I need advice

[enismirdal]

Right, some of you know that the long-awaited laptop has now arrived. But all is not well.

Every few minutes, when I'm just doing general stuff, typing, whatever, the cursor, wherever it is on the screen, will suddenly jump up to the top right-hand corner and click. Which is bloody annoying and further complicated by the fact that that is where the little 'x' button that means 'close this window' happens to be. So I'll be in the middle of something and suddenly my clever little cursor will decide to close IE for me.

This is annoying.

Additionally, I'm not sure if the DVD play will actually play DVDs (since, apparently, the only DVD in the house is a rather dodgy one that I haven't seen work anywhere yet, therefore the test was hardly conclusive).

Now, my computer is covered by warranty. However, considering Evesham's track record so far, I suspect that if I let it go now, I won't see it again till I'm back in Cambridge already. So, do I deal with the laptop as it is, or take the huge risk of phoning them, telling them there's a problem, only to be told they are going to ignore the fact that when we bought it, we were told the first 12 months were on-site warranty, i.e. fixed at my house, and then watch them send it back to base for weeks and weeks.

Additionally, this will require me to back up all the files I spent most of Tues evening moving across, and probably delete/lock some of them to keep the nosy technicians out of them. This will mean probably putting them on my old computer, since no way will fewer than 20 floppies hold it all, and I don't have/can't afford a USB pen right now.

The terms of the contract seem to give Evesham virtual omnipotence in the matter, and I don't seem to have any rights at all. I don't want to lose my laptop, and although I want the problem fixed cos it's effing annoying, I also don't want the hassle of a second round of, "Where the f*** is my laptop already?!"

Any thoughts?

EDIT: I found an altrnative option, go me. Brother creature had a look at it, and after lots of digging around in hardware/software settings and the like, discovered that the touchpad is the evil work of some people called Synaptics. Going on their site, he peeked at the FAQ, which said, "If your cursor is behaving erratically and the advanced features keep disabling themselves even though no other mouse is plugged in, yu probably need to update your drivers." This, he duly did, and we'll have to see what happens.

Either way, whatever he's done, it now gives me access to the settings and advanced features of the touchpad. So I bumped sensitivity down a notch, and am working out which, if any, of the features I want.

My brother is an arrogant tosspot, but he is also incredibly clever.

Comments

[cjwatson]

IIRC that often means that the system's using the wrong mouse protocol. I think that's set in Control Panel -> Mouse in Windows, although it's been a while.

[emperor]

I suspect this isn't what you wanted to hear, but I really think if it's still not working, you should get it fixed, whilst its still under warranty - laptop repairs can be expensive otherwise.

If they told you one thing, but your contract says another, you could mention Trading Standards to them? In any case, don't buy another computer from there...

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

Look under the 'Mouse' screen in Control Panel. Most laptops have proprietary touchpad drivers with weird features - jumps, gestures, scrollbar areas. At the very least, tick the option that turns off the touchpad while you're typing.

[girlofthemirror.livejournal.com]

I had a mouse problem with my evesham laptop, as you know. To fix it on site the said they couldn't get anyone out for weeks. But when I sent it i to themtheygot it back in a week. And they phoned me up as there was still problem with some bit of software Ihad installed. He said he would either wipe the hard drive or tell me how to fix it the LONG way. It turned that it wasjust me having been a wolly and taken the mouse off rather than just disabling it. Any way, thatisn'tthe important bit, the point was that they would probably call you before they did somethinglike deleting loads of stuff. So Iwould send it off to them. I have only had good experiances with evesham, so maybethe whole it being late fiasco was not at all typical.

[enismirdal.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, Evesham have promised to phone me on 3/4 occasions an have failed to do so on all of them. I suspect that your local showroom is infinitely superior to ours on the customer service front.

You know my laptop is only here now because they decided to deliver it without the case badge? If they'd waited for a 2in. long piece of decorative plastic to arrive, it would have taken at least another week!

[girlofthemirror.livejournal.com]

I doubt the localshowroom are the same people as the local fixing things people. You never know!

[lifes-a-dream.livejournal.com]

Buy a mouse. That's what I did.

I hate those damn touchpads...

[ex-fimbreth.livejournal.com]

Hopefully your tosspot's fix will help. That is what I was going to suggest. My new Toshiba laptop had an *incredibly* sensitive touchpad, and I lost I don't know how many posts and emails, because the screen would go all wonky and start opening up other windows and "page back"-ing multiple pages at a time. I desensitized the touchpad and made the corner window thingies a bit smaller, and it's helped tremendously.