The only SZ touchpad fix that worked 4 me...

Sorry if this has already been posted, couldn't find the fix in a search.

In the last year my VGN-SZ160P s touchpad has been going bonkers, erratic mouse movements or it just won't work (disappear from Device Manager). I uninstalled this and installed that, turned it off, turned it on, even banged on the palm rest. At best the various fixes would last a few days (sorry no details, don't want to list all drivers and services, would turn this into a book). People started saying it was a hardware problem, electrical issues... Only thing I didn't do was physical manipulation. So for months I would just use my blue tooth mouse when the touchpad didn't work until two weeks ago. I did another Google search to find answers and came upon this thread...
http://www.techsupportforum.com/har...t/123442-solved-vaio-touchpad-reversed-3.html

Which led me to this...
http://doube.org/sztp.html

It's only been two weeks, but there has been NO touchpad issues. Before this fix, I would have touchpad problems every time I booted up. I would even go so far to say the mouse works better than it ever has, seems to sense my finger more accurately.

I hope this helps someone out there.

 

Which models are affected by this? I also have a SZ and did not notice anything wrong with touchpad so I am a bit curious?

 

I don't know which SZ models are affected by this touchpad problem. It seems to affect all SZ VAIOs with metal palm rest with ALPS touchpad regardless of OS, drivers used or services turned on/off. Some people never have an issue. I noticed the newer VAIO notebooks have a diff type of touchpad.
I might add that mine did not give me any indication for over a year that there was a problem. I read here and there that others were having issues but I thought it was because they were just n00bs, HeHe.
After reading many threads over the last year I would say SONY is now recognizing this as a hardware problem and will immediately replace the touchpad if under warranty (although some in customer support still want you to reinstall the OS/Drivers, which is a good idea for people who don't know what the problem is).
I've seen some forums where users start talk of a class action law suit followed by a rep from SONY posting a number to call to get the touchpad fixed. That's good and all for SONY to do but I think it hides the true scope of this problem when people call this number instead of complaining on the forum.
This was the only issue I had with the SZ160, now I'm loving her totally again.

 

b|lly,

I can tell you that the problem existed on my recently-purchased SZ-770 N/C. Within 4-5 days of getting it, the erratic touchpad behavior started up.

I must've played with the touchpad controls for two days trying to tweak the settings. Finally, I Googled "erratic Touchpad behavior Sony SZ" and learned that this was a known issue. I wasn't happy with a notebook that was sold to me with a known defect, so I returned it.

One "fix" I found worked for me was wetting my index finger in my mouth and using the touchpad again. That seemed to "reset" the touchpad, and all would be fine until the next time it whacked out.

Even knowing TheBugMan's fix, I probably would have returned the SZ because, as I mentioned above, I was unhappy at being sold a machine with a known defect...

 

Wow, interesting. I never had too much trouble with my SZ. It would sometimes get erratic, but I would just touch something metal and the problem would go away - I assume my finger built up some charge or something.

It would also have a weird electrical effect, for example if I was touching the palmrest and someone would touch me anywhere on my skin, it would feel very strange to them - kind of like electricity, but not shocking. It was very odd.

 

When my touchpad went crazy I'd do the "Ctrl + Alt + Delete", then cancel task manager and things would be good for a few min.

 

Hi guys, I have an SZ3 which is almost 2 years old, and can confirm the tape fix works!

I started having problems with the touchpad a few months ago. I think it's something to do with the humidity and temperature of the place you're in. The symptoms start as:

- touchpad mouse movement becomes inverted (fixed by standy / resume cycle)
- sometimes the mouse cursor will go crazy, opening lots of programs and flying all over the screen (used to drive me nuts!)

I tried many different drivers and it would act up even with the default Windows Vista driver.

Today it became really bad for me, maybe because I was in a very cold dry place... the mouse cursor would just completely stop working whenever I pressed the left click button! For a while I thought my touchpad really needed to be replaced.

Then I came across the tape procedure mentioned:
http://doube.org/sztp.html

Applied the fix, and my touchpad has been fine since! Once again I'm happy with my SZ.

 

Glad it worked for you also hardc0re (^_^). I still have NO touch pad issues after doing this mod.

 

This was suggested to me here on NBR:
Cover the mouse pad with your palm, also cover as much as possible.

This has worked for me on an erratic touchpad mouse, not on the reversal though.

But its so seldomly and random - I couldn't be bothered.

I also adore my little Vaio