Toshiba Satellite Button/Trackpad design flaw?

Last night I purchased a Toshiba T135-S1309. First boot the touchpad worked smoothly, but became erratic (jumpy/slow) and eventually non-responsive after just a few minutes of use. I updated/uninstalled drivers and turned off all the advanced touchpad features- didn't help. Touchpad would work for a few minutes and eventually become non-responsive.

After watching another family member use the laptop I noticed the problem. Some of the new Satellite models (including mine) have one wide, rocker-style trackpad button- which rocks for left and right clicks. If you press at the extreme left and right ides of the button, everything is fine. However, if you click more towards the center of the button it takes slightly more force to register a click. The additional button pressure causes the trackpad to become jittery and/or non-responsive.

At first I didn't think it was that simple, but at least on my computer, it is 100% reproduceable, and with a startlingly small amount of additional pressure. Literally, clicking the center-left of the button with regular pressure has some effect on the trackpad internals, and causes the trackpad to become unuseable.

What's alarming and idiotic on my part, is that I saw the exact same trackpad problem in the demo floor model at the store but didn't think anything of it at the time. I assumed the lame in-store software and the general wear and tear on floor models was the culprit. But in fact the trackpad on the demo model was basically unuseable, either not tracking or tracking erratically.

The same button design is used on a few Satellite models. Is it possible that it's really a design flaw? I realize it could just be a button/trackpad issue with mine and the floor model but that seems unlikely. Anyone else encounter this?

 

I have a T115-S1100 (the small version of your machine, roughly).

In general I do not like the the "rocker style" button, I first encountered it on an Asus laptop and my Toshiba has one too. I have encountered weird responses when tapping the button near the middle, but it never made the trackpad unusable or even erratic. I am not sure what to tell you in this regard.

I can say, however, that I had similar problems with the floor model of the first Asus UL series I put my hands on- so much so that I became disgusted and thought it was the worst trackpad/mouse button combo I ever tried! After our business got a ul30a-a2 though, and I used it for a while I eventually got the "hang" of it. Perhaps part of the problem (not to say it is the only part of the problem - it could very well be defective hardware or a design flaw) is just bound up with "getting used" to it?

On the other hand I have found myself enjoying the functionality of the trackpad on my little Toshiba in general. I have found it very responsive and accurate.

I should add, though, that with laptops in general I always opt for using an external mouse - preferably wireless! Perhaps an external mouse might be a solution if there is not an available "fix" for your problem?

 

It might help to just use some other drivers. Try using dell drivers, they work on my toshiba.

 

@moral hazard- it's definitely not a driver issue.

To anyone considering theT135-S1309 I have to report that I was able to cause the trackpad to become unresponsive on TWO different laptops in TWO SEPARATE STORES today.

I returned the computer this morning and went back to the original floor model I had seen. Literally *one* left click towards the center of the button and the trackpad was immediately nonresponsive. Later in the day I was at Micro Center shopping for a replacement computer, and they had the same satellite on the floor. ONE CLICK towards the center of the trackpad button and the tracking was completely jittery. Another click and it became totally nonresponsive.

Again, I don't know if it's limited to this model, but the fact that I was able to cause the trackpad to stop functioning on THREE different computers is not a good sign at all.