Just bought a new laptop at microCenter the other day. Picked up a Lenovo
3000 N200 widescreen. It was one of very few still offered with WIn XP and
not Vista. Had something interesting happen with it, though. One of the
things that always annoys me with laptops is that the default for the touch
pad is to have "tapping" enabled. I realize lots of people like it, but it
drives me nuts. Anyway, I went in to the Mouse Properties panel to turn the
thing off. When the panel opened, it identified the device as a normal PS2
Mouse. Even had the picture of the mouse on it. That was in the "Buttons"
tab. Went to the "Device Settings" tab and it also said I had a mouse, not
a Synaptics device. Clicking on "Settings" in that tab only showed the
options for the "Buttons". Fine, I'd seen that before and it usually
indicates that the wrong driver was installed. Downloaded and installed the
driver from the Lenovo site but nothing changed. Went into the "Hardware"
tab and it showed that the device was a Synaptic device and gave the date
for the current driver. Nothing I did made the thing realize I had a
touchpad and not a mouse. Today, I finally gave up and went back to the
shop. The first tech support guy couldn't do any more than I did.

Curious, I went over to the display unit. This one displayed what I
expected! It showed a touchpad everywhere, and gave me the right options in
the Settings tab. The drivers and the dates were the same on my machine and
the display. Brought the tech guy over and showed him the difference
between the 2 machines. Nothing he tried could get mine to display the
right options. Nothing could get it to recognize it had a touchpad and not
a mouse. Pulling at straws, he pulled the drive out of the demo box and put
it in my box. It STILL showed that it had a mouse, not a touchpad! Put my
drive in the demo box and it the demo machine displayed properly! They got
2 different machines out of stock and they both displayed mice, not
touchpads! After spending nearly a day messing with the things, they didn't
manage to get any farther. I understand they even called Lenovo and their
tech support knew of no problems. (I would have called but they wanted $100
for an "after sale" service phone call!) Anyway, I told the shop I'd take
the demo box as it had only been on display for a couple weeks. They moved
my drive into it and I went on my way.

But I'm still curious. Does anyone know what was going on? The tech guys
figured some sort of hardware problem since swapping drives around and
changing drivers didn't make any difference. It's a great box otherwise,
but I beat on this problem for 2 days! I've been around for a while and
built lots of computers having built my first PC from Heathkit. I probably
still have a CPM cassette tape around here somewhere. The paper tapes
disintegrated some time ago! Seen tons of weird stuff but this had me
buffaloed...

Did they check for the latest bios? Did they check all BIOS settings?

"Robert Barker" <cowboy_bob99********.com> wrote in message
news:9aqdndhspolwM7fanZ2dnUVZ_sejnZ2d@giganews.com ...
> Just bought a new laptop at microCenter the other day. Picked up a Lenovo
> 3000 N200 widescreen. It was one of very few still offered with WIn XP
> and not Vista. Had something interesting happen with it, though. One of
> the things that always annoys me with laptops is that the default for the
> touch pad is to have "tapping" enabled. I realize lots of people like it,
> but it drives me nuts. Anyway, I went in to the Mouse Properties panel to
> turn the thing off. When the panel opened, it identified the device as a
> normal PS2 Mouse. Even had the picture of the mouse on it. That was in
> the "Buttons" tab. Went to the "Device Settings" tab and it also said I
> had a mouse, not a Synaptics device. Clicking on "Settings" in that tab
> only showed the options for the "Buttons". Fine, I'd seen that before and
> it usually indicates that the wrong driver was installed. Downloaded and
> installed the driver from the Lenovo site but nothing changed. Went into
> the "Hardware" tab and it showed that the device was a Synaptic device and
> gave the date for the current driver. Nothing I did made the thing
> realize I had a touchpad and not a mouse. Today, I finally gave up and
> went back to the shop. The first tech support guy couldn't do any more
> than I did.
>
> Curious, I went over to the display unit. This one displayed what I
> expected! It showed a touchpad everywhere, and gave me the right options
> in the Settings tab. The drivers and the dates were the same on my
> machine and the display. Brought the tech guy over and showed him the
> difference between the 2 machines. Nothing he tried could get mine to
> display the right options. Nothing could get it to recognize it had a
> touchpad and not a mouse. Pulling at straws, he pulled the drive out of
> the demo box and put it in my box. It STILL showed that it had a mouse,
> not a touchpad! Put my drive in the demo box and it the demo machine
> displayed properly! They got 2 different machines out of stock and they
> both displayed mice, not touchpads! After spending nearly a day messing
> with the things, they didn't manage to get any farther. I understand they
> even called Lenovo and their tech support knew of no problems. (I would
> have called but they wanted $100 for an "after sale" service phone call!)
> Anyway, I told the shop I'd take the demo box as it had only been on
> display for a couple weeks. They moved my drive into it and I went on my
> way.
>
> But I'm still curious. Does anyone know what was going on? The tech guys
> figured some sort of hardware problem since swapping drives around and
> changing drivers didn't make any difference. It's a great box otherwise,
> but I beat on this problem for 2 days! I've been around for a while and
> built lots of computers having built my first PC from Heathkit. I
> probably still have a CPM cassette tape around here somewhere. The paper
> tapes disintegrated some time ago! Seen tons of weird stuff but this had
> me buffaloed...
>

Are the drivers for the Synaptics touchpad installed?

"Woody" <TheDuck@pond.net> wrote in message
news:Nn7Xi.62296$Um6.52994@newssvr12.news.prodigy. net...
> Did they check for the latest bios? Did they check all BIOS settings?
>
> "Robert Barker" <cowboy_bob99********.com> wrote in message
> news:9aqdndhspolwM7fanZ2dnUVZ_sejnZ2d@giganews.com ...
>> Just bought a new laptop at microCenter the other day. Picked up a
>> Lenovo 3000 N200 widescreen. It was one of very few still offered with
>> WIn XP and not Vista. Had something interesting happen with it, though.
>> One of the things that always annoys me with laptops is that the default
>> for the touch pad is to have "tapping" enabled. I realize lots of people
>> like it, but it drives me nuts. Anyway, I went in to the Mouse
>> Properties panel to turn the thing off. When the panel opened, it
>> identified the device as a normal PS2 Mouse. Even had the picture of the
>> mouse on it. That was in the "Buttons" tab. Went to the "Device
>> Settings" tab and it also said I had a mouse, not a Synaptics device.
>> Clicking on "Settings" in that tab only showed the options for the
>> "Buttons". Fine, I'd seen that before and it usually indicates that the
>> wrong driver was installed. Downloaded and installed the driver from the
>> Lenovo site but nothing changed. Went into the "Hardware" tab and it
>> showed that the device was a Synaptic device and gave the date for the
>> current driver. Nothing I did made the thing realize I had a touchpad
>> and not a mouse. Today, I finally gave up and went back to the shop.
>> The first tech support guy couldn't do any more than I did.
>>
>> Curious, I went over to the display unit. This one displayed what I
>> expected! It showed a touchpad everywhere, and gave me the right options
>> in the Settings tab. The drivers and the dates were the same on my
>> machine and the display. Brought the tech guy over and showed him the
>> difference between the 2 machines. Nothing he tried could get mine to
>> display the right options. Nothing could get it to recognize it had a
>> touchpad and not a mouse. Pulling at straws, he pulled the drive out of
>> the demo box and put it in my box. It STILL showed that it had a mouse,
>> not a touchpad! Put my drive in the demo box and it the demo machine
>> displayed properly! They got 2 different machines out of stock and they
>> both displayed mice, not touchpads! After spending nearly a day messing
>> with the things, they didn't manage to get any farther. I understand
>> they even called Lenovo and their tech support knew of no problems. (I
>> would have called but they wanted $100 for an "after sale" service phone
>> call!) Anyway, I told the shop I'd take the demo box as it had only been
>> on display for a couple weeks. They moved my drive into it and I went on
>> my way.
>>
>> But I'm still curious. Does anyone know what was going on? The tech
>> guys figured some sort of hardware problem since swapping drives around
>> and changing drivers didn't make any difference. It's a great box
>> otherwise, but I beat on this problem for 2 days! I've been around for a
>> while and built lots of computers having built my first PC from Heathkit.
>> I probably still have a CPM cassette tape around here somewhere. The
>> paper tapes disintegrated some time ago! Seen tons of weird stuff but
>> this had me buffaloed...
>>
>
>

I don't know about the BIOS versions. I'll have to go over to the shop and
check. I do know that the drivers were installed. It was the first thing
that I checked. It's almost as if the touchpad wasn't recognized as a
touchpad and thought it was a mouse....

"Mike Holder" <ml_holder@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:13iq6hj5v99nf16@corp.supernews.com...
> Are the drivers for the Synaptics touchpad installed?
>
> "Woody" <TheDuck@pond.net> wrote in message
> news:Nn7Xi.62296$Um6.52994@newssvr12.news.prodigy. net...
>> Did they check for the latest bios? Did they check all BIOS settings?
>>
>> "Robert Barker" <cowboy_bob99********.com> wrote in message
>> news:9aqdndhspolwM7fanZ2dnUVZ_sejnZ2d@giganews.com ...
>>> Just bought a new laptop at microCenter the other day. Picked up a
>>> Lenovo 3000 N200 widescreen. It was one of very few still offered with
>>> WIn XP and not Vista. Had something interesting happen with it, though.
>>> One of the things that always annoys me with laptops is that the default
>>> for the touch pad is to have "tapping" enabled. I realize lots of
>>> people like it, but it drives me nuts. Anyway, I went in to the Mouse
>>> Properties panel to turn the thing off. When the panel opened, it
>>> identified the device as a normal PS2 Mouse. Even had the picture of
>>> the mouse on it. That was in the "Buttons" tab. Went to the "Device
>>> Settings" tab and it also said I had a mouse, not a Synaptics device.
>>> Clicking on "Settings" in that tab only showed the options for the
>>> "Buttons". Fine, I'd seen that before and it usually indicates that the
>>> wrong driver was installed. Downloaded and installed the driver from
>>> the Lenovo site but nothing changed. Went into the "Hardware" tab and
>>> it showed that the device was a Synaptic device and gave the date for
>>> the current driver. Nothing I did made the thing realize I had a
>>> touchpad and not a mouse. Today, I finally gave up and went back to the
>>> shop. The first tech support guy couldn't do any more than I did.
>>>
>>> Curious, I went over to the display unit. This one displayed what I
>>> expected! It showed a touchpad everywhere, and gave me the right
>>> options in the Settings tab. The drivers and the dates were the same on
>>> my machine and the display. Brought the tech guy over and showed him
>>> the difference between the 2 machines. Nothing he tried could get mine
>>> to display the right options. Nothing could get it to recognize it had
>>> a touchpad and not a mouse. Pulling at straws, he pulled the drive out
>>> of the demo box and put it in my box. It STILL showed that it had a
>>> mouse, not a touchpad! Put my drive in the demo box and it the demo
>>> machine displayed properly! They got 2 different machines out of stock
>>> and they both displayed mice, not touchpads! After spending nearly a
>>> day messing with the things, they didn't manage to get any farther. I
>>> understand they even called Lenovo and their tech support knew of no
>>> problems. (I would have called but they wanted $100 for an "after sale"
>>> service phone call!) Anyway, I told the shop I'd take the demo box as it
>>> had only been on display for a couple weeks. They moved my drive into
>>> it and I went on my way.
>>>
>>> But I'm still curious. Does anyone know what was going on? The tech
>>> guys figured some sort of hardware problem since swapping drives around
>>> and changing drivers didn't make any difference. It's a great box
>>> otherwise, but I beat on this problem for 2 days! I've been around for
>>> a while and built lots of computers having built my first PC from
>>> Heathkit. I probably still have a CPM cassette tape around here
>>> somewhere. The paper tapes disintegrated some time ago! Seen tons of
>>> weird stuff but this had me buffaloed...
>>>