, the Synaptics driver doesn't appear to allow separate disabling of each button.

    XP: Mouse control panel, Synaptics tab (switch tabs with CNTL-TAB), Buttons, turn off "Enable buttons"
    LINUX: I have no idea.

    Report back, please.
     
    hrpatton, Nov 18, 2008
    #1
  2. hrpatton

    Zaireeka

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    I had this problem (no response from left button), so just sent it back to Acer for repair. Sent it on Wednesday, got it back yesterday so cant fault the service. Works perfectly now, according to the note that came with it they replaced the FRUS (whatever that is!)
     
    Zaireeka, Nov 25, 2008
    #2
  3. hrpatton

    jacktar

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    FRU = field replaceable unit
     
    jacktar, Dec 2, 2008
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  4. hrpatton

    inigoku

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    I just got that problem last weekend :(
    I have the Linux version, I found that I can get tapping enabled by uninstalling the synaptics driver. If I install it again (any version, new or old), tapping is not working again. I guess the left button is disabled if the default mouse driver is used. The right click works normally always.

    Any news about this? Is it really a hardware problem?

    By the way, Zaireeka, when you got your laptop back, was the flash drive/hard disk untouched?
    I am afraid of sending the laptop for repairing, it took so long to customize it...
     
    inigoku, Dec 11, 2008
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  5. hrpatton

    KLikLo

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    Any luck with this? I really don't feel like sending my AAO back to Acer... I have already had to replace the keyboard due to a flying caps lock key.
     
    KLikLo, Dec 18, 2008
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  6. hrpatton

    ghost

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    Good day.
    I have the same problem with touchpad. I've got AOA110 for 10 days.
    I didn't solve the problem, but i disabled right button. In XP: in touchpad settings - buttons - right button action - nutton\zone\gestue complitely disabled
     
    ghost, Dec 18, 2008
    #6
  7. hrpatton

    riseinarms

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    Seriously?
    I just bought this thing today, and I all ready have this problem.
    I'm using a USB mouse right now.
    There's no other way to fix this than to send it in?
     
    riseinarms, Dec 25, 2008
    #7
  8. hrpatton

    Tarheel72

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    Same here but I have the right button stuck, the one that normally is the double click button. I think that Ghost does too, given his post above on a work around. For now I have disabled the right button and set us the tap zones so that the upper and lower right corners act as a double tap. But I noticed I have also lost the ability to scroll. Not sure if it is related to the stuck right button or to the fact that I enabled the tap zones. Who knows? It worked fine out of the box but within hours this bug reared its ugly head. Any ideas on what to do ?????
     
    Tarheel72, Dec 26, 2008
    #8
  9. hrpatton

    Tarheel72

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    In my case it is the right button that is stuck in the on or active position, as can be seen using the animated touchpad icon in the tray. It is not hardware related, because if I switch from right hand to left hand the problem simply flips to the left button. I can go into the device sittings under the Synaptics tab and make changes and it clears the icon but if I touch the touchpad at all or do anything like tap, the right button turns green as if it is depressed. I have done a lot of internet research on this and it is not specific to the Acer, as a lot of laptop companies seem to have this, including Dell, HP and Gateway. So far no one seems to have any answer to this and it can be traced to 2007. I find that pretty odd.

    It seems that some people have experienced improvement or complete cure by turning the machine off for some period of time, even removing the battery, and everything works upon power up. But it looks like in most cases it returns a few hours, days or weeks later. And it is not confined to XP, but Vista, Linux and every other OS you can think of seem to experience it as well. Drivers don't help, updating bios does't help, resetting to default settings don't help, booting in safe mode doesn't help. Mine worked fine out of the box. All I did was spend a few hours loading the following: MS Office, MS updates, HP printer, NetFlix streaming video (which performed an update to Media Player 11), added a mirco BT dongle and used the MS bluetooth stack and no third party software at all. I plugged in a USB CD/DVD drive and a MS USB mouse, but used the MS plug-and-play drivers for both. And I added a new picture for a desktop wallpaper. Nothing exotic, other than the NetFlix streaming video software, but that does not appear to be any common denominator here. I uninstalled the Synaptics driver after the problem appeared, installed a generic XP driver, which did not help. So I reinstalled the Acer specific driver. Problem surfaced about three hours after initial power up. What I have not done yet is turn the machine off, it has been on standby power or in use.

    If anyone can find any solution on any laptop user forum or other laptop website, please post the info here. I am pretty sure it will appy to all situations. It is some sort of firmware or software conflict but for the life of me I can not imagine what it might be.
     
    Tarheel72, Dec 27, 2008
    #9
  10. hrpatton

    Spyrorocks

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    My aspire one 110 has had "right button stuck" syndrome since day one.

    I tried this suggestion and disabled the mouse buttons, and now its actually usable, but I will still be returning it to the store because it is not the type of functionality I wanted. I don't want to have to use the touchpad for everything, its annoying.

    Thanks for the suggestion :)
     
    Spyrorocks, Dec 28, 2008
    #10
  11. hrpatton

    kapinouwi

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    same problem with my 150 xp :evil:
     
    kapinouwi, Dec 30, 2008
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  12. hrpatton

    Derouteur

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    Hello,

    I´m new here. I´ve had the One for about a month now, and the left button S@#& just showed up.
    Is there any fix beside sending it to Acer ?

    Thanks !
     
    Derouteur, Jan 2, 2009
    #12
  13. hrpatton

    UnforgiveN

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    No solution ?


    I'm starting to hate AAO, and Acer... I'm going to fix it via Acer and sell it... Maybe I'll get myself an EEE, or a Wind netbook...

    (I have the A110L as my signature states...)
     
    UnforgiveN, Jan 28, 2009
    #13
  14. hrpatton

    Tarheel72

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    My issue is the right button but the problem seems to be the same. Some machines its the left, others its the right. I just assigned the right button functions to areas of the touch pad and work around it. I don't want to send it in for something this small, I will wait a few months to see what else breaks.

    I still am not sure if it is hardware, software of firmware related. I know that if I change the touchpad default configuration to Left Hand, then it is the left button that is stuck in the "depressed" positon and the right button starts working normally. To my way of thinking, if this was a mechnical hardware issue, it wouldn't matter what functions were assigned to the right button, it would still not function properly. But I haven't installed any weird software or applications before it happened. MS Office, a BT device using the Windows BT stack, a HP printer driver, MS updates. I did not update the bios on the machine, since so far everything else is working fine. I can't see why any of that would disable the right button on the touchpad. All I know is that it worked fine out of the box and within two days it showed up as stuck in the depressed position, even though physically it looks normal and seems to function fine. If I reboot the machine, the touchpad icon in the lower right task manager looks normal but as soon as I press the right button once the corresponding button on the icon turns green and it remains like that and the actual button ceases to function at all.

    Strange and very frustrating.
     
    Tarheel72, Jan 28, 2009
    #14
  15. hrpatton

    spyderms

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    Just discovered this problem today. I've had my Aspire one since November, and the problem just now showed up. Was originally running Vista, but I've been running Windows 7 since the beta went public. I'm actually glad to see I'm not the only one that has it, as it saves me from reinstalling Windows in an attempt to fix it, only to have it still persisting. I really don't want to send it back to Acer, but I'm afraid that's probably my only choice at this point... Can anyone tell me how long the warranty is? I can't seem to find my documentation :( Anyone happen to actually find a manual fix for this? (Not a work-around).

    -John
     
    spyderms, Feb 2, 2009
    #15
  16. hrpatton

    zwan33

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    Mine does NOT have this problem. But then, I have never the trackpad (XP) drivers. Maybe they are faulty in some manner and it would be better to not install them at all...?

    (A150L with XP installed)

    BTW: using an USB mouse 90% of the time...
     
    zwan33, Feb 10, 2009
    #16
  17. hrpatton

    chemigame

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    within a week of purchase im facing the same problem, i have sent mine to Acer service, i will post u the result as soon as i get it........
     
    chemigame, Feb 15, 2009
    #17
  18. hrpatton

    ric@rdo

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    Hey guys. Just got my One yesterday and 10 minutes into using it I got this left click problem. SOLVED IT! I popped the keyboard out, unplugged the touchpad cable and scraped it a little (there was some kind of white residue on a couple of the pins) and sprayed contact cleaner on the cable and plug. That was it! Now it's working like a charm :) Try it out, it was a pretty simple solution for me.
     
    ric@rdo, Feb 20, 2009
    #18
  19. hrpatton

    Wolf451

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    Same problem here, left button stuck, turned out that in the process of modding that one of the "pins"(traces) on the trackpad ribbon cable got pulled off and was bent back. After gently bending it back in to place and carefully putting the ribbon back in the socket, button works perfectly
     
    Wolf451, Mar 6, 2009
    #19
  20. hrpatton

    fantasmicmickey

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    I have the same problem but with the right button. Sent it back to Acer but it was working when they received it so they just sent it back. Got it back and it was working for 2 weeks before it started happening again. Has anyone been able to figure out this is a hardware or software issue?
     
    fantasmicmickey, Apr 13, 2009
    #20
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