WhiteDragon's Journal: strangeness w/ Synaptics TouchPad and Windows XP home

I have a Synaptics Touchpad on my laptop. The driver is version 5.9 and my OS is Windows XP Home Edition (with SP2 and latest updates). I have my screen saver set to a short timeout, (three minutes) so if I am idle for 3 minutes, the screen saver comes on. The problem is, that if I am for instance reading comments on slashdot, scrolling down using the special area on the right side of the touchpad, it does not count as an input signal for the purposes of screen saver timing. That means that the screen saver will kick on, even though I am actually moving the page even at the same time! Is this just a bug in the Synaptics driver? Anyone else see this behavior?

Windows but?

[GoRK]

Sounds actually like it might be a windows bug.. It's very difficult to move the scroll wheel of a mouse or click a mouse button without moving the mouse itself, so it's reasonable to assume that it might be an undiscovered problem.

So.. what to do about it? Probably nothing to do except extend your screensaver timeout...

Re:Windows but?

[WhiteDragon]

yes, but I don't really want to extend my screen saver timeout, this being a laptop and all. Battery life is my main concern.

Re:Windows but?

[GoRK]

Maybe try getting an app that gives you 'hot corners' where you can activate the screensaver/power saving purposely by sticking the cursor in the corner when you leave the machine. It's not often that when you are using a laptop on battery power that you do not purposely leave it alone.

Re:Windows but?

[WhiteDragon]

know of any free ones?

---waiting to defeat the lameness filter---

Re:Windows but?

[GoRK]

http://www.wischik.com/scr/savers.html#scrhots

Haven't tried it but it should do fine. I dont know if it will enable power management also though.