When will Lenovo fix the G550 ALPS touchpad problems?

[digitaleagle]

Am I the only one who has a G550 with the ALPS touchpad and can't live with it?  Mine is very inconsistent.  Sometimes it works fine and then, all of a sudden, you try to move your finger a little bit and it refuses to move.  Then you pick up your finger and it works again.  I wish I could tell you this was only a little problem but it is not?  I have tried just about every setting there is under the control panel to no avail.  I upgraded the drivers off of Toshiba's website - (where Toshiba seems to be interested in fixing this problem for their customers but not Lenovo)  The new driver helped a bit - (Maybe 25% better - but it is still extremley annoying)  Some people say "Just live with it and use a wireless mouse"  Yes - that solves the issue - but 90% of my usage is on my lap and I don't want to inconvenience of having to deal with an extermal mouse. 

Surely this must be annoying others that have this touchpad?  I have used touchpads by Synaptics on other Lenovo products including my T60 and do not have this behavior. 

When I called Lenovo service all I get is ignored.  They seem like they just want to sweep the problem under the carpet and hope it goes away.  Toshiba has released a BIOS update for their customer that solved this problem. 

LENOVO ARE YOU LISTENING?  Probably not.  tsk....This will be my last Lenovo purchase -
EVER!!!!

I love this notebook except for the touchpad.  I'm about ready to throw it through a window from frustration of using it. 

[GinDawg]

Im in the same boat.  I bought the Lenovo G550 based upon the great performance of the old IBM T40 and T60. There was no floor model to try when buying, but I figured that since it's an IBM partner the Lenovo must be good.

Oh boy was I ever wrong....

When I phoned the tech support to complain about the erratic behavior of the touchpad I was told that I should be using a usb mouse anyways!!!! After about 6 phone calls to various numbers, I ended up talking to someone at a call center - on the other side of the world -, who tried to sell me an extended warranty!  He then suggested that I send the laptop in to one of their repair facilities.  He emailed me the address of a Lenovo repair facility about 400 km from where I live.  The Lenovo website lists several other repair facilities withing a 20 minute drive from me.

If you buy a new car, and complain that it dons't work correctly, does the dealer tell you that you should be taking the bus to work anyways????

Sorry digitaleagle, but in my research, I believe that it's a hardware issue.  They would need a massive recall to fix this.  Simply put, they used the **bleep**tier ALPS system because it was cheaper and put more money in their pockets.  It's this sort of short sighted stupidity  that will spoil their reputation and loose them money in the long run.

My solution is to use Fn+F8 to turn off the touchpad and use a usb wireless laser mouse.  I'm using the Logitech VX Nano.  It works as expected.  I would recommend it.  

[digitaleagle]

Here is my formal request for help from Lenovo.  Does anyone from Lenovo ever listen to their customers? 

This will be my last purchase from them ever! Maybe a class action law suit will get their attention? 

To whom it may concern:

______________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

Would you please forward this to someone in a position of authority?  Someone who might care that they will be losing many many Lenovo customers in the future due to this issue.

Notebook specifications; 

Lenovo G550 - ACU Model 2958
Serial # CBxxxxxxxx
MO: CB09092206
Factory ID: PRC4

Purchased from Newegg.com on 11/13/2009


______________________________________________________________________________________________________

 I'm beginning to think that everyone is crazy at Lenovo and that Lenovo doesn't care the least about their customers satisfaction.  This will, for certain, be my last Lenovo purchase and you just lost out on two other purchases because my two college age kids saw the problems I have been having with my Lenovo G550 touchpad and each purchased models from your competition. 

First of all, I really like the G550, EXCEPT, for the lousy ALPS touch pad that is on it.  I have tried re-installing the operating system, reloaded ALPS drivers, have tried loading different release levels of drivers, uninstalled the ALPS driver completely,  all to no avail.  The movement of the touch pad is not smooth.  It lags behind your finger movement, and sometimes refuses to move at all.  This is all very erratic and there seems to be no pattern to it. 

This is NOT an isolated problem with just my notebook.  I will post links to other complaints about this to you below. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16834146609&cm_re=Lenovo_G550-_-34-146-609...

If you scroll down on these reviews you will find many customers who own this notebook who are complaining about the touch pad. 

Here is another thread of Dell notebook users complaining about the ALPS touch pad that displays the exact same problem with my notebook. 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=309852

This professional review also notes the bad touchpad response.  They also believe it is due to the ALPS hardware.  Apparently Lenovo decided it would give them more profit to switch to a cheaper touchpad from an unreliable manufacturer.  THIS IS NOT WHERE YOU SHOULD BE CUTTING CORNERS ON A LAPTOP!

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5205&review=lenovo+g550

Quoted "Lenovo transitioned to a new touchpad on the G550, switching from the Synaptics model on the G530 to an ALPS pad. The ALPS pad doesn't have as quick of a refresh rate, so at times it feels like the pointer is lagging behind your finger. Another problem is the surface isn't as sensitive for users who like to use tap to click and tap to drag frequently"

If this isn't enough evidence that you have a problem with this touchpad then you all need to have your heads examined.  YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THIS TOUCHPAD but no one seems to care at Lenovo. 

I have contacted your technical support and all they suggest is I reinstall the OS, which I have already done.  They also suggested I send in the notebook.  Send it in for what?  They will just tell me that it is normal and they found nothing wrong with it.  They don't have a clue about this issue. 

If Lenovo has any interest in customer satisfaction, they need to step up and resolve this problem.  I purchased a notebook so I could use it mainly on my lap.  I don't want to have to attach a mouse in order to move the cursor around the screen, that defeats the purpose of using a laptop. 

I have used both IBM thinkpads, and Lenovo products before with the Synaptics touchpad and have never had an issue before.  This notebook is totally useless to me the way the touchpad currently works.  Don't get me wrong.  I really like this notebook except for the touchpad issue.  However, I use this so much - I'm about ready to ask for my money back from Newegg.com. 

I would like to ask for Lenovo to either fix this problem or offer me a refund so I can purchase another model that does not have this issue.  THIS ISSUE NEEDS TO GO TO YOUR ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT FOR RESOLUTION!

I am willing to work with you on this problem.  Feel free to contact me and I will assist you anyway I can.  But if you continue to refuse to help me with this issue, this will be the last dollar you ever receive from me. 

Sincerely, 

Moderator Note; s/n edited for members own protection

[andyP Community SuperMod]

digitaleagle, welcome to the forum,

as you will have read in the rules, when you joined the forum, you will have seen that this is a peer to peer forum and is not designed as a dedicated and staffed support channel. There are however some Lenovo employees who take part and assist members in their free time.

I've searched this board for "G550 touchpad" and found three threads; this one of course, Touch-Pad becomes choppy and Disable alps touchpad in G550 (which isn't really complaining about the touchpad at all).

There doesn't seem to be anyone so vehemently slamming the G550 touchpad as you are in some of the boards you linked to, some complain it's too sensitive when reviewers have stated that e.g. "the surface isn't as sensitive for users who like to use tap to click and tap to drag frequently", (quote from NBR). Some even have it in their pros at newegg.

Judging by the number of members complaining about the touchpad here since the system came onto the market, in comparison to other problems, I'm beginning to think, due to you shouting, that it may be possible you have received a system with a defective touchpad. Maybe you should civily ask service to take a look at it for you?

And no I'm not employed by Lenovo.

[digitaleagle]

OK - I'm done.  All I can say is that Lenovo has been no help to me at all wtih this issue and I am currently trying to get a refund through Newegg.com, (who does care about customer service) 

If I am fortunate enough to get my money back - it will be good ridance forever to Lenovo.  If you spent a little more time on the Web you would find that Lenovo does not have a good or even fair customer service track record nor is their quality even close to when IBM had control over the product. 

This of course is just my opinion, which I'm sure in your book has no merit at all.   

[neercsneerg]

I have a brand new g550 and the left click stopped working. It now always right clicks, even if I tap on the trackpad. Any ideas?

A fresh install of windows 7 solves the problem for a short while, then its back to the same problem. I'll be sending this thing back shortly if I cannot figure this out.

[norjore]

I am experiencing a greater problem as my mousepad doesn't respond at all. I'm using the USB mouse, but that's not suitable on airplanes, etc. I have looked at everything that I can think of in terms of setup and troubleshooting. It appears the ALPS is defective.

[pederacer]

I too have started having similar problems.  I purchased my G550 in November. 

Last week, I noticed my leftclick button was acting like a right click.  A couple of clicks later, everything returned to normal.  This occured a few times over the next few days.  A few left-right clicks, and everything would go back to normal.

Then one day, all I could get was right clicks, and my right button would not work.  Tapping also produced rightclicks.  I tried removing and reinstalling drivers/ALPS software, no luck.  I did find that plugging in an external mouse would revert my left clicks to normal, but I had completely lost use of my right click unless using an external mouse.  I don't right click much, but this was still an annoyance.  I did a little searchin online, but did not find much.  So, I decided to wait it out and see if an update would come out, or possibly my mouse would return to normal.

Finally this morning, my touchpad just lost it.  It has been right clicking constantly.  Plugging in an external mouse did not help this time.  I had to use FN+F8 to disable the touchpad before I could even use my external mouse. 

This is becoming a pain, I wanted a laptop for portability.  I don't want to have to carry around a mouse with me, but I guess that is what I'll have to do unless someone can find a fix.  I doubt Newegg will even exchange this after 2 months.  This laptop has been performed well up to this point, but I find it rather disappointing that after only a few months, it is already having problems.

I hope someone can help us!

[digitaleagle]

I can tell you that this is an ALPS Electronics issue across the board.  If you surf the net you will find lots of people complaining about various issues with ALPS touchpads.   I believe Lenovo chose this as a cheaper option to make more money on the G550  notebook at their customer's expense. (Along with cutting usb ports, and battery size for the same price as the G530)  Which had a synaptics touchpad. 

I have never received a reply from Lenovo regarding this issue after multiple attempts.  Obviously Lenovo does not care about customer service.  If you don't believe me just do a search on Lenovo service 

Toshiba has a driver on their site that is version 2.9007309a for the Windows 7 32 bit verson.  It still dooesn't work like it should but it is an improvement over the driver that Lenovo recommends. You might try instaling that and see if it helps.  I haven't experienced the other problems that you are reporting.  Maybe it's because I haven't had the laptop long enough yet. 

Lenovo has a defect with either the ALPS hardware or driver or combinaton on this model and refuses to do anything about it. What do we have to do to get their attention?  A class action lawsuit perhaps? 

This will be my last Lenovo product - ever. 

[digitaleagle]

The driver I am using is 7.2.302.203.  There is also a 7.3 driver which I have tried.  All of them still display the severe hesitation problems described above and eratic behavior, like launching programs by itself. The 7.2.302 driver seems to work the best of the worst. 

I downloaded these off of the Toshiba website.  Toshiba seems to take and interest in customer problems much more than Lenovo.  It's a shame that this, otherwise well built notebook is ruined by the total crap touchpad!