Beta BIOS - Possible Missing Keystroke Fix

My laptop didn't have any serious touchpad issues to speak of but lots of missed keystrokes. The beta bios started coming out while mine was out on RMA repair. I was still missing keystrokes when I got it back so I flashed a beta bios. The touchpad was immediately out of control. I believe it was fine before that but it had a new palm rest installed during the RMA so I can't swear to it.

I'm pretty sure the touchpad was OK and the keyboard missed a few keystrokes before the betas. Now the keystroke thing is not an issue but I can't even use the touchpad. I flashed to 211 a looong time ago. The day it came out or the day after. However, the laptop also got a new motherboard during RMA and I believe it was flashed with 211 when it came back to me.

Now I can't seem to unflash the beta bios if you know what I mean. I can't get back to missing keystrokes with correct touchpad. If I flash backwards the keyboard misses keystrokes but the touchpad doesn't work. I get the double headed arrow or a four way arrow all the time. I can't make the right side scrolling work at all with chiral or without it. If I put a two finger enabled driver on then it does two finger scrolling fine but won't do anything else.

I kind of gave up on it and am just using my external mouse until Gary comes up with another possibility. I'm spending lots of time fiddling with drivers and no time actually using the laptop except at work.

The other goofy thing my touchpad does is every time you tap your finger somewhere on it, the cursor jumps two inches up and to the right. Three or four taps and it's stuck in the upper right corner of the desktop. So you're trying to scroll it back down to the Start button for instance... every time you put your finger down on the pad in the upper right and start moving to the bottom left, the cursor jumps when your finger touches and then starts moving the way you want it to go. So it's jump right - keep moving left - pick up your finger so you can move some more and it jumps right and keeps moving left... very odd. Pretty much unusable.

 

@Jody: I see. There's a lot of factor to consider on your G73 issue. While in my case, the only factor was when I flashed my bios. I think it would be good if they will provide you a brand new unit of G73JH so that your problem factors (if still they are present) to consider would be lessened.

 

Update - We will have a final BIOS release shortly on the G73Jh and betas for the G73/G53Jw units next week. Also, a new trackpad driver will be finalized in the near future. After this, we can turn our attention to audio and powerplay improvement.

 

Yey! I hope we get a Creative X-Fi just like the JWs have, in replacement of the not so great Audigy

 

I removed my post because my fix did not last.

 

I appreciate you modifying your post. I was going to give it a go now that I'm home.

 

Your welcome... I really did think I had a fix. It failed after I installed a bluetooth keyboard. I am not sure that is what actually did it though. I think the keyboard filter is a factor in all this though. I have installed the ATK one now and I kind of think the previous one was a Microsoft one. I should try and be more methodical I guess. I will test some more and post back if I am onto something.

 

You are GOD!! lol, thx for all u do.

 

What does the KB filer do anyway? I never installed it and didn't notice missing features.

 

I'm running with it now. I ran without it for a long time and never noticed anything not working. Do your media keys work? If you press Fn plus the numpad Enter key does the calculator program pop up? I know ATK handles all the icon notifications for the control keys on the Function keys but I don't know about the media keys on the arrows and such. I never use them so I don't know if they work without the keyboard filter driver.

 

I guess they figured something out.

I was going to ask if someone with a nasty case of trackpad would be nice to open up the HDD bay and put some insulation behind the HDDs to prevent heat rising up to the trackpad. I was curious if this makes a difference.

I had a volunteer for this, but he decided instead to upgrade 5 desktops over the weekend and blew me off.... you know who you are

 

The explanation I found for the keyboard filter stated it allows for the handling of data being sent to the PS/2 port. I assume this means it can be deflected to other areas like the backyard for instance, or even vaporized... Seriously though I think it allows the data to go to USB. If you Google it you will no doubt find a better explanation.

 

Hmm, what if (instead of insulating the hard drives) you just removed the one that sits under the trackpad?

Also, SSDs. *Thinks*...

 

Whatever works for you to experiment with Tho I would think the system hdd gets the hottest.

 

Can we get this restickied? Being an official ASUS thread and all concerning a major issue? It's frustrating sifting through 10 new GSOD threads to get to important updates.

 

Did you forget the huge sticky that's already up there? It's one of the first links. <_<

 

Actually... yes But it would still be nice to have this thread on the top of the page.

 

I bought an Asus laptop last summer with a backlit chiclet keyboard and it's awful - ignores keystrokes all the time. I've been typing on keyboards for decades so you can't tell me I need to "learn to type".

Returned it to Fry's for another, but same thing. I decided to just live with it, but I'll never buy a laptop without giving the keyboard a good workout first!

 

Fortunately a final BIOS for that is coming shortly.

 

AFAIK, it intercepts the low-level keyboard interrupts and filters out and/or redirects the machine specific non-typing-related key strokes/combinations like Fn-C, Fn-V, Fn-Enter, etc.

Should have nothing to do with USB on the G73JH machines, as Windows does NOT see the keyboard on a USB port...it's classic old-school PS/2

 

It does when you update the HID driver.

 

Update to what?

 

@Chastity.

I have had my track pad boggle out right after a boot after being off overnight, once. So, it is not as likely to be heat alone, although it still could be one cause. I am of the mind that seveal things are going on in track pad land, not just one.

I will remove the second HDD and move the primary to that slot away from the track pad tomorrow just in case. Can't hurt to try while they work on other fixes, since I don't use the second HDD for anything anyway. At a guess though, the temps from GPU and CPU are more likely to be causing heat issues especially if your lappy is titled so the rear vents are lower than the tp.

 

I do not think it is a heat issue either. I think the failures would be more consistent if it was. I think it has something to do with the data not being processed properly somewhere along the way. It is like something gets corrupted when there is the right combination of things happening. I think more data being sent contributes to the failure. It almost acts like a memory leak.

When mine is working well it is truly a great piece of hardware. I use it with momentum turned on and it is so easy and quick to flick the cursor back and forth across the screen. All of the taps are sensed accurately and the cursor moves positively without ever missing.

It seems that as I open more things up the possibility of failure increases. I can tell things are getting iffy when it misses a tap or there is a slight lag when I move it. When it is like this a brush of my hand across the touchpad will cause it to stop all together. Typing will also cause it to fail completely when it is in the iffy state as well.

 

......................................................................................................................................................................... WE WAIT

 

I really hope this beta bios actually DOES something for my touchpad. Nothing like it working fine one moment, and then freaking out, shooing your mouse across the screen, and then ignoring most of your input.....

 

i think maybe in 2012 if garry is on it we will have working touchpad , vbios and creative software

relax and forget about the time

 

Oh yeah.. easy to relax when your laptop freaks out on you and you can barely use it........

Sorry, but i shouldn't have to use a mouse with a laptop like it.. unlike others i actually use it ON my lap (sitting in a couch), and an external mouse is a PITA...

 

aren't there fixed mouses with a trackball and you move it
use that
i have it in my lap too all the time
and gets me nervouse when i need to go all in (poker) but my touchpad just wont work

 

Okay update on moved drive with empty bay below the touch pad. No joy. Still have a goofy touchpad. Next I will see if I can't find some foam pad or something to stick in there for insualtion. Ah well...

 

Thanks for trying...

 

I hate trackballs even worse than my broken touchpad.....

 

Maybe consider RMA for you case becaue my trackpad is fine. You might have a hardware issue. I can use my trackpad for hours without a problem.

 

If it was just me, sure. But look around - there are enough people out there with trackpad issues that it is NOT just me.

 

Three to six people complaining on a forum does not mean there is a computer brand problem. How many people own these computers that dont come on these forums because they dont have problems. I not saying there isnt a major hardware problem OR software clash problem but unless everyone has it then its somthing that is wrong with your guys computers. The GSOD was a G73 wide problem but not everyone seems to have a trackpad probem. Thats all I was saying and if I offended you it was not my intention.

 

I RMAed mine last month for a different issue related to sound hardware. I requested that the keyboard missing keystrokes be addressed as well. They replaced a lot of things and my touchpad is probably crazier than all of yours since I applied the beta bios. If you RMA it for that you will be without it for a long time. They don't have a hardware fix for it and they can keep it until the cows come home swapping parts that won't fix this. I have a new palmrest, motherboard, LCD, audio board, and I replaced the keyboard myself. Still missing the occasional keystroke and the touchpad is unusable right now. Hoping for some luck with the next bios release.

I agree that it is nowhere near as widespread as the GSOD. For the record I would like to say that I never had a graphical glitch of any kind on any driver or vBIOS including the stock one that shipped with the computer. I did have to repaste at one point but even when it was overheating I never had a GSOD.

Now this trackpad/keyboard on the other hand is driving me to drinking.

 

I really find it weird that this seems to be a problem that only some people have. I can't tell if I have missing keys because I am not very fast when it comes to typing but my touchpad is rock solid. I even tried the things you guys said would cause it to go crazy and nothing goes wrong.

 

As with anything else, there will always be sample variation, and some people will not have the problem.

However, the fact that enough people (sorry, more than six too) have made mention of it, shows that it is an issue, even if it isn't widespread. I think of it like the temp issues - i have none,but others talk about having to do a repaste because of quality issues.. i have no doubt it could be a similar issue with the trackpad.

 

I will also say that I think they have squashed the thermal paste bug. I still have my original GPU on a new motherboard. The temps are as good or better than my repaste so far and I have been lucky enough to have some time to play games lately. Lots of hours on their TIM and it's looking good.

 

That's because I sneak in at night while you sleep and repaste it. I also finished off your butter cookies.

 

LOL! Repaste in exchange for cookies is an excellent deal!

 

Jody, I am with you on the vBIOS never being needed. I uploaded the vBios cause I wanted overdrive

Now keyboard/touchpad, I won't lie, I don't really use touchpad all that oftain. one of the few times it did freak out, was at the windows login screen, and it stopped in a sec.... now the keyboard lag/dropped keys is pretty annoying...

I know I am not the best typist in the world, but when using similar keyboards, doing the same exact thing, I have less missed keys not on the Asus. I spend a decent amount of time in router and switch command lines and it is painfully obvious when I am using the G73 keyboard.

 

New update for Synaptics if it wasn't posted already

Download License Agreement | Synaptics

Drivers | Synaptics

 

Thanks for posting - installed and giving a try...

 

I'm using them right now. They are stated as version Synaptics v15.2.7_C

Touchpad works right (hasn't gone crazy...yet. In my case normally takes a while) BUT I do an interesting bug:

After installing these new synaptics drivers I've lost the functionality to Enable/Disable the touchpad with Fn +F9... any others?

(all other Fn buttons seem to work)

 

fn+ F9 works with the newest synaptics provided with the link
wow they are newer indead new look and synaptics scrybe is awesome
i will try them and report if i get crazy touchpad

 

As I swear I'm not lying, there must be something wrong with mine, 'cause it worked before and now it doesn't. But thanks for the insight!

 

I realize I am asking the obvious... have you tried rebooting again and or reinstalling the ATK package?

 

I can also confirm fn + F9 no longer works with the new drivers.

 

I've fixed it and I think I know what caused it:

When I installed the drivers I had the touchpad disabled.

Reinstalling the drivers with the touchpad enabled seemed to fix the problem.