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Acer Synaptics Touchpad - Finding Internal PS/2 port in Device Manager
I just had to replace the top cover, including touchpad, on an Acer 5741 running Windows 7 64 Home Premium, because the old cover had cracked near the hinge. The new cover appears identical to the old one, and everything works, but the symantics touchpad software doesn't recognize the touchpad as a touchpad; it shows as a "wheel mouse on PS/2 port". Therefore, I can't turn off the incredibly annoying "tap to click" function. The option to disable tap to click is grayed out... it appears that's because the touch pad is seen as a "mouse" not a touch pad, as it was before.
When no drivers are installed, Device Manager just sees it as a PS2 Mouse. When drivers are installed, Device Manager sees it as Synaptics PS/2 Port Touchpad.
The OS is entirely up to date. I have tried the latest Synaptics drivers, I have tried using the original driver version that came with the laptop, and I have tried a couple of versions in between. I have repeatedly uninstalled the "touchpad" or "mouse" in device manager, and have also uninstalled and reinstalled drivers.
Yesterday I tried removing the laptop's keyboard to expose the ribbon cable that connects the touchpad to the board underneath. I thought that if I disconnected and reconnected the cable, that device manager might see the touchpad AS a touchpad, rather than as a mouse. No luck. I tried this with the computer powered up in Windows, and Windows never identified that I had disconnected the touchpad, although of course it didn't function with the ribbon cable disconnected. It worked again when I reconnected it, but again, no "reaction" from Windows to either action.
I"m now wondering if I can "uninstall" the PS/2 port (which I guess is the connector, not a traditional PS/2 port like on the back of a PC) in device manager, restart, and hope the computer then reinstalls the PS/2 port and recognizes it as having a touchpad connected?
My question after the long post above, is which listing under "device manager" actually represents the PS/2 port? Is the port itself (not the mouse or pointing device) under "System Devices" somewhere? Or is it under "Universal Serial Bus Controllers" somewhere? Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I identify this port in the device manager?
Thanks!