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Synaptics Touchpad driver for GL704GW

PadreousMaximus
Level 7
Hey all, Im hoping someone can point me in the right direction... Pls excuse the rambling as this is kinda awkward to explain...

To begin, I have used Synnptics touchpads on Toshiba laptops, and the touchpad driver actually has a configuration setting in the mouse options. Like any piece of HW, go to control panel and go into the mouse settings and in here you find the actual Synaptic labelled tab to tweak the touchpad.

Now one reason I bought the AsusStrixScar2 with the rtx2070 was for multimedia editing on the road. And as I saw the "synaptics touchpad" as a 'feature' I thought it would be the same as what Im used to.
Sometimes I have to work in confined space where a mouse is impossible so no need to tell me about using a mouse LOL
Now in these Toshiba Synaptics touchpad drivers you can tweak your standard multi finger gestures and whatever else the standard Asus/windows driver do, BUT theres also 2 beautiful features which is surprisingly more useful that they sound... which i cannot find on my system or anywhere else...

This comes in handy when scrolling or entering finite numbers in menus and whatnot... or when one is zoomed in and requires extreme far travelling...such as editing a 40mp picture pixel by pixel...

Now these features work like this -
1) Scroll and continuous finger dialing scrolling (Chiral motion);
Touch the right hand edge of the touchpad, and a single finger scroll will follow your finger (like a default 2 finger scroll gesture on the asus), BUT this scroll can be extended to continue scrolling without lifting off the touchpad by scrolling that same finger clockwise or anticlockwise.
This mimics the scrollwheel of your mouse.

2) Mouse momentum (Glide);
Its called momentum glide, where you move the mouse pointer and lift your finger off, and the pointer keeps moving in the direction you were going. This helps when youre bouncing around screens and menus, such as when your using photoshop or any app that has tonnes of windows and menus and you have to bounce from.
In any case, the momentum might seem as though its not very accurate, but it actually is VERY handy and as accurate as you are with practice as you can 'catch' the pointer while in motion to find your target...

The rest is all identical to the windows stuff...

Now ive tried to instal these same drivers into my new Asus, using my toshiba drivers and theoretically those drivers should operate considering theyre not OEM and theyre not locked to any HW aside from Synaptics... theyre specifically for generic Synaptics touchpads, such as the ones found in the Asus.

BUT there is nothing in Win10 to show that the drivers have installed, nor any feature of the driver available in any of the settings.
I have looked around for other alternative drivers and even went to Synaptics website looking for their generic drivers, but still no dice...

Anyone have any ideas how i can implement these type of drivers to my Asus704GW??
Anyone know of any drivers that operate in a similar fashion??

Thx in advance
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5 REPLIES 5

PadreousMaximus
Level 7
Anyone??
I thought Asus techs come round here???
Anyone know of any tech support phone numbers in Australia??
thx in advance

BigJohnny
Level 13
There are very few ASUS employees that inhabit here, those that do are usually marketing. This is self help with other members and enthusiasts.
Installing drivers from another machine isnt such a good idea. There are drivers specific to your machine on the ASUS support pages, Dont know you exact particulars but here is an example for ASUS Precision TouchPad Driver V11.0.0.27...nowhere does it say synaptics or toshiba.

What drivers you have should be easily identifiable in device manager under mouses and pointing devices.

https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/ROG-Strix-SCAR-II/HelpDesk_Download/

This touchpad may not act like that of a toshihba. This is not a work laptop nor it is a toshiba. Its primary intent is in its name.....ROG

Thx for your reply.

I certainly understand that certain drivers arent designed for other machines, but these arent proprietary or oem drivers.
The synaptics drivers should theoretically work on a synaptics touchpad... Actually they should work on any touchpad if you choose to replace the original driver as theyre all running the same protocols...

Synaptics are noted as the device type in all the reviews and spec sheets Ive seen on this machine and in all intents and purposes, is a generic unit which uses the windows precision drivers to operate.
BUT Instead of using those drivers, i just want to use the Synaptics drivers instead... The features are far more configurable and theres no reason why these drivers cant be implemented...

The realtek audio drivers are another example of the same thing... where the same device types behave very differently on different machines, when they shouldnt...
I should have acces to a full realtek configuration app which lets me set sample rate, mixer settings, EQ, etc... No, NOT windows flawed config of these settings, but actual Realtek driver settings accessible through control panel... and not Asus' dodgy Mac-like Realtek app set up in the 704GW, which is so basic they shouldlnt have bothered wasting their time... or ours....
.
Im refering to the basic and yet "powerful" config which allows me to switch my mic input into a stereo line input.or dual mic (ie 2 mono).. where i can set up the line out either for amplified headphones (ie normal output) , or set it up as a raw unprocessed and unamplified clean line out to feed into monitor speakers or an external mixer or whatever.... which is an actual feature of most high end soundcards...

As an aside, I thought id do an experiment so I bought a cheap Ebay $15 USB external generic soundcard box thingy half the size of a cigarette packet... this has 5.1 surround out either through optical or analogue outs, a separate mic/line input (which can be switched between the two and a dedicated stereo line input ... all fed to the the pc with a dodgy usb2 connection.... It was only $15, but with this, I now have the ability to connect my analog mixing console into the laptop and monitor the output with headphones or connect my Berhinger Nekst 8' monitor speakers... This basic action couldnt even be done on the 704GW without this box,... which is truly ridiculous... ie one cant connect an external device and also monitor the output... even with a splitter cable...
Connecting an external analogue device to the line input of the 704GW, (like a mic or a stereo line input) should be a basic function, but in this machine its not....

So I really dont know why these basic configurations arent accessable...be it for the touchpad or the sound... A $3000AUD laptop should allow one to configure it as they like ... if my 9yr old laptop can do it, i dont see why this cant... Luckiy I didnt pay $3k..
.
Back to the point of the post, the touchpad and configuration shouldnt be a challenge...
I dont think Win10 would stop these apps from being installed or run, unless a win10 update has decided to supersede the drivers... but for some reason, Synaptic and even realtek standard drivers dont even register.... the standard asus realtek config appfor audio is laughable and theres not even an EQ to allow one to tweak the internal speakers for optimsed output and distortion management for lower frequencies ...
Run the same config drivers either for Synaptics or Realtek in a windows 7 machine though, and you get access to all the soundcard and mouse features..
Go figure...

In any case, just an FYI considering the comment made regarding what type of machine I have invested in... i know exactly what type of lappy this is, but as the name implies and as i write this, an example of the keyowrd being laptop is that i have my toshi on my lap as I sit in my recliner with my legs up typing all this out, using one finger to scroll down extremely long pages just by swirling my finger... I can also connect a pair of headphones and connect a stereo configed mic (ie 2 mono inputs or one stereo)
... i cant do even these basic things with the 704GW...
As for it "not" being a work laptop, i respectfully disagree considering the HW and nvidia driver options... If one was to limit their purchase to professional laptops, theyd be disadvantaging themselves consdiering many pro lappys in this price point cant even reach half the performance of this thing...Anyone who falls for the 'pro' and consumer labels and whatnot needs to reassess their information... This isnt an Apple ecosystem...

As for the touchpad, on a desk, i dont even use it... I use a steelseries rival500 which phenomenally good ... but the again back to the point, all i wanna do is install drivers which allow me ot configure the unit as i want it to operate...
As I cant do that, i need to work out how and why I cant, and then create a workaround...

BigJohnny
Level 13
Only takes one difference in a driver to work with the machines protocol. On your machine its not even called a synaptics touchpad. I have other ASUS machines where they are named as such and it may work. Some things I use the actual vendor drivers list to update, network, etc but touchpad on an ASUS is closely integrated with the APK package so good luck with that. Good luck with trying to make an ASUS emulate a Toshiba. You asked, I gave you the reason why, you dont accept it, its all good. Maybe put in a ticket with ASUS online support....they will tell you the same thing.

Thx for replying bigjohnny

"Only takes one difference in a driver to work with the machines protocol. On your machine its not even called a synaptics touchpad. "
Oh i agree.. as for what its been called, every review ive seen and every article ive read states that it is... calling Asus tech support, they too said it was... but like you say, theres nothing on the system that actually indicates this, however none of my other laptops which carry Synaptics HW carry this info either... not until you install the drivers that is... which is why i asked about it here...
Kinda pointless providing a piece of HW if youre no going allow one to access all its features ... or driver SW...
Then again, its easier to just provide MS drivers ... ))



I have other ASUS machines where they are named as such and it may work. Some things I use the actual vendor drivers list to update, network, etc but touchpad on an ASUS is closely integrated with the APK package so good luck with that.
((APK package?? from my undersatnding APKs are android packets... so im not understanding what you mean here.
In any case, its common sense to use the drivers provide by the vendor, however if the vendor hasnt provided the full features of said driver, why not use one that does give you full features??
Anotehr example of this are the NVidia drivers... unless i go in and deliberately overwrite my config, there is no way i can run or install NVidia Creator drivers for my machine.. on th eflipside, the Gamer drivers on the Asus page, are actually afew builds behind... now in afew years when this system is superceded and no longer supported, what then?? Must one stick to the manufactureres driver which would inevitably become outdated seeing as its no longer updated, or will one need to do what we do with any other unsupported piece of HW and run the MS equivalent of said drivers? As an example one laptop i have is 8yrs old.. its quad core with HT, with 8gb ra and an Nvidia 540gt @ 2gb + 2gb shared system, so total of 4gb gfx memory... which is perfectly sufficient for most 720p gaming
BUT is absolutely perfect for photo editing and batch processing or network rendering
In fact, this lappy runs win7 and browsing and basic DLs along with some photo plugins and tools are much quicker and much more efficiently than its younger brother which is the 704GW we're talkin about...
Point is, its an 8yr old system which ahs had SD installed and can work as fast as this brand new machine, whcihj theoretically, shoudl be at least 5x+ faster and more efficient.. but it isnt...
Whys this relevant?? Well, tbh, im still spending more time on the older machines than i am on this new one... and that completely defeats the purpose of investing so much cash into such a HW performance capable machine... ))


"Good luck with trying to make an ASUS emulate a Toshiba."
LOL That was never the point , not myintent... Synaptic drivers are generic, so theres no branding aside from synaptics.. Theres also no feasable reason why these synaptic drivers cant be implemented within an Asus ecosystem...Provding the HW and then only using the std win drivers, is either a financial decision decision regarding licensing or is simply a matter of basic laziness...

"You asked, I gave you the reason why, you dont accept it, its all good."
I didnt suggest non acceptance of a flaw withing an ecosystem... I see it as a flaw, some might not... Im simply wondering why drivers for the HW in question arent even provided and curious why we're expected to use basic windows rubbish which doesnt provide the full functioning features of the HW in question...when perfectly good drivers for the HW are available from teh manufacturer, yet none are available nor can they be installed...
Its not a matter of accepting or not, its a matter of getting what one pays for... And at this price point, with this kinda spec.. and the way these machines are marketed, one would at least expect the option to install gamer or creator drivers... we dont even have that option... let alonetouchpad drivers from the manufacturer...
Sure its branded as a gaming machine, but its not rocket science to figure out that MANY users will be buyin this on spec alone for the simple fact its got the grunt to work with 4 and 6k raw video..Theres also the fact that nvidia themselves market their workplace efficiency and power for these products which carry nvidia HW... and this marketing will only increase as AMD begins to take a pick up momentum, dipping into INtel and nvidia sales anyway... so all manufacturers and their SW support people who manage their SW conditions have got alot of work ahead of themselves... . Point is, not every user is a gamer and those non gamers typically spend alot more money on their gear, considering its a tax deduction....and those same people are the frst to jump ship if their HW doesnt perform up to scratch...
As it stands, Asus are behind on the gamer drivers for nvidia... with no support or access to creator drivers... then theres the mouse/touchpad drivers which are bread and butter generic MS, and the realtek soundchip doesnt even have proper realtek controls and input control configuration options ( as it does on a Win7 machine runnin the SAME generic realtek driver...
So yeah.. .some pretty real issues which are crippling the real world potential of the unit...



'Maybe put in a ticket with ASUS online support....they will tell you the same thing. '
I actually spoke to their tech support.. they confirmed its synaptics but also confirmed they CBFd with driver management so theyre using and redistributing the basic MS touchpad drivers...
Anyway, it was worth exploring i think... considering the touchpad driver isnt the only driver thats lacking...