My Sony Vaio Touchpad freezes

Question

My Sony VAIO laptop's (SVE14A2M1EB) touchpad freezes once in a while (say every 2-3 minutes, but it's very variable). It suddenly stops responding completely for 0.5-10 seconds and then spontaneously works absolutely fine. When it freezes, no feedback anywhere on the touchpad makes it work again, ie. there isn't a dead spot somewhere in the touchpad.

I have Synaptics Clickpad V8.1 for modifying mouse properties (ie. SmartSense, sensitivity etc.), and one of the options shows me the cursor location/input location (see the last picture in this thread posted by japzone - the map on the left shows, when activated, the location of the curser Use touchpad while "typing"?), and here's the thing: While the mouse is completely frozen, the "cursor location"-map actually shows, that the mouse is working, ie. it follows the touchpad input. That makes me think, that it's not a hardware problem, but more of a software problem.

Other than that, the multifinger gestures and the tapping doesn't work sometimes. Both when the touchpad is frozen and isn't. That isn't a problem for me, but it might be helpful trying to diagnose the actual reason for the problem.

I've tried to:

• Install drivers (and other things) from the laptop's support http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/product/SVE14A2M1EB/updates
• Try toinstall drivers directly from Windows by letting Windows search for the drivers itself
• I've also tried to change the settings in Synaptic Clickpad by increasing/decreasing the different values like sensitivity
• I've also tried to change the settings in Synaptic Clickpad by increasing/decreasing the different values like sensitivity
• Reinstall Windows 8
• Turn the laptop off, remove battery+charger, keep pressing the on/off button for a while, and then plug everything back and turn it on.

EDIT: I've plugged an external mouse and it works fine. It doesn't solve the touchpad problem though.

Solution

When frozen try a 3 finger tap. Use 3 fingers and double tap. Bam! It should start working again.

Comments

[Freeman]

What about the Windows 7? did you have same problem in win7?

[Ali]

I don't know since the laptop comes with Windows 8. Do you think that the OS might be the problem?

[Logman]

hard to follow you, but if you attach an external mouse will it work while your touch pad freezes? Can you maneuver with keyboard shortcuts while your touch is frozen? I would remove all traces of the touch pad utilities and drivers, and start from scratch and add software slowly until it acts up.

[Freeman]

@Ali, such a nice name, I love that :) , you know, Windows 8 has many problem with some hardware, so if it possible,change your windows or check it via compatible mode...

[Ali]

@Logman: I've edited the post: External mouse via USB works, but doesn't solve the touchpad problem.

[Ali]

@Sam, thanks! :-) How do I check it via compatible mode?