Re: [tlug] HP Envy 15 first impressions

[Jim Breen <jimbreen@example.com>]

On 13 April 2012 09:39, CL <az.4tlug@example.com> wrote:

> On my ThinkPad, I turned it off permanently in BIOS so it is not OS
> dependent any more.  Don't know if it is an option on your HP.  My wife
> and daughter insisted that it be left turned on on their WIN7 powered
> ThinkPad, making the touchpad the second reason why theirs is so unusable.
>
> Still don't know which SOB to blame for putting a "pointing device" in
> the exact spot where I rest my hands to type.  And it looks as though
> every producer is making it their standard.  Give me a keyboard clittie
> any day of the week.

I have a good reason for leaving it enabled on my Compaq CQ61
(Ubuntu 10.04)  Every now and then the mouse pointer function goes
haywire. Text selection happens at random and none of the mouse buttons
work. The only way out was a hard reboot. Infuriating when it happened 3 times
in one hour. Searching Ubuntu and X archives never resulted in a fix.

Then one day during one of these episodes I happened to try the
touch pad, and bingo the problem vanished. Whatever state the
pointer handler got itself into was reset, and everything was OK.
Now whenever the problem happens there is an immediate fix
available.

[Apart from that problem, my CQ61 is great (budget) Linux
notebook. The 4Gb of RAM is more than I need (with 32-bit I can
only use 3Gb of it), after 2.5 years I'm only 20% into the 300GB disk,
and it has ample processor grunt for me. Battery life, is not great, but
it rarely is away from the mains anyway. For $500 I'm not complaining -
10 years ago I was paying $3k for a much weaker system.]

Jim

-- 
Jim Breen
Adjunct Snr Research Fellow, Clayton School of IT, Monash University
Webmaster: Hawthorn Rowing Club, Treasurer: Japanese Studies Centre
Graduate student: Language Technology Group, University of Melbourne