Elan Touchpad on R500VM

I have a new Asus R500VM notebook and really like it - with one exception. The touchpad on this otherwise excellent model is a "ELAN PS/2 Port Smart-Pad". It is far too sensitive and jumpy, often opening apps when I just hover over their icons and is just a pain to use. The ELAN controls are extremely minimal with nothing to control sensitivity of the pad. Does anybody have a solution to this touchpad other than giving up on it and using a mouse? I would very much like to avoid using a mouse because I often use the notebook while lying down with no mouse pad surface available.

My previous notebooks have all had Synaptics touchpads and though they are not wonderful either, the Synaptics controls are much better. This touchpad uses the ELAN driver version 10.5.9.0 dated 2/20/2012.

Did I read here that the synaptics driver would also work on this ELAN touchpad?

Another peculiarity: this TP needs you to use 2 fingers for scrolling. I can live with that but single finger scrolling seems to be the standard everywhere else and I prefer it.

Thanks.

 

No replies anyone?

In trying to troubleshoot this I discovered that the Pen Flicks was enabled - which makes no sense to me on a laptop running Windows 7 and without a touch screen. Could that be the problem because of conflicts with the touchpad driver?

 

Have you tried updating the drivers. There is a driver on our support site which is updated on March so it may have some updates. If the driver does not work have you tried doing a system recovery. Usually when you do a system recovery it puts all default drivers back to the original. You can also go under properties and change the sensitivity so it won't be as sensitive.

 

Thank you for replying.
Yes, I have updated the drivers via Device Manager. No change. I will look again.
My main problem is that the touchpad is too sensitive and the Elan controls that come with it do not have setting options for " sensitivity" like the Synaptics drivers do. I reduced the double click speed to the slowest and that helped a little but I still get items opening when I am just passing rapidly over them with the cursor.

Questions:
1. On the driver page there are 2 drivers available, one from Elan and one from Synaptics. Does this mean that
a) I can use the Synaptics driver on this laptop even though Device Manager says I have an Elan touchpad?
b) Do some notebooks of this model come with an Elan touchpad and others come with a Synaptics? (My model is R500VM-MS71)
2. Please give me the update page url so I can try again.

Again, thank you for replying.

(Just now, as I was using the touchpad to scroll up the page it selected some of the text without my doing anything else! It is just too sensitive).

 

1. You can not use the synaptics driver on the elan. The driver you will download is the Elan drivers
2. Here is the link below for the URL. Just make sure you select which operating system you are using.
ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download R500VM
3. Also have you tried adjusting the palm tracking settings to near maximum to see if that will prevent the accidentally selecting text.

 

No I have not.
How do I access the "palm tracking settings"? And what do you mean by "adjusting the palm tracking settings to near maximum"? How exactly?

Thank you again.

 

You go to the lower right and select the white up arrown and select the symbol that looks like the trackpad. Right click and and go to property of smart pad. Go to the Elan tab and select options. Scroll down and should be a gestrure called palm tracking. Click on that icon and there you will be able to adjust the sensitivity.

 

Thank is why I was asking. There is something called "ASUS smart detector" which I think may be what you mean. It does not have a sensitivity setting but has settings to enlarge or move the area around.

Is "ASUS smart detector" the same thing as palm tracking?
I have updated the driver but cannot find palm tracking.

 

Here is an image showing no Palm touch controls present.

 

Hi....I've just bought an Asus K55A and I'm experiencing the same problems with
an ELAN touchpad.

I can't find any Palm touch controls either.

Latest driver is installed 10.5.9.0

The touch pad is far too sensitive - the cursor flicks all over the place...even to the extent that it makes selections "by itself" or refuses to hold focus on a control
eg minimise or close.

There appears to be a lot of reports of problems with these ELAN pads over a period of time.

A fix is far more acceptable than a RMA.

edit...Out of shear frustration with this, I've downloaded the driver from the Asus site ( the 10.5.9.0 was already installed on purchase ) and re-installed over the current one.
I still can't see anything about palm touch but the sensitivity issue seems to be resolved. The cursor now moves as-smooth-as-silk the random selection problem is gone and and focus is now fine.
Hope this helps everyone....

 

Glad to hear I am not the only one. When I contacted ASUS support they suggested an RMA, but like teejcee I would much prefer a fix than a rma.

I too installed the latest 10.5.9.0 driver dated 2/20/2012 from the ASUS site and like you there is still no palm touch. I still get accidental selections but the jumping cursor seems solved. Would you mind giving me details of your settings for the Elan touchpad so I can duplicate them. Also if you recall it, the date of the new driver and the url you downloaded it from? Thank you.

This is not exactly a cheap notebook. I think ASUS should fix the driver problem! Also, why 2-finger scrolling when every other touchpad uses single finger scrolling?

 

OK, I've had it. This touchpad is driving me crazy. This piece of is going back to the store. I've wasted enough time and been frustrated long enough. ANybody who uses this notebook touchpad for 10 minutes will realize it is just unusable. I've owned a dozen laptops and nne have been this frustrating!

 

I bought a u47a and had the same issue of a jumping spastic cursor even if I just held my finger still. Is that the same thing you are experiencing?
Odd part for me was, it only happened when the laptop was on AC power, no issue on battery.

 

I've tried a bunch of different ones. 10.5.9.0 works okay - but doesn't have palm detection. It has some kind of green circle that you can move around and also change its radius. I'm not sure what the goal is with the circle; it doesn't seem to have any discernible effect on stray presses with my palms.

I couldn't find 10.5.10.0. If someone has it, please upload, I'm sure someone would like to give it a spin. A lot of them will have a bunch of features (for example, the Acer 11.6.2.1 has a lot of stray click mitigating features - locking down touchpad for 50-1000 ms after keyboard is used, palm detection, pressure sensitivity, etc) but have some features broken (in 11.6.2.1, you can't tap to click, LOL).

I found one that works okay and has palm detect instead of the green circle thing, it's 10.14.0.5. It doesn't have horizontal 2-finger scrolling for some reason, but vertical scrolling works. I guess I don't need to scroll horizontally that often on a widescreen anyways...

Anyway, I'll try more out. Maybe I'll find one that works better.

Edit: I'm using a UX31A, by the way, not a R500.

 

Whoa, 11.13.0.2 is really good.
E: it can be found here: DepositFiles

Everything seems to work, except 3-finger swipe gestures don't like palm detect. Pretty small tradeoff for everything else working, though.

 

I've noticed that Asus doesn't put a lot of effort into keeping its its driver update sites current by model. However, here is an Asus page just for touchpads that is not model specific. It has the all drivers by OS for Elantech, Sentelic, Synaptics and ASUS Smart Gesture - however, it too, may not have the most current versions.

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download Touchpad

 

I just wanted to share the below info - the palm tracking settings are hidden in some versions:

"This will allow you to see all the functions the smart-pad software can control, but for whatever reason ASUS or Elantech disabled

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Elantech\SmartPadDisplay, and change all values to "1"
Go to the Elan Smart-Pad's properties by using the Mouse Properties dialog box
Now you'll see all the hidden options

Once all the options are enabled, you'll see "Palm Tracking" under Additional tab. Turn that up one notch, and it'll make the smart pad less sensitive, but it also makes accidental brushing less likely to register as a mouse movement.

Interesting note on this. Once you make changes to whatever formerly hidden options and click OK or Apply, the previously modified registry keys will revert back to the way "they want it". If you want to experiment, it's best to change all the values to 1's, export the registry key, and use that to change all the keys at once."
Alon's Rants (and useless thought): ASUS Zenbook Touchpad Hack
****************
I've had troubles others have described here.
Mostly with the base of my left thumb causing the cursor to move to the upper left of the screen while I'm typing (which puts the letters there that I then have to delete and go retype in the proper place. Very annoying because I am taking notes while my patients are talking to me and trying to remain present with them and minimize any intrusion by my computer).
I have also had a seemingly random swipe select text. This is a problem when I am in the midst of typing so that all of the selected text is replaced by the next letters I type. My charting software does not have Undo, so if that happens, I have to reproduce that from memory.

I have the Smart Detector enabled, but my touchpad is not disabled as I am using the keyboard. I am going to try the driver update action.

 

Sorry if I'm creating a zombie thread, but I've been searching for a solution to my problem rather than starting a new thread, and this discussion seems directly on point. I bought an N56VZ-SX71 a couple weeks ago and love nearly everything about it, with the exception that I'm having the exact issues with my trackpad that I see described here. I'm a touch typist and pretty fast, and this issue has resulted in serious problems in emails, documents, and just surfing the web. It's to the point that, no matter how much I like everything else about the computer, if I can't find a solution to this issue I'm going to have to return it.

So, in short, thank you all for: 1) helping assure me that I'm not crazy or imagining this problem; and 2) the suggested solution, CandaceMcN. I understand you are describing a different model, but it sounds as if the issues and the Elan trackpad are the same. I will try your method and report back. Best to you all. :thumbsup:

 

The post to edit the registry was really helpful. While it has slowed down the response of the touchpad, it has also virtually eliminated the problem of inadvertently deleting text or opening and closing programs. Bizarre that so many options are hidden. Thanks very much. It has made my K55A usable and prevented a window from being broken in the house from tossing the laptop out!!!