Do laptop touchpads wear out?

Andy_Pagin · World Chat Champion Joined: 08 Nov 2010 Karma :

The mouse touchpad on my Dell Latitude has starting playing up, if I hold a finger in the middle, ie. the most used part, the cursor wobbles about like mad. The middle of the pad is worn shiny smooth whereas the outer area that still works ok is still the original matt finish.
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MarJay · But it's British! Joined: 15 Sep 2003 Karma :

Yes.
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raak · Spanner Monkey Joined: 20 Dec 2006 Karma :

wear out, not sure...play up..defo Cool

use a mouse... Thumbs Up

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Derivative · World Chat Champion Joined: 03 Aug 2010 Karma :

This post is a bit old but yeah, they do. Normally if it's an older laptop there'll be cheap spares on eBay.

Andy_Pagin · World Chat Champion Joined: 08 Nov 2010 Karma :

Update:

The hard drive, presumably jealous of the attention the mouse pad was getting, decided to die on me.

So my ever generous employers gave me a new laptop Very Happy

So I can continue working myself to death outside of office hours Crying or Very sad

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They're coming to take me away, ho-ho, hee-hee, ha-haaa, hey-hey,
the men in white coats are coming to take me away.
Yamaha Vity -> YBR125 -> FZS600 Fazer -> FZ1-S Fazer

Seb · World Chat Champion Joined: 19 Jul 2007 Karma :

A bit late to be useful in this case, but in my experience twitchy erratic touch pads are usually caused by iffy chargers first and foremost, with a side helping of certain models (Notably Dell and Sony) shipping with buggy/naff drivers.
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kawakid · World Chat Champion Joined: 15 Mar 2005 Karma :

Yes they do.

I work in IT, we have Dell latitudes and they do so.

We always have 4 or 5 years support, so phone Dell out.

Check your warranty, by turning your laptop over and making a note of the service tag and entering in the link below.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/uk/en/ukbsdt1/Products?app=warranty

It's normally a fairly easyish job to change though. If you are capable Dell will try and talk you through everything rather than send an engineer.
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