NP700Z3C-S02US Touchpad Problems

Hello all,

I just received my NP700Z3C-S02US and I love it.
The only problem I seem to be having right out of the box is that I can't get the multi-touch functionality to work.

I go into the Dell Touchpad settings and enable the "2 finger scroll", etc.
But once I save and exit out, the gestures don't work (they never have).
When I go to check the settings again, the "2 finger scroll" has disabled itself and all the settings have reverted back to default.
Even though "pinch zoom" is automatically enabled it still doesn't work.

I've been looking everywhere for the solutions, and most common is to uninstall the driver for the touchpad and reinstall them, but when I go to uninstall I realize that I have many different drivers for the touchpad (I think).

This is what I see:



This is my first laptop so I don't understand if I need all of those drivers.
Which driver should I even be using?
How can I get my multi-touch to work?

Thanks

 

Hello Gozz, welcome to NBR. I have an NP700Z3A (Sandy Bridge version of your model) and I agree, it's a great machine in a nice and tight little package.

But why have you installed a Dell Alps Touchpad driver on this Samsung laptop, which has an Elan touchpad? Your touchpad is almost certainly running in compatibility mode (lacking a proper driver) which is why it only has basic features.

You need to uninstall all those current drivers you have, reboot, then install ones that you download using SW Update. You can either accept the ones automatically offered by SW Update, or use Find Model to look up and Export Elan drivers for newer Samsung models -- which usually work fine.

I use Win8 and Elan driver version 11.7.10.4 (found under model NP880Z5E-X03CA) which works almost flawlessly on my machine. But I see there is a newer version 11.7.15.3 to be found under model NP940X3G-K03US (though I haven't tried that version).

For more discussion and information about the touchpad, see this thread. For advanced configuration options, see this post (inside that same thread).

 

Hi Dannemand,

Firstly thank yo for your help, since this is my first laptop I don't know what an Elan or Alps driver is, pointing that out helps a lot!
I really don't know why all those drivers are installed on the laptop.
I only ran the SW update up to this point.

But I will take your advice now and uninstall all the drivers and then find the Elan driver.

Will report back soon!

 

So being a newbie, I've kind of ran myself into a wall.

After I uninstalled the drivers and restarted my touchpad and keyboard wouldn't work.
Luckily I had a usb mouse laying around and I navigated to the update for the touchpad.
Once I installed the driver for the touchpad and restarted the touchpad and the keyboard still don't work.

Why is this happening?

Update: I rolled back the laptop and the touchpad and keyboard work again.
So that this doesn't happen again, what should I be uninstalling exactly?

Thanks

 

Something is completely whacky here. You're sure about the model number you posted, right?

Did you get the machine new or used? And did you re-install windows yourself? Windows 7 or 8?

If your Recovery is intact, I recommend you F4 boot and restore the machine to factory state. Back up all data first.

If that is not an option, please post the above info (new or used, win 7 or 8) which will help us guide you.

Also, if you can post a screen dump of SW Update's list of installed and installable items, that will help too.

Sorry to be so terse, I'm writing this on my phone, in bed, about to sleep

Edit: Oh, and good job getting it back working after losing touchpad and keyboard functionality.

 

Well I hope it's the right model.

I got the machine off of Secondipity (researched to find if they're reputable, and people vouch for them).
It is manufacture refurbished though.

This machine has Windows 7.

Here's the SW Update (Had to break into parts):
Part 1:


Part2:

 

Thank you for the update and for posting those screen dumps.

It appears that all the basic drivers have been installed. That's what I was wondering about, but it looks good.

But I am very puzzled about that Touchpad: Almost all recent Samsung laptops have Elan touchpads, and certainly all Series and Series 9 models. The Touchpad driver offered by your SW Update is version 16.0.4.0 which doesn't sound like an Elan driver at all. Indeed, when I look up your model in SW Update, it offers a Touchpad driver version 10.7.6.1 (for Win7) and 11.7.5.5 (for Win8). Again, I am personally using version 11.7.10.4 with Win8 on my (very similar) NP700Z3A.

It's almost as if your model doesn't have an Elan touchpad -- which doesn't make sense.

When you tried to uninstall and re-install Touchpad drivers before, did you install the driver automatically offered by SW Update (version 16.0.4.0 as shown in your screendump) or did you pull one from another model?

Here is something I want you to try:

1) Open Control Panel-Device Manager.

2) Locate your Touchpad device under Mice and other pointing devices. Right-click and select Properties (or just double-click).

3) In the Properties windows, select the Details tab. Under Property, select Hardware Ids.





If you see the letters "ETD" in your Hardware ID strings, then you have an Elan Touchpad, and all is right with the world, it's just SW Update giving you the wrong driver.

If that is the case, I suggest you use Find Model to look up model NP880Z5E-X03CA, then download the latest Win7 Touchpad drivers: Clear selections, select only the Touchpad Driver, then click Export to save it. Now uninstall your current Touchpad driver(s), reboot, install the driver you just downloaded, reboot.



On the other hand, if you do NOT have the letters "ETD" in your Hardware ID strings, that means somehow, weirdly, your machine has a different Touchpad. But lets not go there yet...

 

Wow what a helpful explanation, pictures and all!

According to the Device Manager I do have an Elan Touchpad. It says "ACPI\ETD0B00".

So let's try to get this new driver and uninstall the other ones.
Will report back soon.

EDIT: Just to be clear, should I be going into the "Control Panel" and "Programs and Features" to uninstall the touchpads or should I be doing it from the "Device Manager"?

Under the device manager I only have the "Dell Touchpad" showing, but in the "Programs and Features" I have "ALPS Touch Pad Driver", "Cypress TrackPad", "Dell Touchpad", and another "Dell Touchpad" but one is by Elan and the other by Synaptics. (My first post has a picture of what I'm talking about).

Am I uninstalling all of these?

 

Away from PC, but briefly:

No, download the new driver, then uninstall all touchpad drivers using programs and features, then restart. Now install the new driver you downloaded.

I realize last time your keyboard and touchpad stopped working - which too is weird, that's what made me wonder if other drivers were missing or wrong.

Create a restore point first, just in case

If this doesn't work, you definitely should consider a factory restore (booting Recovery by pressing F4 immediately after power on). That will restore the PC to original Samsung factory condition - unless Recovery has been messed with by the previous owner.

 

Well, I'm back.

No luck.
I installed the new driver and restarted, keyboard and mouse were unresponsive.

I really don't want to have to do a system restore.
I mean when I turned the laptop on for the first time it said "booting up for the first time" as if it were system restored already.

I hope I don't have a faulty laptop.

Edit:
When I check under the device manager after uninstalling all the drivers, I see that there are 3 yellow triangles in 3 different areas.
1 being in the keyboard area, 1 being in the mouse area, and the 3rd being under something called SM Bus Controller (or something like that). Maybe this will help?

Update: I was messing around with the problem more. I installed the driver while all the other drivers were installed and restarted. For some reason it defaulted to using this new driver and now everything works! Pinch zoom, etc.
Only thing I'm wondering now is if I should attempt to remove the other drivers.

Update 2: Just removed the other drivers except for the new one and it stopped my keyboard and touchpad from working.. It's almost like 2 drivers are working together.. So weird, I'm just going to leave the other drivers on here because everything works fine as of now.

 

Got it. Thanks for the update.

I will be completely honest with you here: What you are seeing is NOT supposed to happen. Something is definitely wrong, and you want it addressed while you still have Samsung Warranty (assuming you have that) and before you install a lot of apps and load a lot of data on the machine.

Following are some causes I can think of:

1) Actual hardware defects, which will require Samsung service -- and they will almost certainly demand that you factory restore before accepting it, in order to show that is isn't a software glitch.

2) Malware (such as a keylogger) installed accidentally OR deliberately by the previous owner. A factory restore will take care of this, unless the Recovery itself was messed with to include the malicious code (which is possible).

3) If the machine was originally delivered with Win8 and improperly downgraded to Win7 (without converting from UEFI/GPT to BIOS/MBR). Samsung laptops are notoriously troublesome running Win7 in UEFI mode. The solution would be either (A) factory Restore back to Win8, or (B) re-installing Win7, using the install guide in this post, including the steps to convert from UEFI/GPT to BIOS/MBR. Since this process will wipe the disk entirely, make sure to backup the Recovery first (as described in that guide, NOT using a 3rd party tool).

4) If the machine was originally delivered with Win7, a new Win7 installation could have been performed by the previous owner -- and done wrong, even if not intentionally with any malware. The solution would be either a factory restore (back to original Win7) or re-installing Win7 from the DVD (again, using that guide I linked).

The fact that the laptop said "booting up for the first time", but still included a bunch of drivers that Samsung never used (including ones from Dell), is to me very suspect. It seems like someone went to great length to make a non-original installation appear to be original -- either because they loaded it with malware, or (more likely) because they had no understanding of Samsung laptops and just wanted to make it "look new" after messing it up.

If malware is the cause, I have to wonder if the factory image (in Recovery) might be infected as well. If incompetence is the cause, they may have wiped the Recovery when they messed it up (that happens a lot).

One thing I can re-assure you: The hardware itself is a GREAT machine, with excellent components in a very compact package. Samsung don't make them anymore, you have to go with an ultrabook now (slower low-voltage CPU) to get that small size. Even if there are some hardware defects, that is repairable (hopefully under warranty).

But I would not trust that installation. Maybe I am wrong, and there is something here I am not seeing. If it were a model that I wasn't so familiar with myself (such as some of the Series 5 and 3 models) I would be more cautious in my assessment.

 

I have a theory:

Someone who wanted to reinstall Windows before reselling and didn't know about the F4 to reload the factory image (or the recovery partition had been wiped) took a shortcut and cloned a fresh Windows 7 from a Dell with reasonably similar hardware. Sufficiently similar that Windows managed to boot but not the same in terms of the touchpad (and some other lesser bits of hardware). However, trying to fix the touchpad driver has caused things to unravel.

Given that the Windows 7 ISO file is available to download and all the Samsung software and drivers are available through SW Update a clean installation is the best way forward. Assuming, however, that the Windows 7 key is available. It should either be on the bottom of the computer or on the PSU.

John

 

Thanks for chiming in, John. I think you're right, that could explain it. Particularly if the store that sold it had some new laptops in store, they could have copied a new image from a Dell. In any case does it appear that someone tried to make this thing look new after having messed it up.

I would still try to F4 boot into Recovery first. If it works, you can be up and running in 15 mins. Otherwise perform a clean Win7 install using that guide (again here). On this model (because it has ExpressCache) I highly recommend installing Windows from DVD, not from USB; and follow the guide in the linked post, not the ones on the first page of that thread.

On my NP700Z3A, the Win7 Product Key is on a sticker on the bottom of the laptop. Also, it came with a Win7 DVD. But I think the NP700Z3C is from just around the time Samsung changed this.

 

I'm not going to lie, this is starting to get scary.
In my last reply (I didn't see that either of you responded because it flipped to page 2) I figured out the touchpad problem.

But what you guys are telling me now is something bigger than just the touchpad.

Honestly you've given me a lot of information to take in and at this point.
I just need to know what to do, because I don't want a faulty computer.

I have a sticker at the bottom of the laptop that has a Windows 7 key on it, I had to punch that into the computer in order to get verified, and it worked.
Also I don't have a windows DVD, the laptop didn't come with one.

 

Oh yeah, I didn't even notice your updates to the other post. Good job getting it working regardless -- even though there is still something fishy going on. Listen, it could be just that you have a Windows installation that's made for another machine, and with some tweaking you can make it work. But if it were me, I wouldn't trust it.

Here is what I suggest:

1) First you can try to boot Recovery by pressing F4 from a cold power on. You may have to try a few times before you catch it.

2) If you manage to boot Recovery, choose a Complete Restore (I forget the exact name). It's the one that re-partitions the disk and restores Windows to Samsung factory state. It will lose all data and programs on the disk. You want this, in case there is any malware involved. If everything is working, you should be up and running in about 20 mins.

3) If you cannot seem to boot Recovery, maybe the previous owner wiped or damaged the Recovery partition. Use Windows Disk Management to check if the Recovery partition is there. If it isn't we can just forget about Recovery and move on.



4) If you DON'T have a working Recovery OR if you prefer a clean install regardless, you can legally download ISO files for the various Win7 versions from Digital River, using the link below, then burn that to a blank DVD. Make sure you get the exact Windows version matching the Product Key on the sticker. It's probably Windows Home Premium.

Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO Image Downloads

5) Then carefully follow the steps in this installation guide (NOT the ones on the first page of that thread, but the one in the linked post). It's a long guide because it covers different models and situations, but installing Win7 on your computer should be a snap if you follow it. It will be much easier on your model if you install from DVD and not from a USB stick.

Keep us posted. I am about to turn in now, and won't have much time tomorrow. But I'll check from my phone when I can.

 

Thank you guys.
Since I am in college and I have midterms this week and next, I'll probably hold off doing this at least until the weekend.

Should I not use the laptop?
I do have a desktop that I can use.

 

You can use the laptop but I would recommend that you plan on a clean Windows installation once you have time.

Get the windows ISO file and burn to DVD and use the Export function in SW Update to get all the Samsung drivers and software and put these on a flash drive so you can get the new Windows installation working properly before needing to connect to the internet.

John

 

Hi John, sorry but I don't understand.

Why do I need to put the SW Update stuff on a flash drive?

 

It's all explained in that install guide I linked, John just summed it up in one paragraph.
All you need to save beforehand is Wifi driver and SW Update.
Seriously, just create your Win7 DVD as I described above, then follow that guide, and you'll be fine.

 

Hey guys I'm back.
I'm attempting the recovery this weekend.

Well first things first, I found the Windows Disk Management and this is what I see:



Is that right?

I tried Hitting F4 from cold boot, but nothing would happen.
The screen went black and that's it.
Does it take a while for it to load or something? I didn't wait very long, maybe a few minutes.

Thanks

 

Hi Gozz,

There is no Recovery on that disk. You'll have to proceed with a clean install - as John was saying all along.

Make a Win7 DVD, then follow the install guide I linked. When you get to the partition screen in Setup, I suggest you delete the existing Windows partition and create a new and smaller one. After completed setup, you can add a separate Data partition to use the remaining space.

I made a post this summer about how to get move your user folders and libraries to a Date drive. I'm away from my PC now, but try and Google it. That's for later though, once you got everything running.

 

Well this just gets worse and worse doesn't it..

So I have to do the long guide you linked right?

 

Trust me, it's not that bad once you get into it. The length of the guide merely reflects the fact that it tries to explain for everybody, including for different models. And you will have a faster and smoother installation than the factory one. Just make that win7 DVD and go one step at a time.

 

Well I'm not very experienced and going into the PC like this is pretty overwhelming.
I just don't want to be left with a brick.

 

OK, got it. That's healthy caution you're showing there. You can definitely backup your current Windows installation first, so that you can restore if something should go wrong. I use a 3rd party "Partition Imaging" tool for that, but Windows should have built-in tools as well - I'm just no expert at those. We normally warn against such tools, because restoring with them can break Recovery. But your Recovery is already gone, so it's not a concern.

If you know anyone with a little PC experience, I have no doubt they can follow the installation guide easily. And I think you can too. Maybe reading through it first, making sure you understand what it says. It basically just spells out the smaller steps in the overview John gave your earlier.

Alternatively, you can ask Samsung to re-image your drive. You will have to send it in, and they charge $40-50 for the service, but then you'll have a brand new installation, with Recovery and all.

 

Hi Gozz,
Sorry to interupt your discussion, but I just ordered the same laptop from Secondipity. I was wondering if you could comment on the quality of your laptop from them. Thanks.

 

Hey Squidbillyms,
I don't know if you've read the entire thread but there was some problem with the OS and I don't have a recovery partition, I'm not sure whose fault that is but I still haven't gotten around to fixing it. I really want to but I don't trust myself really.

Well my laptop is still going strong. I feel like the quality is great, I haven't found anything wrong with it really except for what I said above.
I did my research A LOT before buying from here, I heard they're reputable so I wouldn't worry too much.