Touchpad freezes

Question

Has anyone come up with a fix for this problem? As stated,, the cursor freezes when I use the touchpad. In the course of troubleshooting this I have done the following:

• Replaced the keyboard (Type Cover FMM-00001
• Removed the HID Mouse drivers several times
• Run a SFC scan
• Reset the computer to factory default
• Rebooted many many many times

The symptom is that the cursor will move (most of the time) when I drag my finger on the touchpad. Then it freezes until I take my finger off, wait about 5 seconds, then try again, at which case it repeats. Move, freeze, repeat. I don't have this problem with a USB mouse or a Bluetooth mouse. This is just the touchpad and I have just yesterday replaced it.

I have tried playing with various combinations of sensitivity and speed but that that only made things worse. It is now on low sensitivity and 50% speed, which at least works some of the time.

I have seen the question posted here before but I did not get the sense that there was any resolution. Is there a fix for this or does the entire computer have to be replaced. Since I also see the problem being brought up with the Windows Surface Pro 7, obviously I would need something other than a Surface Pro ... unless it is a Type Cover specific problem.

I am still under warranty so I can send the whole thing back if I need to, but I really do like this machine in all other ways.

Can anyone help me fix this? Thanks for thinking about this.

Answer 1

Hi MikeMikeRC,

Thanks for reaching out to Microsoft Community and posting your inquiry. We appreciate the effort in performing initial troubleshooting steps.

We suggest the methods below to troubleshoot the issue:

- Run Surface Diagnostic Toolkit and check Windows Update.

• Check the device's temperature.
• Check the task manager device performance to verify if the system is lagging/slowly performing. 
• Run the System File Check in Windows 10.
• Enable the Enhance pointer precision. Go to search bar > Search for  Control Panel > click on Hardware and Sound, then click onMouse (under **Devices and Printers). >**In **Mouse Properties,**go to pointer options > then enable the Enhance pointer precision. 
• Install the drivers package. Check the specific OS build of your Windows Settings> System> About. Download the driver and firmware for Surface, choose Surface Pro 6 and click download on the next page. Please choose the .msi file that matches your current OS Build and click Next. After the download, runand installthe .msi then Restart the Surface Device.

Keep us updated by replying on this thread.

Answer 2

Hi John,

Thank you for your considered advice. I did what you suggested and the problem persists. Grrrrr. Any other thoughts?

• Run Surface Diagnostic Toolkit and check Windows Update. The updates were current. I let the entire diagnostic run. No problems found.
• Check the device's temperature. I do not know how to do that. I know that if I have the device set as tablet and lying on a table it does get hot. In my current situation I'm using it with the kickstand so it is very cool to the touch.
• Check the task manager device performance to verify if the system is lagging/slowly performing. I don't know how to do that. I looked at the CPU and Disk and with the percentages very low (single digits) I have the problem.
• Run the System File Check in Windows 10.

  	I did not mention it in my original post, but that was one of the things I did.  I just did it again and, in addition, I ran DISM because someone recommended the combination in a web page I found in my exploration: 
  
  		DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth 
  
  			No problems found.	 
  
  		sfc /scannow 
  
  			No problems found. 
  

• Enable the Enhance pointer precision. Go to search bar > Search for Control Panel > click on Hardware and Sound, then click on Mouse (under Devices and Printers). > In Mouse Properties, go to pointer options > then enable the Enhance pointer precision.

  	I just did that and it did not help.  I also tried resetting the mouse parameters and that did not help.  I left "enhance precision" on. 
  

• Install the drivers package. Check the specific OS build of your Windows Settings > System > About. Download the driver and firmware for Surface, choose Surface Pro 6 and click download on the next page. Please choose the .msi file that matches your current OS Build and click Next. After the download, run and install the .msi then Restart the Surface Device.

  	I had a problem with that one.  I did not find a package that corresponded to my build.  I got the latest one and installed that. Nothing changed.
  

Answer 3

Thank you for confirming, MikeMikeRC. Please boot the device to the UEFI settings and check if the issue would persists on the UEFI. Turn off the device > press the volume up then the power button for 15 seconds then test the touchpad.

Answer 4

Thank you for confirming, MikeMikeRC. Please boot the device to the UEFI settings and check if the issue would persists on the UEFI. Turn off the device > press the volume up then the power button for 15 seconds then test the touchpad.

I'm not sure if I did this correctly. I booted up with the volume and power buttons as you said. I then got into a menu. I assume you just wanted me to move the mouse around to see if it was fixed? I did that but I don't know if it is fixed or not as it takes some small amount of time for me to see the problem. It is hard to know what is going on with this problem because the symptom is intermittent. Sometimes I can go for 15 minutes and the cursor is fine. Then it will stick and not move at all. Then it will start up again and stop a second later. It is very variable. It SEEMS as if I did not have the problem just moving around that screen. But since i was not actually doing any work that required significant cursor movements in a document, for example, I can't be sure. I did not SEE any problem on that menu screen.

When I exited and the system restarted the problem was immediately apparent. I ran msinfo32 and included the screen shot if that is any help. It shows that UEFI is the system I booted to. At least that is what I think it shows.

If I misunderstood your instructions I'll try again.

Thanks for your continued help.

Answer 5

We appreciate your confirmation, MikeMikeRC.

The purpose of booting the device to the UEFI is to replicate if the issue happens on the UEFI. The UEFI settings is an environment outside the software Windows system so any issue that happens on the UEFI could be a potential hardware-related.

If the issue doesn't happen on the UEFI, we suggest the USB recovery image. This process will wipe everything out on your device and install a fresh operating system. Please make sure that you have back up your files and data either in an External Hard drive or use your OneDrive app. You’ll need a USB (USB stick) with at least 16GB/32 GB and format it clean (make sure that you have chosen FAT32 as the file system while formatting the USB). You'll need a PC running Windows 10 or Surface Device to download the system files/recovery image on the Microsoft Website.    Note: USB/Flash drives are the only required device for you to perform the follow steps below successfully.• Download the System Files or Recovery Image:1. Go to the Download a recovery image for your Surface.2. If you’re signed in with your Microsoft account, you will be prompt to choose the device from the list of devices on your Microsoft Account. If you’re not signed in, choose a product on the drop-down menu and provide the Serial Number of the device.3. Once the download is finished, go to the file, right-click and choose Extract all then choose the USB/Flash drive.

• Perform the USB recovery: 

1. Shutdown the device by pressing/holding the power button for 10 seconds until it’s off. 
2. Insert the USB recovery drive into the USB port. 
3. Press and hold the volume-down (-) rocker. 
4. Press and release the power button. 
5. When the Surface logo appears, release the volume-down (-) rocker. 
6. Choose your language options and keyboard layout. 
7. Select Troubleshoot. 
8. Select Recover from a Drive. Choose Remove Everything and Fully Clean the Drive. Recovering this PC. If prompted for BitLocker Key, tap Skip this Drive. 
9. Select “Recovery”.