enjay Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 I'm trying to turn off the touchpad on one of our laptops, but with no success. I've gone in to Control Panel and ticked the relevant box, but it continues to work. I even tried uninstalling the drivers for it, but Windows simply put them back when it rebooted. Any other suggestions?
Joanne Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 on our toshibas there is a thing in the bios to disable it...
enjay Posted March 31, 2008 Author Posted March 31, 2008 also...why? 'cos the laptop's "owner" hates them, and keep accidentally catching it while typing. Since he never uses it, why cause him the headache?
enjay Posted March 31, 2008 Author Posted March 31, 2008 Can you disable it from the Device Manager? No, "disable" is greyed out, which is why I tried completely uninstalling it instead.
Ric_ Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 Most have a function key to disable them or the ability to disable with the utility software (although this means that you have to have the silly utility software installed). If the reason for disabling it is because of hardware fault, you are better off unplugging the device. This is what I did with a naughty nipple on a Dell that kept sending the cursor off to one corner.
torledo Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 'cos the laptop's "owner" hates them, and keep accidentally catching it while typing. Since he never uses it, why cause him the headache? the owner is an idiot. Although not all touchpads are made equal, not being able to use a touchpad for all tasks is pathetic. I know of touchers who can only use a mouse with their laptops and i look upon them with disdain. They're obviously not ready to join the 21st century so they are not worthy of a laptop.
enjay Posted March 31, 2008 Author Posted March 31, 2008 Most have a function key to disable them One of the FN functions does have a little picture which suggests it turns the TouchPad off, but it doesn't actually do anything...
rush_tech Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 bios?? what about the bios?!! do you mean the bios:D
enjay Posted March 31, 2008 Author Posted March 31, 2008 bios?? what about the bios?!! Didn't notice anything in the BIOS, although it is a Tosh like yours, so maybe I missed something. I'll take another look...
Jona Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 One of the FN functions does have a little picture which suggests it turns the TouchPad off, but it doesn't actually do anything... You might need to install the utility software for these to work as suggested above...
PEO Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 No, "disable" is greyed out, which is why I tried completely uninstalling it instead. plug a mouse in and then try dissabling the driver in device manager
SYNACK Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 (edited) Teachers that can't be bothered to learn how to use touchpads annoy me also. What is so hard, oftern it is simply lazy staff that point blank refuse to learn something new. This is hipocritical as they constantly spew out the same pattern learned stuff that they were forced to learn at teachers training collage about teaching kids how to learn. How are they supposed to do this if they refuse to learn themselves. It is by no means all teachers but their is definatly a concerning percentage who are like this. That and they all demand new external mice each time they get a new laptop. On a more on topic note. You may not need to fully disable the touchpads to solve the problem. Within the extra tools provided by the driver most trackpads have an option to disable the touchpad when you start typing which could solve the problem. Edited October 10, 2008 by SYNACK concat posts
mac_shinobi Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 Teachers that can't be bothered to learn how to use touchpads annoy me also. What is so hard, oftern it is simply lazy staff that point blank refuse to learn something new. This is hipocritical as they constantly spew out the same pattern learned stuff that they were forced to learn at teachers training collage about teaching kids how to learn. How are they supposed to do this if they refuse to learn themselves. It is by no means all teachers but their is definatly a concerning percentage who are like this. That and they all demand new external mice each time they get a new laptop. not to mention contradictory lol. Also is system restore enabled ? If so maybe thats why windows keeps replacing the driver ? ( possibly ) Also with toshiba laptops as was said above you have to install the utility and it should put an applet in the control panel to control the touch pad, enable / disable it. if you could post back ( not sure if you have arleady done so ) with the model of the toshiba laptop it is. Short of that , if you have other laptops around they can use just swap the laptop out with another one that you can disable the touchpad on.
torledo Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 i personally don't think Nick should be indulging this halfwit of a teacher by entertaining the idea of disabling the touchpad. My reaction would be that the touchpad performs a very valauble funciton and for us to handicap the machine is not something we're willing to do. Use it or not it's up to you, but we're not disabling it. Even if we knew how..
enjay Posted March 31, 2008 Author Posted March 31, 2008 I do see where you guys are coming from when you say I shouldn't be doing this, but please, leave the political side of it to me (I'm not about to call our Deputy Head half the things which some of you have suggested I do!) and let's stick to the technical side of it. Touchpads are useful, but can also cause problems, so I'm looking for a way to assist in that. Our HP laptops have a friendly little "on/off" button right by the pad, but sadly not on the Toshiba. I've enabled the system tray utility (the standard Windows one, not any Tosh-specific ones which may exist) but ticking "disable" in that has no effect. I can't disable in it Device Manager, even when a USB mouse is connected. There's nothing in the BIOS. Other than opening the laptop up and cutting the wires, what else could I try?
PEO Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 dont touch pads dissable when a mouse is plugged in? I’m asking this because I was called to HT office to sort a wee problem, and when i went to use the touch pad it wouldn't work, quickly noticed he had a USB mouse attached i used that, then out of curiosity I detached the mouse to make sure the pad worked... which it did.
flashsnaps Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 Hi Nick, Try holding down the Function key and then pressing F7. (If it doesn't work try all the F's) This disables the touch pad on some of the laptops we have.
Jona Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 I think you need the Toshiba touchpad/hotkey utility, there seems to be lots of realvent downloads on the Toshiba site but it obviously depends on your model: Toshiba Support 1
SYNACK Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 I've enabled the system tray utility (the standard Windows one, not any Tosh-specific ones which may exist) but ticking "disable" in that has no effect. I can't disable in it Device Manager, even when a USB mouse is connected. There's nothing in the BIOS. Other than opening the laptop up and cutting the wires, what else could I try? I was thinking more of the device settings type tab in the mouse control panel applet (see attached) this may have settings that aren't covered by the tray app. With these synaptec drivers there is a settings and disable button. It might be useful to know what kind of trackpad is installed. These types of mouse settings tend to be per-user which may be something to check. Also have you checked that the system does not need administrative privalages to disable the mouse in this way. Short of this opening up the case seems to be the only practical way that the teacher would agree to. Other options include tapeing a bit of cardboard over it or making the user wear gloves that make his hands to big to register on the trackpad I guess it depends on your relationship with your staff as to how you are able to handle the politics side of it. In my case I have the same issue with one of the DP (Deputy Principals) that I deal with. In his case I was able to give a good natured scolding as he holds himself up as being one of the technologicly skilled ones and did not ovely mind my pointing out his duality.
enjay Posted March 31, 2008 Author Posted March 31, 2008 (edited) I think you need the Toshiba touchpad/hotkey utility, there seems to be lots of realvent downloads on the Toshiba site but it obviously depends on your model: Toshiba Support That's the one - I tried the "TouchPad On/Off" utility from Toshiba's web site, but failed to install. While on the site, though, I noticed an updated driver for the TouchPad, so installed that. It didn't add anything new visually, however the "Enable/Disable" radio button on the TouchPad tab of the Mouse section in Control Panel now works. Thanks Jona!! Next trick is to find out why the damn thing can't see any wireless networks... Edited March 31, 2008 by enjay
mac_shinobi Posted March 31, 2008 Posted March 31, 2008 That's the one - I tried the "TouchPad On/Off" utility from Toshiba's web site, but failed to install. While on the site, though, I noticed an updated driver for the TouchPad, so installed that. It didn't add anything new visually, however the "Enable/Disable" radio button on the TouchPad tab of the Mouse section in Control Panel now works. Thanks Jona!! Next trick is to find out why the damn thing can't see any wireless networks... update the wireless card drivers lol
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