Hi guys,

I just got a laptop from ebay and am very happy with it. It's a Compaq Armada E500. It has a Touch Pad that you use with your finger to control the cursor.
Does anyone know how to adjust the "Pressure"? It's very very sensitive. I'm constantly dragging folders into folders.
I've looked all over Control Panel and nothing seems to be there in regards to the pressure of the Touch Pad.
Or...maybe it's not adjustable.

Thanks for any help

Peter

[This message has been edited by Musicman22 (edited 09-25-2005).]

Sorry, I don't know. Probably is. Or, use a mouse.

I too doubt the pressure is adjustable.
At work I used to use that laptop, but replaced the touchpad immediately for a trackerball.... much easier to work with.
The trackerball-unit is standard Compaq and switching is very easy (30 secs)

The pressure (sensitivity) is adjustable and all of the adjustments can be accessed via the control panel, then by selecting mouse.

Cheers,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Fran...great website. How did you find that one. Looks like exactly what I need. But, before I download anything I'm gonna check with the manufacturer, which is Compaq, to see if anything is already in my laptop.

Gary...I looked in Control Panel under mouse and it didn't say anything specific about the Touch Pad. Would it be part of the mouse or someother setting that I'm not understanding?

Thank guys,

Peter

Peter,

I'll fire up my laptop and give you the specifics when I get my newspaper column out of the way, which should be sometime in the next few minutes.

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

I just completely disable the option which allows me to 'drag' without a mouse click. Its just like using a regular mouse.

Peter,

Just fired up the laptop and it handles the pad just as if it were a normal mouse. When you click on mouse in the control panel, it just says the pad is a Pointing Device on the PS2 port. However, all of the adjustments such as speed, acelleration, etc, effect the touch pad until a mouse is connected. When the mouse is plugged in to the USB the computer immediately recognized the mouse as well, and both the USB mouse and the touch pad were effected equally. I assume they are connected in parallel. This was done using Windows 2000 Professional. I'll try it later on using my Dell with Windows XP Home Edition and let you know what happens.

Good Luck,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Just checked the Dell with Windows XP Home Edition, clicked on control panel, then clicked on mouse and it revealed the touch pad. Same type of control features as with any mouse, but with one neat additition, an automatic scrolling feature, which can be neat for lyrics.

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Fran, you were right on the money. You must have had the same problem too. I do things slowly and cautously. I contacted Compaq (which is HP), and they told me the same thing. So I went to the website and downloaded the drivers and I just installed them in my laptop. So the adjustments are all there now for me to play with.
Thank you.

Gary, you were correct too in your instructions because you already have the drivers in your laptop and since I didn't, I couldn't figure out what was wrong.
I'm a happy camper now thanks too you guys.
Thank you.

Peter

I just got finished adjusting the Touch Pad on my laptop. WOW. What a difference.
Thanks again, guys.

Peter

ANOTHER PROBLEM

When I connect a line from my output stereo speaker jack to my mixing board I hear crackling noises. Also I can hear my finger going across the Touch Pad. When I open up my Cakewalk program I get a high pitched sound. When I close Cakewalk the sound goes away.
If I just use my headphones it's fine or listen to the laptop with it's own little speakers none of this happens.
I tried using different wires, different connectors, still the same
When I open Cakewalk without the wire connected it plays fine. I'm probably doing something wrong...at least I hope that's all it is.
Your help is greatly appreciated....again.
Thanks,

Peter


[This message has been edited by Musicman22 (edited 09-27-2005).]

[This message has been edited by Musicman22 (edited 09-27-2005).]

John,

What Gary means is, when you click on Mouse in Control Panel, Mouse Properties opens. Then click on Device Settings, then click on Settings. In the next window, on the left, you'll see Virtual Scrolling. Click on that and you'll read about it there.It's pretty good.

Peter

Peter and others,

The problem with most laptops is the power supplies, which at best are awful. The solution to eliminating the problems is a ground defeater, which cost under $1. I have recommended this to a number of performers, and every one of them has reported 100 percent success in eliminating the noise problems.

Cheers,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Gary...would Home Depot have a Ground defeater?
And thanks for the info.

Peter

Peter....
Gary recommended one for my laptop. Got it at Home Depot for 69 cents....and it solved the problem.
Eddie

A three prong adapter..and don't connect the ground...It has worked 100% of the time someone had a problem with noise due to the power supply..I know a lot of people say it;s a NO NO...So far for me ...it's been a GO GO!!


Fifty nine cents....

[This message has been edited by Fran Carango (edited 09-27-2005).]

I went to Home Depot, Office Depot and Radio Shack and no one heard of it. Does it have a different name besides Ground Defeater?

Peter

Peter, just try the adapter plug..you probably have one laying around the house..I've got a quarter[25 cents], that says it will fix your problem..




[This message has been edited by Fran Carango (edited 09-28-2005).]

You guys are to much.

Imagine, a little adapter like that eliminated the noise.
And Fran, I like your little picture...nice touch.
OK. Little by little, because of "you guys", my laptop is coming together.

There's one other thing that's happening. When I tab from Cakewalk to Windows Media player I get a hiccup or a hesitation. What's that all about? Has anyone experienced this?
Thank you,

Peter

[This message has been edited by Musicman22 (edited 09-28-2005).]

I don't know about the hiccup. But, if I eat cake before opening windows, I often burp.


Sorry Peter. The Devil made me do it.

Eddie

Peter,

I suspect that you have lots of items running in the background, small programs that you don't know about, but nevetheless, they slow down the computer and eat up lots of memory.

If you have windows ME or an earlier version, click start, click run and type msconfig in the box, then press enter. Now tab to the Startup tab and uncheck everything but your antivirus protection and CD burner programs. Then restart the computer and it should help eleviate the hicup problem. Don't believe it will do much for belches, though!

Good Luck,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Gary,

There were 6 programs running in the Startup.
I closed all six one by one one so there's nothing running at start up and I'm still getting the hiccup when I go from Cakewalk to Windows Media Player. Would I be better off using Winamp?

Peter

[This message has been edited by Musicman22 (edited 09-28-2005).]

[This message has been edited by Musicman22 (edited 09-28-2005).]

Yes,

Winamp is a great program and I use it all the time now. Download the free one, which has lots of wonderful features, including an excellent graphic EQ.

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Hi Peter
If you see programs running under the start tab that you do not use then disable them from within the relevant programs, or uninstall them. Do NOT disable them under the start tab, as this is purely for troubleshooting and setup problems, also some programs in this menu are linked together, even though they seem completely separate, so re-nable them all and follow the instructions above.
HESITATION PROBLEM
This is caused by lack of enough Ram memory, and is the way Windows works to solve the problem.
When you open a program it is loaded from the hard disk into Ram, (Not all the Ram may be needed for the program) if you now load another program then this is also loaded into Ram, however if there is not enough Ram available, then Windows copies part of the first program to a temporary file on the hard drive, (Called a paging file) before loading the new program, when you switch back to the first program, Windows first copies part of the second program to the paging file, to clear enough space in Ram memory, to reload the part of the first program that had previously been copied to the paging file, this swapping between the hard disk and Ram is why you get the hesitation, this is usually worse in laptops as to save power they normally use slower hard disks then desktop and tower computers.
The more Ram memory you have then the less windows will have to swap files between hard disk and Ram.
Hope this helps.

Bill

Bill

Thanks for that information, very interesting.
I have 512 Ram in there now and I thought it was enough. My laptop has Windows XP Professional which includes Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook and maybe another one.

The only programs I'll be using are: Word, (for my lyrics) Windows Media Player, (for my mp3's) and Cakewalk (for my midi sequences).
Do you suggest I put in more ram? And how much more?

Do you think it would help if I remove Powerpoint, Outlook, Excel? (if I can remove them)
I don't ever plan on using this laptop on the Internet. I want to try a keep it away from that at least for now.

I just noticed this.

It seems that Cakewalk (Version 3.0) is the problem.
When I close down Cakewalk and just leave open Windows Media Player and Word, which contain my lyrics, there is no hesitation going from WMP to Word or vice versa and no problem scrolling down the lyrics page. AS soon as I open Cakewalk and try to scroll down the lyrics page, it's really bad.

It's funny. I was previouly using an old Compaq 486 laptop. All it had in it was Cakewalk..nothing else except Windows 95.
I used Wordpad for my lyrics. I never had a problem with hesitation.

Thanks,

Peter

[This message has been edited by Musicman22 (edited 09-29-2005).]

[This message has been edited by Musicman22 (edited 09-29-2005).]

Hi Peter
Its only running programs that cause the problem, virus checkers can also be resource hungry, Windows Media Player most definitely is.
I had similar problems to you with my Tower System, when I was running Cubase VST and Media Player, and which increasing my Ram from 512Mb to 1Gb cured.
As a test restart your computer, and when Windows has loaded, press Ctrl-ALT-Delete to bring up the Task Manager, Select the Performance Tab and it will show you the Physical Memory being used and Page File being used.
Start your programs up and use as normal and just keep an eye on how much the available memory is being used, as well as the page file, this will give you a good indication as to how much more memory you will need to run the programs. (The page file can be considered as additional Ram)
As an additional point, some programs are very poor in how they use memory, so while in 99% of cases extra Ram helps; it is not a 100% guarantee.
Hope this helps.

Bill

Peter,

Cakewalk eats up huge quantities of memory, and the 512 you have is more than sufficient to run most everything but cakewalk.

The best program for running your midis is Van Basco's Midi/Karaoke Player which is a free program that has lots of great features. Van Basco does not eat up lots of memory, does an excellent job with midi files, and most of us that do this stuff for a living use it exclusively for midi files. Win Amp is used primarily for MP3s, which again, is what most of us use it for.

Hope this helps solve your problem,

Gary

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Travlin' Easy

Well guys I downloaded Van Basco's Midi Player.
Playing it along with my other probrams open was no problem. It worked great. Gary you were right about it. It seems like a good little program and easy...But, there's so much more I can do with Cakewalk and I'm used to it.
So I have to make a decision. If I want to continue using Cakewalk I'll probably have to increase my ram like Bill said. If I do that I will keep Van Basco's also as a back up and if Cakewalk doesn't still work, well then I'll have to go with Van Basco's.
At the very worst I'll have more ram which can't hurt.
I'll have to think about this.
All your imput was wonderful and very much appreciated.
If anyone has anymore comments about this I'd still like to hear them.
Thank you,

Peter

Like you Peter, I resisted apps like Van basco in favor of Sonar, XG Works etc...

I finally got used to using it though and I'd never use anything else for live work. Thanks to these guys here, or I'd never have given it a fair shot.

Either way, you have and will likely still use cakewalk, much as I need Sonar and other high end apps for studio use. My laptop started out with 512 mb. I immediately added another 256. This was fine for running Sonar until I started using a few Vst instrument and effect plug ins. Now the laptop has 1.5 + gigs of memory, and the difference is like night and day. I recommend as much memory as your setup allows and that you can afford for running higher end audio / DAW apps.

AJ



[This message has been edited by Bluezplayer (edited 09-29-2005).]

AJ...I understand what you're saying. That's probably what I'll end up doing too.
I also have Sonar which I use in my home studio. The Cakewalk that I was referring to is version 3.0, strickly midi, no audio. It's an old program but, I think it's the best midi program made and when I'm doing just midi,which is often, that's the program I use.

So when I finally decide how all this is going to work out for me I'll let you know.
Thanks again for you imput.

By the way I agree with you about the guys here at Synthzone. They're not only very knowledgeable, they're also very generous with their knowledge and their time.

Peter

[This message has been edited by Musicman22 (edited 09-30-2005).]

Gary, Fran, AJ and everyone else that responded...one question. Are any of you using Windows XP or Windows 98 on you laptops? And what laptop and mhz is in your computer.
The reason I'm asking is my laptop is a Compaq Armada E500 500mhz. It came with Window XP Professional. I got in touch with Compaq and asked them what operating system works best with my Armada and they told me it was designed for Windows 98.
So in order for me to do what I would like to do I may have to install Windows 98.
Thanks.

Peter

[This message has been edited by Musicman22 (edited 10-03-2005).]