Can you make a generic touchpad scroll?

Byron

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Hi, I have a new laptop which is pretty good, but annoyingly the
touchpad doesn't enable scrolling. It shows up in the device manager as
a generic mouse or other pointing device. I've tried installing the
Synaptics drivers, but there's still no option to enable scrolling via
zones in the touchpad.

Is this simply a hardware issue, or are there drivers that I can install
to improve the functionality of the touchpad? It's a Microstar system
running XP Pro, if that helps.
 

Mike

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Byron wrote:
> Hi, I have a new laptop which is pretty good, but annoyingly the
> touchpad doesn't enable scrolling. It shows up in the device manager as
> a generic mouse or other pointing device. I've tried installing the
> Synaptics drivers, but there's still no option to enable scrolling via
> zones in the touchpad.
>
> Is this simply a hardware issue, or are there drivers that I can install
> to improve the functionality of the touchpad? It's a Microstar system
> running XP Pro, if that helps.

I've had poor luck with scrolling touchpads.
Dell seems to work great. Gateway and Mitac have strange intermittent
problems. Cursor takes on a mind of it's own...or someone from the
great beyond is trying to contact me.

There are drivers from Microsoft, Synaptics, Logitech, Cirque, Alps.
The Cirque drivers behave flawlessly, but they're protected so they
won't load if you don't have a Cirque-branded touchpad.
I like logitech second best. The Synaptics are hit or miss.
Try 'em all. I've yet to try the Microsoft drivers.
Lots of the old stuff you find on the web won't work with XP.
I've also had strange problems when I tried a different driver and tried
to back up to the previous vendor.
mike

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Byron

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> I've had poor luck with scrolling touchpads.
> Dell seems to work great. Gateway and Mitac have strange intermittent
> problems. Cursor takes on a mind of it's own...or someone from the
> great beyond is trying to contact me.
>
> There are drivers from Microsoft, Synaptics, Logitech, Cirque, Alps.
> The Cirque drivers behave flawlessly, but they're protected so they
> won't load if you don't have a Cirque-branded touchpad.
> I like logitech second best. The Synaptics are hit or miss.
> Try 'em all. I've yet to try the Microsoft drivers.
> Lots of the old stuff you find on the web won't work with XP.
> I've also had strange problems when I tried a different driver and tried
> to back up to the previous vendor.
> mike


Thanks. I tried the ALPS, but no extra funtionality. I did, however,
discover the undocumented function that if I tap the pad with two
fingers, it activates a mouse-wheel-like scrolling ability, That's not
as ideal as hot zone scrolling, but it works.

Thanks.