Windows 7 behaves in mysterious ways
October 22, 2010 5:43 AM Subscribe
Synaptic Touchpad in Windows 7 scroll "wheel" stopped working with no apparent cause.
Completely randomly. I have not installed any programs or changed any settings for weeks, and the only programs I've installed are VLC, chrome, and open office. Yesterday I noticed I couldn't scroll anymore with my touchpad. Windows 7 on a HP Pavilion laptop dv2000, built in synaptic touchpad. I used to be able to scroll using the right side of the touchpad (where the lines are that indicate it is a scroll section) but yesterday after I booted up, it stopped working. When I try to scroll, the cursor changes to the scrolling-cursor but nothing scrolls. Not webpages or text documents or anything in between. I may have windows-updated, does windows 7 behave like an old ubuntu distro, wherein official updates to the OS usually break a feature?
How do I make my scroll-wheel work again?
Bonus question: Is there a forum for windows users that is like a forum for linux users? That is to say, a helpful forum where I can go for OS help?
Completely randomly. I have not installed any programs or changed any settings for weeks, and the only programs I've installed are VLC, chrome, and open office. Yesterday I noticed I couldn't scroll anymore with my touchpad. Windows 7 on a HP Pavilion laptop dv2000, built in synaptic touchpad. I used to be able to scroll using the right side of the touchpad (where the lines are that indicate it is a scroll section) but yesterday after I booted up, it stopped working. When I try to scroll, the cursor changes to the scrolling-cursor but nothing scrolls. Not webpages or text documents or anything in between. I may have windows-updated, does windows 7 behave like an old ubuntu distro, wherein official updates to the OS usually break a feature?
How do I make my scroll-wheel work again?
Bonus question: Is there a forum for windows users that is like a forum for linux users? That is to say, a helpful forum where I can go for OS help?
Best answer: Windows 7 may have also updated the driver. I'd check the updates history.
It's not always the driver is bad, either. My videocard driver install borked and I didn't notice until projecting to an external display didn't work. Simply uninstalling the driver and letting Windows find and install it again worked. Otherwise find the driver on the manufacturer website like puritycontrol suggested.
posted by mealy-mouthed at 9:38 AM on October 22, 2010
It's not always the driver is bad, either. My videocard driver install borked and I didn't notice until projecting to an external display didn't work. Simply uninstalling the driver and letting Windows find and install it again worked. Otherwise find the driver on the manufacturer website like puritycontrol suggested.
posted by mealy-mouthed at 9:38 AM on October 22, 2010
Did you open then close IE?
Seems that IE on touch computer will disable the entire desktop.
posted by CodeMonkey at 11:40 AM on October 23, 2010
Seems that IE on touch computer will disable the entire desktop.
posted by CodeMonkey at 11:40 AM on October 23, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
- The Synaptics icon in your System Tray notification area (if it's set to display there); or
- Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Devices and Printers > Mouse > Device Settings Tab > Settings
There will be a "Scrolling" option. Check that to make sure the "Enable horizontal scrolling" and "Enable vertical scrolling" boxes are checked. If your cursors are changing when you attempt to scroll, I'm willing to be that the settings are correct. Your best bet may be to go to HP's website, download the Synaptics driver, and reinstall.
posted by puritycontrol at 6:49 AM on October 22, 2010