U81A Touchpad Buttons

The left click on the button bar has stopped working. The laptop is not under warranty. I've tried searching for replacement parts and so far have come up with nothing. Does anyone know where I can buy the part(s)? I haven't opened up the laptop yet, but I assume the buttons are part of the touchpad or a separate assembly.

FWIW, my wife in the primary user and she hates the tapping feature so I have to leave it disabled or she'll be randomly accidentally clicking things. As a temporary measure, I have the right-click set as the left click, but I'd like to fix it.

 

I have the same issue except with the right side of the bar for right clicking...
Did you ever find parts for it or resolve your issue?

 

Unfortunately, no. I called ASUS and they do not sell the parts for the touchpad or buttons. I also tried a couple of laptop parts places online without luck.

Sorry.

 

I have the same button problem on my U81A. I have to press hard on the left click and really hard on the right to get a response.

There are these:

Asus U81A Palmrest Touchpad Power Button Board Cables - eBay (item 280597665696 end time Dec-31-10 08:30:13 PST)

ASUS U81A PALMREST TOUCHPAD with SPEAKERS - eBay (item 320622002418 end time Dec-24-10 18:42:58 PST)

I might buy one of these if I knew what I would be doing. How difficult would it be to replace the touch pad button?

 

i have this issue too. anyone else?

 

My friend had a U80V that has the same exact chassis as the U81A. I tried disassembling the machine to get to the touchpad switches, which are actually on the motherboard. I cleaned them with a solvent and the problem seemed to still be there, although maybe not as bad (I'm not sure it made a real diff). I can confirm though that it's a defect/problem with the mechanical switches on the board, not from lack of contact with the button mechanism. I tried using the machine by pressing the switches on the board directly and the problem was still apparent. One way I found to reliably click was to press hard and hold the mouse button down longer than usual.

You can see these button switches in the pic for step 9 here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus/569879-asus-u80v-partial-disassembly-pics.html

The problem ceased to exist when his system was stolen... :-/

Not a very good resolution. Sorry.

 

I have the same model laptop and it had the same problem of the left touchpad button not working. I tried googling to find the part to replace it but couldn't find anyone with an answer. This link was #1 in the google search results when I was seaching, so I figured I'd register and post the part info for the next person who searches. I measured out the button on the motherboard, and ordered a few in different push forces. Unfortunately, the buttons I ordered were 4.3mm tall since I couldn't get an accurate reading of the height. After I got the buttons in and desoldered the old button, I remeasured and found out it's actually 5mm tall. I simply just soldered mine a bit higher to make up for the height difference.

I found that Panasonic made a nice selection of buttons, so I found their PDF of all the buttons and specs:
http://www.jameco.com/Jameco/Products/ProdDS/1586074.pdf

Page 4 has the correct button in all the different specs you can get it in. I had ordered 4 - 4.3mm buttons, 2 in 1.6 N and 2 in 2.6 N operating force. A Newton is such a small amount of force, that I could barely tell the difference between the 2. I tried applying incremental amounts of weight to the original button to try to determine which one was closest to the original. It turns out that the original button requires slightly less force than the 1.6 N one I had. Most likely if you're looking for exact identical, 1.3 is probably the correct one, but again, it's such a small amount of force that it's impossible to tell the difference without some form of a measuring tool. Also being that the 1.6N has twice the life cycle of the 2.6N, I obviously soldered in the 1.6N one. Put it back together and boom!, works perfectly, and actually feels a lot better than the right click button that still has the original. The click feels much more crisp.

It doesn't matter which way you solder on the button, just as long as you have the legs facing out correctly. AKA, if you can't see a physical difference between how the original button is oriented, and the new one, then you have it correct.

So the part that you want to go with that I'd recommend is EVQPAE05R, again if you're looking for EXACT then EVQPAD05R, or EVQPAC05R is the exact one to spec, but I really like the feel of the 1.6N one. I'd recommend replacing both together. I ordered mine from digikey.com. Came out to just a few bucks shipped for the 4 I ordered and came in 2 days. Here's a direct link to the exact part on their website: EVQ-PAE05R Panasonic Electronic Components | P12192S-ND | DigiKey

Hope this helps someone in the future looking to fix their touchpad.