Mouse Driver for Satellite laptop

[Richard Russell]

I have a wireless Toshiba laptop A75 S2291. I use XP Pro 2002. I read where people are having various problems with their touch pad. I have had my laptop about 1 1/2 years and so far I have not had any trouble with my touchpad. However, I am having trouble with setting up my Optical Mouse that came from Toshiba. I prefer using the mouse over the touchpad. When I boot up I get a message telling me that new hardware has been discovered. Then I get a message saying that XP does not recognize the mouse and continuing to load it can make XP unstable... When I close that box, another opens prompting me to go find the driver. I thought I had down loaded the drive some time ago. But I could never figure out how to activate it, because of all the Apls pointing device choices. Usually, after I close all the boxes, the mouse that is plugged into USB port works. Sometimes, it does not. I unplug it and plug it back in and it works. That is what I have been doing for sometime.

The other day my computer froze up on the desktop and after I could not figure out how to correct the issue, I called a Toshiba tech. We ended up in the safe mode and after different options; we removed an unnamed device from the startup menu. My laptop then booted up.

I then asked the tech what I should do about a driver for the mouse. He suggested that I go to Toshiba's website and look for one. I looked the mouse drivers and could not find one for my A75 Satellite. Then I went to the internet and discovered this website.

My questions are: Does anyone know how to fix this problem? Is it easier jus to buy a mouse that XP recognizes? Can the touchpad and a mouse be activated at the same time? If I don't have a driver for the mouse, why does it function anyway?

Thanks,
Richard

[_`_]

[Richard Russell]

Ugly User,

Thanks a lot for the info. When I bought my laptop from Toshiba in 12-04 there were bonus packages that I could choose from. I chose one that included the Toshiba Optical Mouse, a Toshiba Keyboard, and Defcon CL Cable Lock, which I might need if I worked for one of our government agencies. But there was not a CD for the mouse. I think I will look one more time on Toshiba's website, and if I cannot find it, I will just purchase another one at the local Radio Shack. My recollection is that I downloaded the driver some time ago. When click on my C drive, I see about 25 logos that are listed as Alps-pointing device. I clicked on a lot of them trying to see if I could find the one that will install the driver, but I get the message, can’t open unless you give the program. I also followed the prompts to find the program and end up at a MS website that does not help.

I also was looking around in the Device Manager and when I opened Mice & Other pointing devices, it showed a mouse and said, “unknown device”. I went to Mouse Properties and it also showed a mouse as “unknown”.

When I boot up now, I am trying to understand why am I still getting the message, “found new hardware, Alps Pointing-Device”, when mouse is not even connected to my laptop. Then a box opens with the message, “Found new hardware. The software you are installing for this hardware Alps Pointing-device has not passed Windows Logo testing to verify its compatibility with windows XP.” Then it gives a warning paragraph about making Windows unstable now or even in the future if I continue. If I hit the continue button, a then “files needed” box opens asking for “’Apfiltr sys’ on Alps Pointing device Driver for Windows 2000 XP setup Disk 1 is needed.” When I look at all the Alps logos on my C drive, there is a logo that says Apfiltr sys. But it doesn’t open.

Anyway, I just want to clean out the Alps pointing-device and get another mouse. In fact, I went out a few minutes ago and when I booted up my laptop froze on the desktop when the box opened and asked me did I want to continue. How do I get it to stop recognizing the mouse, when I don’t even have it hooked up to the computer? I looked in the add and remove program and it is not there. Do I remove the logo in the Device Manager that says “unknown device”? Or, do I do something in the start up menu, which could not seem to get into?

Thanks,
Richard

[_`_]

You're welcome. I think we are mixing two things here. So lets clarify somethings first.

Your touchpad is the ALPS POINTING DEVICE.

The other optical mouse you have is NOT the alps thing. Its a different mouse.

So, what you basically need to do to get BOTH working is:

1. Unhook everything from your laptop. All external mouse, printer etc.

2. Restart. Ignore all the warnings you get for now. Then go to your device manager. Select and Remove infact every device there that has that yellow exclamation mark next to it.

3. Reboot your system. Now ignore all the warnings for now that show up when you start.

4. Go to support.toshiba.com website. There select your laptop model and download the touchpad driver for your model. Here is the direct link:

Alps Touchpad Driver for Windows XP/2000 (v6.0.303.5; 05-26-2004; 2.43M)

So download it, install it. Click YES to those windows logo testing thing if it shows up during installation.

-> If while installing it says you already have the driver installed and do you want to uninstall it, click YES. So that would uninstall it. Now reboot and again run that downloaded file to install it. This would make sure you have the driver installed.

5. Now reboot your computer. You should not see any warnings or messages this time. And your touchpad should work fine at this point.

6. If we are good upto this point, now hook in your Toshiba Optical Mouse to the laptop. Windows XP would take a minute maybe, then would come up with a pop-up message near your clock, saying something like the device is installed and ready to use.

Because generally optical mice dont need a seperate driver. For example, if your Toshiba Optical Mouse looks like this, it says there too that no driver needed for XP.

7. Now you should be able to use both your touchpad and your optical mouse, at the same time, without any problems.

8. Lastly, reboot to make sure everything is fine and it should be.

[Richard Russell]

Hello Ugly User,

Thanks for your patience! Your advice corrected the problem. You are good! You cleared one central misconception I had. I thought the messages I was getting were related to the mouse. I did not realize the Alps pointing device was referring to the touchpad. I never saw those messages before until I got the mouse and plugged it in, so I assumed it was the mouse. I have never had any problem with the keyboard that came with the mouse and I use it all the time. What is really puzzling to me now is why the driver was not already installed, since I bought my laptop in 12-04 and the date on when they made the driver available is 5-26-04. It is possible it was setting in a warehouse somewhere before 5-26-06.

There were no (!) marks in the device manager. When I went to Toshiba’s website and found the driver, I realized I had seen that before a month ago when I was trying find the driver, but did not know that was the one I needed. Again, I thought I was not touchpad problems. I did not realize that the touchpad and the mouse run off of the same driver. Of course, it makes sense to do it that way.

Computers can make a person fell quite stupid, when the problem ends up being a simple one. It is like a professor told many uears ago. 90% of solving a problem, comes down to asking the right question(s).

A Big Thanks!
Richard

[_`_]

Well, they say all is well that ends well. Or maybe works well! Glad that its fixed.

So, enjoy your mice and you're welcome anytime.