Typing Problems Since Windows Re-Installed

[johngerrard]

Can anyone help with this problem please?

I recently had to have a new hard drive fitted into my laptop, Windows was also re-installed.

Windows is in English, Notepad is in English but all of Microsoft Office is now in Thai.

I tend to write my emails in Notepad or Word and then copy and paste into hotmail, this is because I have a 50 hour per month Bluetooth connection and I’m a crappy slow typist, copy and pasting saves internet time.

Since the repair and installation whatever I use to write with, word, notepad or even directly into hotmail, the curser is dancing all over the page, I find myself constantly typing where I have already typed, and it is very annoying, not to say frustrating too. Also the font changes size for no reason as you can probably see. Anyone know how this curser thing can be solved?

Also if anyone has any advice on how a Bluetooth/mobile phone internet connection can be improved, other than by throwing it in the bin, I’d be grateful to hear.

Many thanks.

[welo]

This probably comes from accidentally touching the Touchpad while typing.

When using a mouse, disable the Touchpad, or enable the 'Tap off when typing' feature in the Touchpad settings.

You probably had this feature enabled before, but not after the re-install.

Check the settings of your Touchpad for the option 'Tap off when Typing'. This disables the Touchpad temporarily while hitting the keys on the keyboard, lessening the risk for accidentally 'brushing' over the Touchpad and moving your mouse pointer.

The settings dialog can be accessed from the Control Panel (Mouse Settings) or from the icon in the system tray.

If you can't find that option you probably don't have the latest drivers installed. The standard Windows XP drivers don't offer this feature.

Synaptics Drivers: http://www.synaptics.com/support/drivers

ALPS Drivers: http://download.cnet.com/Alps-Pointing-dev....html?tag=mncol

welo

[johngerrard]

thanks Welo.

i don't use a mouse, the 2 i bought here in thailand both get rejected by windows for non-compatability.

i can't find any touchpad settings and have a problem downloading the drivers you suggested, the download is just too big for my bluetooth 115k modem connection, it will take hours, assuming the connection doesn't crash, which has already happened twice while answering your post.

you are probably right about the touchpad being the problem, i just used it to move back over a miss-spelling and everything went haywire for a while.

any other options?

[garyh]

Microsoft mice and keyboards are readily available in Thailand and they are reasonable quality.

Your internet may improve if you can get a better signal on your phone, fitting an external antenna like a car kit would help this.

[halfhead]

which phone company are you using?

Check which one has the best signal for your area and sign up with them

Postion your phone for the best signal in your house maybe near a window

[welo]

Maybe you can download the drivers from a friend or from an internet cafe? (Even though I don't recommend the latter because you will most likely end up with a virus on your USB thumb drive if you don't know how to protect yourself).

You could also bring the Laptop to the shop that did the install and ask them to install suitable Touchpad drivers.

What's your laptop model anyway? I want to check if you require the ALPS or the Touchpad drivers.

Please make sure you really don't have any Touchpad drivers installed. Go to Control Panel -> Mouse, and see if there is any 'Tab' named Synaptics or ALPS. (Sorry to keep nagging you, just to make sure you don't go through loops while everything is there already )

The actual appearance will differ between brands and driver versions, but might look like this:

A word on your USB mouse problems

I bought several (cheap non-brand) USB mouses in Thailand and none gave me problems (other than mechanical defects after just a view months )

Did you try the mouses on your old setup or on your new install? Maybe the guys didn't setup the hardware drivers correctly? Do you have issues with other USB devices as well?

Go to Device Manager and check if you have any yellow question or exclamation marks in the list.

Right–click My Computer, click Manage, and then click Device Manager.

A word on your Internet Connection and Download Problems

What internet connection do you actually use? Bluetooth only connects from your PC to probably your phone. From there you most likely use GPRS/EDGE to connect to 12Call or alike. And yes, this will not give you good download speeds.

If your connection is unstable you might want to rule out that your mobile phone's bluetooth support is the culprit. Get a USB cable connection to your phone. Might be worth a try!

Which browser do you use for downloading? If IE, then AFAIK it does not support 'resuming' a download (or at least not well). You should consider using an alternative Browser such as Firefox, Chrome or Opera. You could also install a Download Manager, such as 'Free Download Manager' (2.1MB download: http://files.freedownloadmanager.org/lite/fdminst-lite.exe).

If your connection is lost, you can pickup the download from where it stopped and don't have to start all over.

Report back here.

welo

[johngerrard]

thankyou all, i am most grateful for your advice. Will check out everything and report back.

the mice i have work perfectly well for a while then suddenly 'die' and up pops the 'windows does not recognise your mouse' box.

i use Internet explorer and the 12call service.

i can say that you seem to have recognised the problem with the cursor Welo, as long as the touchpad is not touched there is no problem.

Thanks again guys, will get back to you.

Could you give me more details of an external antenna? what sort of thing should i be looking for? basically an aerial with long lead that plugs into the phone?

will get back to you, once again many thanks.

[johngerrard]

hi again, the computer is a BenQ joybook Welo.

Have checked the mouse properties and they are much more basic than your example, older version i guess. nothing re synaptics.

yes, will be able to download from a mates computer to cd, next week sometime.

thanks all once again... time to download the free download manager!

[welo]

ok, thanks for actually checking the mouse settings again and making sure. If you don't have any additional tabs there then this is the standard Microsoft driver, that means no special Touchpad driver has been installed.

On the matter of your USB mice dying on you... Are you saying that they stop working after a view minutes after being plugged into your laptop, or are we talking about weeks/months here? The first indicates rather a problem with your laptop than with the mice.

I need the exact model number to lookup the drivers. Usually you find this on a sticker on the bottom of your laptop.

welo

[johngerrard]

Hiya Welo.

The model No. is C42E-306.

The mouse ... a matter of minutes.

Thanks Mate.

[welo]

I assume the mouse has either a broken cable or another electrical defect, OR there is a problem with your laptop and its USB ports - maybe a power issue or whatever.

Did you have this problems BEFORE the re-install as well?

I will lookup the drivers for your model, maybe installing the correct chipset and USB drivers will help with your USB problems as well.

Windows XP, isn't it? Or Vista?

welo

Edited July 3, 2010 by welo

[welo]

Seems the laptop is an Asian-only model and shipped with Windows Vista...

Specs: http://www.buycoms.com/spec.asp?ProductID=31110&ProductTypeID=1

Vista Drivers: http://www.benq.com.my/support/downloads/downloads.cfm?product=2667

However, I don't recommend installing the drivers from the benq website, since they are most likely outdated.

Touchpad is Synaptics. You can download the latest drivers from here (same link as before):

http://www.synaptics.com/support/drivers (get the package 'Windows XP/Vista and Win7 32-bit Edition v14.0.3')

welo

[johngerrard]

Thanks again Welo, i'm sure it was xp before the crash, it cetainly is now.

yes, the mouse problem has been since i got the computer.

thanks for the download manager, all installed and working fine.

will let you know what happens when new drivers installed.

[rakman]

which phone company are you using?

Check which one has the best signal for your area and sign up with them

Postion your phone for the best signal in your house maybe near a window

This may sound funny, but try putting the phone in a clean, dry, rounded bowl (the more half sphere looking the better). It acts like a dish antenna to focus the signal. Other people have verified it worked for them. Sounds funny, but it does work.

[johngerrard]

which phone company are you using?

Check which one has the best signal for your area and sign up with them

Postion your phone for the best signal in your house maybe near a window

This may sound funny, but try putting the phone in a clean, dry, rounded bowl (the more half sphere looking the better). It acts like a dish antenna to focus the signal. Other people have verified it worked for them. Sounds funny, but it does work.

thanks Rakman, funnily enough i was reading in a book about this only last week and had forgotten about it, will try it out. Have been away for a couple of days...will report back.

Welo, quick question please... in the download manager it asks me to select connection type [options-optimization manager]... it has defaulted to 10/100 Lan.. whatever that means. there are lots of choices... is this the correct setting for my bluetooth setup via mobile or should i change it?

[johngerrard]

which phone company are you using?

Check which one has the best signal for your area and sign up with them

Postion your phone for the best signal in your house maybe near a window

This may sound funny, but try putting the phone in a clean, dry, rounded bowl (the more half sphere looking the better). It acts like a dish antenna to focus the signal. Other people have verified it worked for them. Sounds funny, but it does work.

thanks Rakman, funnily enough i was reading in a book about this only last week and had forgotten about it, will try it out. Have been away for a couple of days...will report back.

Welo, quick question please... in the download manager it asks me to select connection type [options-optimization manager]... it has defaulted to 10/100 Lan.. whatever that means. there are lots of choices... is this the correct setting for my bluetooth setup via mobile or should i change it?

Welo, just to let you know that the downloaded drivers for the touchpad work fine... no more travolta cursor! many thanks.

Rakman, yes the 'big bowl' does work well, far fewer crashes now, suggest using a large wok, many thanks.

[dizzzzzzy]

i'm new to the forum. great advice. thanks everyone for sharing.

[welo]

Welo, quick question please... in the download manager it asks me to select connection type [options-optimization manager]... it has defaulted to 10/100 Lan.. whatever that means. there are lots of choices... is this the correct setting for my bluetooth setup via mobile or should i change it?

sorry, I missed your question back then. You should set it to the speed of your Internet Connection, which is EDGE/GPRS so probably below 100 kbps in Thailand. But it's not that important, the program allows you to have different 'traffic' modes to limit the download when you want to do other stuff in parallel, the speed settings are used to 'rate' the 3 traffic modes. For now you always downloaded 'full throttle'

If you want to try to fix your USB problems with an updated driver, you can download this small tool to check which drivers you need. Your laptop might have the Intel ICH7 or ICH8 southbridge. Tell me what the program reports on your PC (see screenshot) and I'll give you a link to the driver.

If the USB mouse problem is not so important for you, that's fine too

welo

[johngerrard]

Hi Welo, once again many thanks for your help. i noticed funnily enough that since downloading the touchpad stuf the mouse was behaving much better, now it's a mouse crash every few days not minutes.

here's the info you need:

southbridge VIA VT8237A.. is that enough?