Touchpads on a notebook PC is essential in navigating whatever is on the LCD. With a proper working touchpad, everything is fine and at times you might even forget you’re not using a mouse. When the touchpad does not work as expected, that is when you start hyperventilating as you desperately search for a mouse.
There are reports that some MSI Wind netbooks are being shipped with Sentilic touchpads instead of the standard-issue ones from Synaptic. Sentilic touchpads are fine but they are no match for the Cadillac of touchpads by Synaptic. So, what will you be missing out on without the Synaptic touchpads?
1. Scrolling. The Sentilic touchpad does not allow scrolling, both vertical and horizontal. When I have no access to a mouse, the scroll capability of the trackpad becomes essential making a Synaptic touchpad’s scrolling capability essential.
2. Tap-to-click Off: Sentilic touchpads do not allow the tap-to-click to be turned off. Synaptic touchpads do. Why is this important? If your palm were to touch the touchpad accidentally, you would be experiencing extreme levels of frustration due to accidental clicks. If you have a mouse, or if you prefer to click the button, you would want to turn off the tap-to-click function. Synaptic touchpads give you the option to work as you would want to.
MSI is offering updated drivers, which I would assume allows the turning off of the tap-to-click feature. I don’t think that scrolling capabilities can be added via a driver update, but I can be wrong. Ah, there is an update with a Wind user who has updated the drivers and claims the drivers are “complete rubbish”. Here’s why:
1. Scroll still does not work. I guess I was right. There are click zones for horizontal scrolling where you click the corners with your fingers. The user shares that vertical scrolling does not work at all even with click zones.
2. Disable pad while typing: Inconsistent functionality and led to keyboard lag.
3. Questionable support for Sentilic touchpads on other operating systems.
4. Driver download page password protected for manufacturers only.
I believe MSI needs a customer support expert ASAP. And procurement would do well to return to integrating Synaptic touchpads into the Wind.
Source: MsiWind.net via Engadget
[tags]MSI, MSI Wind, Synaptic, Synaptic Touchpad, Sentelic, Sentelic Touchpad[/tags]
{ 2 comments }
> MSI is offering updated drivers, which I would assume
> allows the turning off of the tap-to-click feature.
Ixnay. The Sentelic driver is little help. The only feature worth mentioning that the driver adds is the ability to *entirely* disable the touchpad while typing.
There’s been a fair amount of confusion over what’s happened with these Winds. MSI hasn’t helped much by releasing the machines with the Synaptics driver, which confuses some users into believing they have a Synaptics touchpad too. The Sentelic driver also has caused confusion as MSI falsely claims it resolves the issue.
Also, while the Sentelic touchpad does not support “slide to scroll” it does support “tap to scroll”… it’s not very effective, and only works vertically, but it’s worth mentioning.
username: Thanks for the update. It is unfortunate that MSI had to go for the cheapo alternative without really studying the impact that might have on the users. The trackpad is something we take for granted, but when it’s not working, it’s a big pain to deal with, esp. if you don’t have a handy mouse with you. And I will assume that most MSI Wind users wouldn’t want to carry around a mouse since they got a netbook to travel simply and light.
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