Computer Problem: My settings won't stick.

Okay, my computer recently bit the dust and I got a shitty used one to replace it. It’s really shitty. But, as I’m probably not going to be getting a better one for a while (though maybe sooner than I think, as I seem to be constantly fighting the urge to start slamming this one against the table in frustration), I’m trying to make this one less shitty.

It’s a compaq presario, in case that makes a difference.

My main question (for this thread) is this:

I use the touch mouse thing and the default setting is to enable tapping (as in, tapping the pad registers as a click). I don’t like tapping, so I disabled it first thing when I got the computer set up. But then, it came back. So I disabled it again… and it came back. Again and again.

It doesn’t come back right away and there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for why it does. It could be a few hours after I disabled it or a few days. It doesn’t correspond at all to having restarted my computer. It annoys the crap out of me.

So, is there any way to get it to stay disabled? There are other settings that get reset less frequently, but it’s not like everything gets reset all at once. I have a “my documents” toolbar down on my taskbar which disappears occasionally. Sometimes, my wallpaper goes away. But the tapping is by far the most annoying.

It has a lot of other problems, but too many to ask about in this thread. This second one, though, is new and also seriously annoying me:

Firefox has stopped scrolling properly. When I click anywhere on a page other than a link, the blinking text cursor shows up and when I press the down arrow, the cursor moves down. If I press the down arrow without a cursor in place, it moves either to the very bottom of the page or goes nuts and moves up a bit. It used to be that when I’d press the down arrow, it would scroll just a little, so I could scroll all over the place using the arrows.

I’ve run virus scans, defrags, chkdsk, ccleaner scans, you name it. The whole computer is incredibly, horribly slow and buggy and has memory problems, so I’ve been trying to fix it up for a while, but nothing seems to work.

Anyway, any help would be appreciated.

I guess it’s not much help but I would go into Control Panel -> Add Remove Programs and uninstall any software that relates to or controls the mouse, leaving built-in Windows drivers to do their thing.

I have seen “Synaptics Touchpad” or similar programs interfering with the action of the touchpad on laptops and Windows treats them as a PS/2 mouse anyway so I would start there.

Yeah, it definitely sounds like a problem with the driver/proprietary control panel. If you aren’t using any other trackpad only features (like scroll along the side and bottom), then this will probably work. But you’d better make sure you have a USB mouse just in case it doesn’t and you have to install it back.

In fact, I’d consider finding out what trackpad driver you use, and seeing if there’s an upgrade online. Chances are your notebook manufacturer will have at least the original driver on its website. If they have an updated version try that, otherwise, use Google.