I’ve just spent hours over days with ‘Support’ trying to resolve a trackpad issue where a trackpad click will randomly paste clipboard content into a text block, close a Chrome (and Firefox) tab rather than make it live, etc. I’ve done everything asked by FW including resetting BIOS to default, updating Ubuntu, taking videos shoing the problem, taking photos of the back of the input cover and connections and I’ve got to the point where I refused to take another f’ing video becasue I’d felt I’d explained and demonstrated the issues clearly enough. I had discovered thru researching independently that it could be an unfamiliarity issue with non-Apple trackpads that have areas of the trackpad to emulate mouse buttons - left/middle/right and that I could be hitting the centre of the pad and effectively middle-mousing. FW told me that the pad does not function like that. At this point they ‘escalated’ and then told me to buy a new input cover.
I bought this machine a couple of years ago to cover me when my aging 2012 MacbookPro expired which I was convinced it was going to imminently. Itactually carried on until last month when it refused to connect to the intenet one morning. Anyway, the FW13 had been in its box the entire time - I have used it for a a month max since I bought it. Whether or not the warranty has technically expired it’s a brand new machine that has had an issue from ‘my Day 1’ of using it. I only bought it because I was sick of Apple, didn’t want to go Windows and Louis Rossman, who I’d been following for some time was raving about the company. I supported the company from their early days.
Now I’m pissed about being refused warranty so I start researching the cost of an input panel only to find links to threads on this forum talking about serious trackpad quality issues. Now I’m really pissed but I REALLY don’t have time or energy to try to find out exactly how much of an issue this has been and was hoping that someone who’s been following things could clarify. Because if this is a known issue, and FW have been f’ing me around for a month I’m going to be going ballistic on them.
Thank you for getting this far and for any enlightenment you can offer
Sounds like you’re inadvertently middle-clicking, which will happen if you three-finger-touch the trackpad. I just tried it using GNOME on Arch and was able to replicate everything you’re saying by three-finger-touching the trackpad.
You can probably disable that somehow, but that’s not a problem with the trackpad.
Edit: You don’t have to actually click the trackpad for this to happen, just touch it, which is why it probably seems like it’s happening “randomly”.
That’s not really how warranties work. Warranties are a liability for the company and therefore expire after a time. On top of that, it’s not a “brand new machine” anymore, it’s two years old, using at least a mainboard that they don’t manufacture anymore.
I would suggest next time you buy something expensive, even if you’re not going to use it right away, to at least turn it on and try it and maybe get it setup and use it for a day or two to make sure there’s nothing wrong with it, then store it away for later. In this situation you can’t really blame Framework for not taking the return.
Nope, I have one finger on the trackpad - the others are definitely not on the pad and at least 1/4" off it. I have found, which I neglected to mention, is that if I click to the left of the trackpad there is no issue - which is odd given FW’s statement that there are no ‘areas’.
While I’d agree if it were a random one-off issue but this appears to be an issue that was experienced by a large number of people. There were quality issues with the covers. These were the two threads that alerted me:
Thanks for your advice - not asked for. There were a number of good reasons why I didn’t do that. I didn’t ask for a return. What’s the mainboard got to do with anything? I asked them to replace a component, which they still stock, that is, most likely, faulty that they suggested I buy in case that fixed the problem. They offered to take it back if it didn’t but that’s not good enough IMHO - I’d still be on the hook for shipping - and if they think it could be the cover, and they’ve had issues with covers then how about do the right f’ing thing?
Which Ubuntu version are you using? I suspect it’s a software issues and you’re using an old touchpad driver that’s somehow assuming there are different areas where clicking in the middle causes a middle click?
Can you boot e.g. a current Fedora 40 live system and see if the issue happens there as well?
Don’t throw stones from a glass house…
You original post just said you were “refused warranty” which I took to mean you were trying to return it. You don’t appear to have mentioned that you were specifically trying to swap the trackpad even though that’s what your post is complaining about.
If your unit was still under warranty they wouldn’t hesitate to replace it. You’re not under warranty anymore, and the fact that they’re making a concession is really more than they need to do. As I mentioned in my previous reply, warranties are liabilities that are on the books for companies; any time they need to replace something under warranty they lose money. This is true for laptops, cars, game console, and nearly everything else you buy.
Just think about this logically for a moment, you mentioned your previous laptop was a MacBook. What would Apple do in this situation? They wouldn’t help you troubleshoot at all; they would tell you to that you need to send your laptop in and pay $600 for them to diagnose what the problem is and possibly pay more depending on what they need to replace. But, instead of paying that, all you need is a new touchpad for $39 + shipping, if that’s even your problem in the first place.
As for the touchpad issue itself, yeah there are threads describing it as an “input cover” issue, which does cost more for the whole assembly, but I believe that’s becuase they don’t realize that you can get the keyboard and touchpad separately from the input cover itself. I personally have had a trackpad or two that have problems with mis-clicks (I have several Framework laptops…), however my problems and the problems I find on the forums seem to be with clicks not registering or accidental double-clicks, not phantom fingers appearing.
I however just ordered a new part and didn’t bother contacting support, because I value what Framework is doing and didn’t want to clutter up their support with a small issue like mine. I’m not saying that you should do what I did, however again you need to realize that you’re way out of warranty and the fact that they’re trying to help you at all is above and beyond what you’ll get anywhere else.
Are you using your left or right hand? I only ask because I’ve found that when I tap or click I will sometimes get a “two finger” or “three finger” response if my palm is inadvertently touching the trackpad on the edge in just the right way. It’s not super common, but it happens. And it happens more often if I’m clicking towards the left side of the trackpad vs. the right side, because my hand is stretched further over and my hand is more likely to brush against the edge of the touchpad.
Whatever the cause, hopefully you get the situation sorted.
Right hand… but I am sure I’m not inadvertently touching anything but with the one finger…
Tell us how you really feel, Adam.
From your initial post, you’ve been nothing but aggressive. If this is the way you’ve been interacting with support, then well of course you’re not going to get anywhere with them.
Take a step back, breathe, touch some grass.
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