HP's New Touch-pads Suck | NicholasOverstreet.com

HP’s New Touch-pads Suck

by Nick June 15, 2010

I was setting up some brand new HP Probook’s today (typically VERY nice machines in my experience) when I was suddenly rendered crippled by a IMPOSSIBLE to use touch-pad. What a DREADFUL piece of shit this new design is.

Basically, the touch-pad and buttons are all one surface.

Observe:

The problem comes from the fact that the “button area” is still part of the touch-pad. So you place one finger on the button, and now you can’t use the fucking touch-pad. Your cursor will either sit there and stare at you like a vegetable or it’ll jump all around the screen like crazy. Either way, the touch-pad is completely unusable if you’re touching either button. This is incredibly frustrating because my style of laptop mousing is resting one hand’s fingers on the buttons while using the other hand to navigate the mouse, or resting one finger on the button, while the other navigates the mouse for faster mouse action. The only effective way to use this touch pad is with one hand and one finger. Christ. It’s awful. Seriously.

I ended up grabbing one of those USB ball mice and plugging the damn thing in and using that, because trying to use that bloody touch-pad was making me want to kick puppies. And I love puppies.

Thanks for the SHIT design HP. I’m sure as hell glad this isn’t my machine. I would be returning it if I had to put up with that damn thing.

23 comments

Brandon June 15, 2010 at 11:46 pm

What a crap-ass awful design!

I wish more laptop/netbook makers would get it together with the two finger scrolling. Every PC implementation I’ve seen of it, so far, has been pretty awful. Touch pads in general are still way too small. I still use the IBM/Lenovo eraser head on my work laptop.

– B

Nick June 15, 2010 at 11:53 pm

Ugh, those eraser head pointers are horrible, how can you use those?

Ben July 1, 2010 at 12:23 pm

Thank god someone agrees with me, I got the DV6T a week ago and it was as you said, unusable. After being on the phone with HP Tech Support I found out that it’s just a shitty piece of hardware and that they don’t even have a replacement one with normal buttons.
As it is, after a long battle with customer support trying to find out if any of their models have a different touchpad (there are maybe three, all of them being terribly underpowered) I returned it yesterday and purchased a Dell.

Do they not realize how bad it is that they put it on 90% of their models?

Nick July 1, 2010 at 12:37 pm

Wow, I can’t believe HP has dropped the ball like this. Has no one tested these things out in the HP labs?! How could that not realize this glaringly painful use issue!
Good decision on the Dell! I have a Dell laptop as well and it is still going strong after all I’ve put it through!

SMH@HP July 18, 2010 at 8:53 pm

i ordered a new HP DM4 last month..specs were great, had high hopes for the laptop

and then i experienced the touchpad, that shit is the worst design ever! i tried so hard to get used to it and modify the settings…its just too annoying

i had to return it, turns out all of the new HP consumer laptops have this shitty design…i cant believe the designers at HP let this bullshit make it to production..im so disappointed with HP

Nick July 20, 2010 at 10:53 am

At least Dell still has nice touch pads and makes quality machines. I really can not recommend HP’s new laptops to people any more due to this awful touch pad. It’s a shame too because HP usually has quality stuff. Who ever approved this new design as the HP standard needs to be fired.

Bugsbunny August 20, 2010 at 4:46 pm

Hi I got an HP dv6t Laptop today and i even did not like the touchpad. the buttons are so hard I had an old dell inspiron 6400 and the touchpad rocked. the buttons are so smooth and there was side scrolling also..The over all laptop seems ok..but the touchpad sucks..

WhatcomWeb August 20, 2010 at 10:59 pm

Mine is about to go back, I tried to give it a chance, but the new touch pad is awful. Can’t use if for anything.

Nick August 20, 2010 at 11:01 pm

I don’t blame you one bit. Had I bought one and it was like that, I would return it too. It is literally unusable.

Sam August 22, 2010 at 7:29 pm

I have been having the same problem with the touchpad. There is a fix on the HP website:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c02445227&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&product=4221638. I have downloaded and installed the new driver and, so far, it seems like a big improvement.

Nick August 22, 2010 at 7:34 pm

Thanks for the link Sam. Next time I have to deal with one of these machines, I will definitely try it out.

Rahul September 30, 2010 at 12:35 pm

Oh god. I got the dv6t yesterday. I never such a hard time setting up a damn laptop. The touch pad is ridiculous. It is the worst one I have used. I wanted to throw the laptop against the wall by the time I was done. I was going to buy another laptop for work. But now I am going to return the one I have and get a Dell. HP you are going to loose a shit load of business if you don’t fix this problem.

John December 4, 2010 at 5:50 am

Couldn’t agree more.I purchased a DV7-4004tx to replace my DV6-2114tx.I hated the touch pad so much I swapped it’s 8gb of mem for my 4gb and off loaded it.

John January 6, 2011 at 11:59 pm

thanks for the link to the driver. it helps a little bit. i cant believe it still leaves the buttons as a touchable area though. if i rest my finger on the button first and then use the pad with my other hand its fine but if i do them in the reverse order, it thinks im trying to move the cursor since i touched the “starting zone” first. i also still have to make sure i dont move my finger on the mouse button at all. why didnt they just put in a feature so that you can drag a rectangle over the area that you want to be able to use to move the cursor? in my case its even more pointless because i always set my mouse speed to the max anyway. if i put my finger in the starting zone and move it down, i will never ever in my life ever need the extra length of the touch pad provided by the buttons.

Trevor February 7, 2011 at 12:11 am

I had an HP G60 and the touchpad is very good, the buttons are not apart of the touch pad, and are separated with a ridge so that your fingers don’t inadvertently slide onto and press the buttons. I recently used a friend’s new HP and it had a black trackpad with the buttons built in, oh my god, what a terrible piece of shit, I was blown away. I’m actually blown away at how shitty most trackpads are. The old school dell’s were almost the best, they’ve actually got worse and worse as the years have gone on… all they need is something simple with better software.

Thai April 16, 2011 at 5:58 pm

I got a dv7 about two months ago, and I have agree this touch pad is so terrible afwul. It’s so annoy and unpleasant to use to a point I don’t want to recommend anyone to buy HP laptops.

Just this touch pad which makes HP laptops look bad…but I don’t think they have learned a lesson.

todd gowen May 22, 2011 at 4:45 pm

Wish I would have read this first cause I hate the damn touch pad.

mark June 30, 2011 at 10:51 pm

company gave me this new HP probook laptop with the new touchpad tech. I feel like smashing it against the wall every ficking day! Can’t move the mouse around correctly and the text jumps around if you accidently even look at the touchpad. This is the biggest Pcs of shit to hit the market! HP should pull this out of stores and redesign.

Matt July 11, 2011 at 7:19 am

I went out to a local arts and crafts store and bought some thin rubbery craft paper with adhesive on the back. I covered both of the buttons, but this seemed to somehow mess up the touchpad in general. The pointer was doing some weird things.

So I took the stuff off… Am also thinking of just getting either an external mouse and be done with it.

How this got passed quality control is beyond me. Everything else about the laptop is great.

It cannot be that hard to add a function to the Synaptics software to just make that area buttons only with no motion control. Either that or change the touchpad driver again.

Going forward I’m always going to look at the touchpad. A friend has an ASUS laptop and had very similar issues.

I’m just going to make sure there are separate buttons from now on.

RONALD BILL August 10, 2011 at 3:24 am

I have a Pavilion dm4-1160us and wish I didn’t have it. The touchpad mouse is the worst I’ve ever experienced. Whoever designed it obviously never tried to use it. HP should recall all these crap laptops and replace the mouse – for free. I should have returned it right away.

Johnny September 30, 2014 at 5:06 am

Yeah, it’s pretty much shit all the way. Disable all the features and you can ALMOST work with it. It’s the worst possible thing not to work though since you consider how many clicks you will need to perform over the life of the notebook. It’s kinda like learning to tie your shoes with no thumbs. I hate it…

MG July 25, 2018 at 3:35 pm

The problem still exists – in 2018! I bought a HP spectre x360 system recently, and after 2 days of extensive cursing and pulling my hair, returned it. The touchpad is impossible to use. All the other specs and functionality is not of much use if every mouse click is an ordeal. A simple drag and drop of files would take multiple attempts as the cursor would move erratically. Found this thread from years ago and am amazed the problem still exists, making a $16000 system unusable. I guess everyone using it must be using an external mouse.

Nick July 25, 2018 at 3:40 pm

Wow, they still haven’t figured those things out? Forget HP man, they’re so shit now any way! Lenovo ThinkPads are where it’s at.