Gateway touchpad

The touchpad on my new Gateway NV57H50u is unusable (and,
bought refurbished from a reseller, Gateway will not support it.
After 5 minutes running, the touchpad repeats uncontrollably,
e.g. loads 4 to 40 copies of any app. I have got quite skilled
at closing these via keyboard only (e.g. Thunderbird by Alt V + C)
but after 10 minutes running (overheating?) I can no longer
Control-Alt-Del to get the Task Manager: it reboots instead
(and can hang for minutes on WELCOME because of
spurious entries into the password field.)

The same effect occurs with and without the Synaptics driver's
newest download. The laptop runs fine with a USB mouse, but I
should like to use the touchpad e.g. when the laptop is on my lap.
Any bright ideas? (Anywhere else to look for solutions?)

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

In article <junnr1$2iq$>,
Don Phillipson <> wrote:
>The touchpad on my new Gateway NV57H50u is unusable (and,
>Any bright ideas? (Anywhere else to look for solutions?)

Buy a new touchpad or a used pull on ebay. Look in the manual to see
how to take the palm rest off. The touchpad unit will attach to the bottom of
the palmrest with 2-4 tiny little screws and maybe some supporting tin and to
the motherboard with ribbon cables. It's an easy and inexpensive repair.


Hint: resist the temptation to pull harder or pry at the edges if
the palmrest doesn't come right off. You missed a screw or there's a "secret"
catch. Check the manual again. You *can* help the upper and lower parts
to separate by gently wedging a guitar pick against the little catches. Another
hint: you may be able to buy a palmrest that includes an installed touchpad.
It's worth a few bucks not to have to mess around with rice-sized screws and
those damned ZIF cables.