Problem with nc8230 BIOS upgrade

I just installed the July 22 '05 Flash BIOS into my nc8230, and now the buttons below the touch pad have become extremely intermittent. In fact, more often than not, the center button must be pressed twice before it toggles the auto-scroll function. The left button is also unreliable. FWIW, the upper set of buttons, the ones below the space bar, work just fine.

This seems more like a worn-out HW issue, but it definitely wasn't like this before the upgrade. I suspect they may have changed the firmware de-bounce parameters for the lower touch pad buttons, but the bios update information doesn't mention anything about the touch pad.

Has anyone else experienced this problem? Maybe the two buttons happened to get flakey at the same time that I did the BIOS upgrade?

I may have to remove the upgrade to make sure it is the culprit, but I want to find out if others with the 3 button touch pad have had problems first.

Here is some more information. If I deliberately mash the button down and hold it down, it is always recognized. If I use the normal amount of pressure, and push it until I hear the audible click, it is only recognized half the time. In other words, if I use it the way I normally do, and don’t think about it, it only works half the time. This is easy to check, as the auto-scroll icon toggles each time the buton is recognized.

The right button could also be affected, but I don't have a way to check it.

OT: Incidentally, the buzzing noise from beneath the keyboard was not affected by the BIOS upgrade.

 

I upgraded my nx8220 with the F.0E BIOS (same for both units) and did not notice anything wrong with the Glidepad buttons. Everything seems to work fine.

But as a side note, I don't use the Synaptics drivers, I just left everything default (Windows stock drivers) and everything seems fine. The new BIOS update may have a problem with the Synaptics drivers. Try without them and see what happens.

Also, the high-pitched squeel (assume it's the same noise on your unit) from the left side of the unit seems to toned down to a slight buzz. It's better than it was before, but generally the same. If you've made changes to the USB Root Hubs, it could explain why the sound doesn't seem to have changed. Revert them back to default settings and it should be lower, or at least it did for me.

-Vb-

 

Venombite, what is the process for installing the windows drivers?

 

Mtnmasher,

They're built into Windows. All you need to do is un-install the Synpatics drivers and it should auto flip to the Windows drivers. It's generally Microsoft's generic mouse driver to be compatible with pretty much any mouse you plug into the computer. Since Windows is mainly mouse driven, imagine if you plugged a brand new USB or PS/2 mouse into your computer and there were no drivers? If you don't know how to move around with a keyboard, you'd be in trouble.

Windows should detect the Glidepad as a generic mouse and should give you full functionality. You of course will loose some of the specialized features of the Synpatics drivers, but generally all the basics will work (moving around, tapping, scroll bar, left/right buttons).

-Vb-