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Miscellaneous laptop discussions : sony vaio, touchpad behaving badly ?
Finally, after a year of frustration !
by samsingha - 10/10/08 7:19 AM In reply to: try insulating by ajhoffYes, the tape method does work. Took me about 20 minutes but the result was excellent. Sony tried to be cool and use metal for the palm rest....bad idea.
Anyway, if anyone wants to try this but is not sure because of the provided instruction is not too great, I suggest that you use the instruction here to disassemble the keyboard and palm rest. I found this a while back when I was trying to replace the hard drive.
http://laptoplogic.com/resources/detail.php?id=43
There are real images instead of drawings.
Thanks the original poster for this. My wife is now happy. 
-EsCee
Glad to find this forum now!
by LL137 - 10/10/08 4:30 PM In reply to: Finally, after a year of frustration ! by samsinghaI purchased my Sony Viao SZ740 in June for conducting research, and was extremely disappointed to discover the inverse touch pad after only 4 months of use. I wish I had searched for a forum on it sooner, as I already went through customer service and the pain of reformatting the hard drive which we all know costs days of valuable time. I was about to suck it up and send it in when I read these (200+) posts. I'll email the sony rep, and if not, try the tape method (although I am a little nervous about opening it!). Thanks for all the helpful feedback and information. I wish there was some way we could get the word out sooner though, since I'm sure if any of us knew this would happen we wouldn't have purchased this model.
it's not diffucult at all
by samsingha - 10/11/08 7:48 PM In reply to: Glad to find this forum now! by LL137Glad you found the forum. I first found this forum long ago but at that time there was no real solution just yet. I finally decided to look back again and was lucky enough to spot the post mentioning the solution. I gave it a try, not sure if it would work, but it did.
Now, opening up the VAIO SZ is not bad at all if you follow the instruction from the link I posted.
http://laptoplogic.com/resources/detail.php?id=43
I used it when I needed to replace my hard drive. I knew it would cost me over $100 if I let a computer shop open it up, so I did it myself. I was nervous at first but really, there is no real fragile parts that would break or anything like that. You only need to be careful of the ribbon connectors which are still pretty strong.
The instruction has actual pictures and this makes it easier to see what you are gonna encounter.
Good luck.
my built-in pointing device isn't working at all!
by jo_armani - 10/30/08 4:23 AM In reply to: it's not diffucult at all by samsinghahallo!i' m really happy that i found this forum, i just got a vaio vgn-nr21e 4 months ago and the touch pad is not working at all!!! it is enabled though, i checked it via the vaio control center- i am using a mouse at the moment. does the tape thing work in this case? or should i send it to a technician to get it repaired? please, take into consideration that i live in greece-a friend just informed me that it has to be sent to italy to get it done!
Hard reset
by mdoube - 10/30/08 5:33 AM In reply to: my built-in pointing device isn't working at all! by jo_armaniJo - from an earlier post:
"What fixed the frozen cursor for me was to reset the BIOS to defaults (F2 at boot, flick though some options, reset defaults, F10, enter)."
Good luck,
Mike
fixed
by hsawtelle - 10/24/08 11:09 AM In reply to: sony vaio, touchpad behaving badly ? by AA90278I had reverse sensing 80% of the time and jumping around / window closing.
took to SonyStyle within the 1-year period, with reciept. Backstage tech admitted it was a known issue, took it in for service. received about 9 days later via fedex. appears to be fixed.
reinstall the driver and/or contact deal for replacement
by PcTestCard.com - 10/30/08 10:29 PM In reply to: sony vaio, touchpad behaving badly ? by AA90278try reinstall the driver for the touchpad again.
If still not working, contact the dealer for the replacement.
explanation, solution, alternative solution
by nestoru - 11/1/08 5:45 AM In reply to: reinstall the driver and/or contact deal for replacement by PcTestCard.comBest explanation of what is happening: Bad VAIO design causes wireless to interfere with the touchpad sensor.
Best solution: Sony to repair it.
Alternative solution (To be done every time the problem appears):
1. Press escape multiple times when your mouse goes out of control (Fn+Break does the trick as well)
2. You got now your mouse going in reverse direction. If you restart or shutdown that won’t solve the issue.
3. Turn off wireless using the hardware switch.
4. Hibernate.
5. Come back from hibernation and mouse is working correctly.
6. Turn on wireless again.
Forgetting the obvious
by ajhoff - 11/1/08 7:55 AM In reply to: explanation, solution, alternative solution by nestoruWhat about the tape method? I still havent found one person it didn't work for. (when you send it to sony, they are just replacing the scratch pad with a new insulated pad.
So if your not afraid of opening your laptop, just insulate it yourself.
Screw sending it to sony!
openning your own notebook to insulate the touchpad
by nestoru - 11/1/08 5:07 PM In reply to: Forgetting the obvious by ajhoffI agree taping is a good solution for those out of warranty and owing their notebooks.
In my case it is property of my current employer. This thread at least have saved me from reinstalling windows and so on.
I would like to add that being a programmer my preferred brand has been Dell. I had problems with any notebook I used other than Dell (Compaq, Gateway and Sony) with the exception of my Mac.
Thanks you all guys,
-Nestor
Hibernating fix
by TalonTrax - 3/31/09 4:36 AM In reply to: explanation, solution, alternative solution by nestoruThanks for making your previous post. I have posted on here a couple times about my mouse going crazy, all the problems I've had with my computer, and how I applied the tape method. This morning, for the first time, after about 3 months, my tape method failed me by doing something it hasn't done before, which is the trackpad reversal. I had read about this problem that other people were having, but I thought I was fortunate to not have it happen to me.
I tried your method, without flipping the wireless switch. I just put it into hibernate mode and then woke it back up again and the mouse was back to normal. Thank you.
Are you curious as to why I was not in a hurry to flip my wireless switch? Maybe not, but I'll tell ya anyway. If I do flip the physical switch, the only way to get the wireless software to activate again after flipping it back to ON is to restart the computer. ANOTHER flaw with my Sony laptop that I forgot to mention in my previous rants.
Sony has FAILED for not fixing the problem with all our computers. And I'm afraid the reason they have not is because they do not have a fix and they don't want to issue everyone a new computer. Sony definitely knows this problem is inherent with their computers and should be going out of its way to correct things. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone on this, but no one in these forums are ever going to buy a Sony laptop again, right?!?
Impact on Sony
by jamgramet - 3/31/09 11:10 AM In reply to: Hibernating fix by TalonTraxI just got a new laptop and most definitely did not consider Sony. In fact, after this experience I will try and avoid all things Sony from now on... I have also advised several friends against buying a Sony laptop. So, I figure this has cost them at least $10K so far...
Ditto to everyone's issues!
by TalonTrax - 11/13/08 6:18 AM In reply to: sony vaio, touchpad behaving badly ? by AA90278I have the VGN-SZ340 and paid $2200 for it in Oct of '06 - their top-of-the-line unit. The issue I have had with my touchpad was with the cursor dancing all over the screen and would continue to do so for as long as I moved my finger on the touch pad. If I let go, it would stop, but then the left trackpad button would act as a right-click and the right trackpad button would act as a right-click as well. The only way to get things back to normal would be to CTRL-ALT-DEL and make the task manager come up. I didn't have to do anything else. Just that. I then would wait about 10 seconds and the left button would restore itself to a left-click and the mouse cursor would behave normally.
When I first bought the lappie, I didn't have this problem until about 2 months of use. Then over the course of the next 6 months, the problem occurred more and more frequently until about a month or two before my warranty was up, it would happen about every 20 minutes of usage and it became a true hassle. So I sent it into Sony for repair along with many other issues I had with the unit such as the plastic DVD-Drive cover had broken off, the wireless devices do not want to function after turning them on from the off switch unless you do a reboot, the power supply had failed the day before I sent it in to Sony, and the keyboard had warped because a couple of the bottom screws had fallen out and the board was not staying in place.
The computer came back all fixed with a new power supply, but after 2 months, the crazy acting mouse cursor was at it again. It's been a year since it came back from Sony and the mouse cursor with a mind of its own comes back about once a month, enough to still be annoying. Plus, the ethernet connection came unsoldered and the webcam stopped working, both which I decided to fix myself since the computer is out of warranty.
So, I do believe I am going to be trying this trackpad-tape fix and see how things go. Sounds like its the exact same thing that everyone else has suffered with. Thanks to this forum because I had looked for over a year for a thread that would provide some explanation as to why it was happening. It sounded to me like a hardware thing, but it was so intermittent that it just didn't make sense. NOW it makes sense! Thank you, I'll try the fix.
P.S. - I spent $2200 on something that I thought would last me a very long time and I've had nothing but problems with it, half of which I had to fix myself. I feel like I've jerry-rigged my "top-of-the-line" with my own solder and electrical tape. Sony is now at the bottom of my purchase list for my next computer. :\
Made in Japan, USA or other?
by nestoru - 11/13/08 7:31 AM In reply to: Ditto to everyone's issues! by TalonTraxIn my company there are many VAIO's and I have seen a big difference between those made in Japan and USA. For example I just changed mine to one made in Japan which is actually older than my previous one (made in USA). The one made in USA was the one with the crazy mouse behavior while the one made in Japan does not exhibit the issue.
Any one having this problem in a VAIO made in Japan?
Great forum!
-Nestor Urquiza
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