[SOLVED] VAIO Touchpad REVERSED

[gfsound]

So I have a VAIO VGN-SZ120P (1.83 Duo, 1 GB RAM, XP Pro SP2). All of a sudden, the touchpad started operating BACKWARDS- up is down, down is up.

I have tried uninstalling/reinstalling the driver. I checked for most recent driver from Sony (none available). After several attempts at uninstalling the touchpad totally, on reboot I believe windows automatically finds the/a driver and installs it again. It is working temporarily now, but I was hoping to find out what could be causing this issue. The only significant change made within last week was updating BIOS to recommended version from Sony. I have seached high and low for a solution to no avail. Any thoughts or help is appreciated.

[King Harvest]

I have the same problem with my VGN-SZ4MN which is less than a month old.

Soooooo frustrating!

Anyone?

Many thanks,

[gfsound]

I doubt you'll be able to fix it. I had to send mine back to Sony. Hardware issue. Call them. Good luck.

[mspratt]

I am having the same problem with a Fujitsu Lifebook.

Regards,
Mike

[mspratt]

Sorry about the delay folks.

I solved the backwards touchpad, at least for XP.

Two files need to be renamed or deleted:
c:\windows\system32\drivers\i8042prt.sys
c:\windows\system32\drivers\mouclass.sys

Then restart, Windows will automagically restore these files.

No guarantee but it worked for me.

I did one other thig that probably made no difference, in the Device Manager I removed the mouse Acer or XP show the touchpad as a mouse object.

You may or may not be able to do the sape thing with Vista but there are a lot more drivers. I am working with Vista now but I will revert to XP. There just too much crap with Vista

Regards,

Mike

PS: If your pointg device stops working Alt-F4 will close the active window and if you are at the desktop it will show the Turn Off Computer dialog.

[Terrister]

Thanks for posting this. Hope it helps other users here.

[mspratt]

Originally Posted by gfsound

So I have a VAIO VGN-SZ120P (1.83 Duo, 1 GB RAM, XP Pro SP2). All of a sudden, the touchpad started operating BACKWARDS- up is down, down is up.

I have tried uninstalling/reinstalling the driver. I checked for most recent driver from Sony (none available). After several attempts at uninstalling the touchpad totally, on reboot I believe windows automatically finds the/a driver and installs it again. It is working temporarily now, but I was hoping to find out what could be causing this issue. The only significant change made within last week was updating BIOS to recommended version from Sony. I have seached high and low for a solution to no avail. Any thoughts or help is appreciated.

Could be that the archived files are also corrupt.

Turn off (TEMPORARILY) System Restore and try again.

[mspratt]

Additional information.

My Fujitsu Lifebook developed the same problem of the touchpad working backwards. I finally tracked it down to a Windows Update that shouldn't have anything to do with the touchpad. Find and uninstall Update referenced by KB900485 in Add/Remove Programs (Check the Show Updates checkbox at the top).

Good Luck,

Mike

[gfsound]

Originally Posted by mspratt

Additional information.

My Fujitsu Lifebook developed the same problem of the touchpad working backwards. I finally tracked it down to a Windows Update that shouldn't have anything to do with the touchpad. Find and uninstall Update referenced by KB900485 in Add/Remove Programs (Check the Show Updates checkbox at the top).

Good Luck,

Mike

wow- amazing job. Thorough work. Mine started operating in reverse AGAIN AFTER being "repaired" by Sony so I will now now try the steps you outlined. Thanks again for the tips!

[gfsound]

Originally Posted by gfsound

wow- amazing job. Thorough work. Mine started operating in reverse AGAIN AFTER being "repaired" by Sony so I will now now try the steps you outlined. Thanks again for the tips!

Well, it looks like I spoke too soon. :( My mouse started operating backwards- I followed the suggested steps and all that happened was my touchpad stopped working altogether. I did a system restore, and now I'm back to being reversed. Any other suggestions are appreciated.

[trekuhl]

i've had the same thing happen in 4 OS's: XPPro, Vista Ultimate, Ubuntu 7.x, and Fedora Core 6.

[dcarterv]

I tried deleting the two files mentioned, I removed the update per directions......my cursor is still moving in reverse!
Help! I have a Sony Vaio VGN SZ36OP. What can I do?

thank you

[gfsound]

Originally Posted by dcarterv

I tried deleting the two files mentioned, I removed the update per directions......my cursor is still moving in reverse!
Help! I have a Sony Vaio VGN SZ36OP. What can I do?

thank you

Do what I did- went back to Dell. NEVER AGAIN will I buy VAIO.

[dcarterv]

My son has my old Dell. I became unstable....battery replacements etc, etc. When I just wanted to buy a battery instead of wasting time with a fix, I realized I can't go to the store to buy it......no store...and kiosks don't sell them. I need my computer and affording a new one now....well, a bit difficult. Any better suggestions?

[gfsound]

Originally Posted by dcarterv

My son has my old Dell. I became unstable....battery replacements etc, etc. When I just wanted to buy a battery instead of wasting time with a fix, I realized I can't go to the store to buy it......no store...and kiosks don't sell them. I need my computer and affording a new one now....well, a bit difficult. Any better suggestions?

Sorry. Mine never worked again, I got ZERO support/help from Sony, they tried 3 times to fix it, but were too inept apparently. Don't know what to tell you other than get an external mouse. Good luck.

[dcarterv]

Thanks......if one saw my frustration with computer problems, they might consider me unstable....however, I was referring to my old Dell, smile.

[islandpaul]

I have a Sony Vaio VGN9Z120P notebook computer. Within the one year warranty the cursor began operating in the reverse direction to which you moved the touchpad, making it almost impossible to use. Repeatedly rebooting the computer would eventually correct the problem. I complained to Sony on four occasions and spent hours on the phone with them - getting passed from the Phillipines to their support Stateside. We reloaded the touchpad/mouse software and installed upgrades, none of which worked. I was told it was caused by static buildup and told to unplug the AC adaptor when not in use. None of this worked. I was told if I reinstalled the operating system this should fix it and told that if it didn't they would send me a new one. I reinstalled the operating system at a cost of over $300.00 and countless hours of time in backing up and restoring programs. It did not fix the problem and it came back in weeks. Eventually I was outside the warranty period and then the Sony support help became rude and hostile and told me to return the laptop at my expense and they would look at it. They refused to send me a new one. I now see from the posts on this site that backing up my data again and sending the notebook to them and being without it for weeks if not months is likely a complete waste of time and money. The problem has now become progressively worse and I am now compelled to use a USB mouse since the touchpad is basically useless. At the present time I am faxing and phoning the Chairman of Sony Corporation of America; Sir Howard Stringer,Chairman & Chief Executive Officer,Sony Corporation, 550 Madison Avenue, 34th Floor, New York, NY 10022. Fax number(212) 833-6932 and phone number (212) 833-6800. I thought I was alone with this problem since Sony claimed they had never heard of it. Now I have discovered this site and found I am not alone. It is apparent from this site and the complaints on www.forums.cnet.com about the same cursor problem that Sony will do nothing to fix it unless we bring real pressure to bear on them. We need to consider contacting the US consumer authorities or consider a class action. They have a problem with their touchpad and their approach is to deny it and hope we will go away. Sony's support is lousy compared to HP's and they try to route you to support in third world countries who try to exhaust you in the hope you will give up.
Good luck and let me know if anyone has any success with this these Sony people. Islandpaul

[pfarmer]

Well, I'm glad I'm not alone on the touch pad issue. Wonder how many of us are out there?

[islandpaul]

Yes pfarmer, you are not alone with this cursor/touchpad problem.

All I can say is that Sony does not respond to fax or mail to their head offices in New York complaining about their products and their CEO (a Welshman incidentally) does not take calls from us mere customers !!!!! That's a Japanese company/Japanese corporate culture for you.

I can tell you from experience if you contact the CEO of American Airlines or a British multi-national such as Cable & Wireless for instance, these companies respond in a professional manner and deal with your problem.

Sony will refer you to their Executive Review Committee in Fort Myers, Florida - a place without a phone or fax number incidentally - and your letter to them will go unanswered.

My solution to this cursor/touchpad problem has been to buy a cordless laser mouse, which solves the problem at the office, but not much good for lying on the couch and surfing the net.

Anyway, I think you have to write off these Japanese companies - their customer service is lousy. I always found HP great to deal with and they were really concerned and tried to solve your problem instead of leaving you to teach English to tech support staff in some third world country.

Good luck and Sony can go screw themselves. Remember these are the same bastards who never acknowledged or apologized for wartime atrocities, so what can we expect with respect to our computer complaints and the fact that we have spent $2,000 for laptops which don't work as advertised.

Good luck.

Islandpaul

[hill]

I've been monitoring this thread for a while now hoping someone might find a solution to the problem. I just returned from a business trip and for a week the problem seemed to have dissappeared. I think the problem may be related to the wireless software. Being connected with a ethernet cable, I had my wireless switched to off and have not encounted the reverse touchpad problem once.

Now that I'm back at home, I turned on the wireless switch and on my second boot, the problem came back. To remedy this, I now turn off the wireless during bootup and then turn it on after the computer boots. This seems to work, but I'm hoping there's a better solution then this.

Right now I'm using the Intel Proset/Wireless software to manage my wifi instead of letting windows do it, and this seems to be okay for now (at least for the first boot).

If I get any further on figuring out why the problem exists, I'll repost.

Hope this helps.