How can I install a precision touchpad driver for a HP Spectre x360 Convertible 13-ae002ng (product no. 2QG13EA#ABD) laptop from early 2018 in Windows 11?
The problem is that the Synaptics drivers provided by HP and Windows are no precision drivers. Only for the later models from 2018 precision drivers have been included.
There was even the Demand Precision Touchpads on the HP Spectre x360 petition about it.
Note: The following solution is probably not limited to HP laptops. Comments welcome!
In 2017 Windows 10 installation instructions appeared at reddit (referenced at The Verge, superuser, Windows Central and How-To Geek) using the Lenovo driver n1mgx14w.zip. This solution didn't seem to be limited to HP laptops. In 2019 problems with the Synaptics driver update version 19.5.10.75 and how to avoid it were discussed at HP Community. Unfortunately all solutions stopped working after the Synaptics driver version 19.5.x was included in the Windows feature update version 2004 in May 2020 because it could not be rolled back through the Device Manager driver update as usual as reported at HP Community. Also a registry entry could not block the driver update.
However this new instructions at reddit explains how it is still possible getting the Lenovo precision drivers working with all later Windows 10 updates including Windows 11. I encountered a new problem and describe here, how it can be avoided. One option is using the newer precision driver n1mgx28w as described at HP Community. This also provides edge region filtering which previously was greyed out and possibly some other improvements. I also tried the even newer driver n1mgx39w, but it didn't work. The installation process is as follows:
IMPORTANT: Its is a very fragile process and you need to follow it precisely!!!
1. Download Synaptics TouchPad drivers
You will need either 1, 2 (recommended) or 1, 3, 4 (not recommended).
2. Set Laptop to Flight mode
3. Rolling back to the barebones PS/2 touchpad driver
- Keep uninstalling the touchpad with the checkbox on for uninstalling all previous drivers until you only have ONE touchpad device (not PS/2 touchpad driver + HID device or Synaptics driver + HID or Synaptics by itself, has to be PS/2 driver and driver only. Don't worry if the PS/2 driver self updates to the 2019 driver by itself automatically if you accidentally installed the optional driver through Windows Update like I did, you just have to get it to this point where a mouse is visible and PS/2 driver is what is showing on the Device Manager which can take a few restarts)
The Device Manager should look like this:
and touchpad settings without precision touchpad options.
4. Install the 19.3.x Synaptics driver over the PS/2 driver.
This will be your base, restart. Make sure your 19.3.x Synaptics driver is working, verify it's on version 19.3.x one through Device Manager.
Note: The touchpad needs to be installed as Synaptics SMBus ClickPad in Device Manager and no other HID device may show up. Otherwise start over again. The easiest way to accomplish this is running Setup.exe of the Synaptics driver 19.3.x. Alternatively you can use Update of device manager. Then you need to select Synaptics SMBus ClickPad after the Have Disk dialog. If it says device not recognized, role back the driver, restart and try again. Likewise if Setup.exe fails, restart and try again. It usually works the second time.
The Device Manager should now look like
with Synaptics driver version 19.3.31.31.
5. Installing Precision drivers
- Go to devices manager, right click on the touchpad devices
- Click "Browse my computer for driver software https://i.stack.imgur.com/OSn6s.png
- Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer https://i.stack.imgur.com/KiPtw.png
- Click "Have Disk" https://i.stack.imgur.com/PfAh1.png
- Then browse the autorun.inf in your driver folder https://i.stack.imgur.com/9sc9O.png
- Choose the Synaptics Pointing Device and click Next https://i.stack.imgur.com/tewQS.png
- Finishing the driver installation
- Reboot and enjoy the Precision touchpad.
Here is the video tutorial from Windows Central: https://youtu.be/5MRpAsAhsvY
Finally the Device Manager should look like
with Synaptics driver version 19.3.4.111 or 19.3.4.58
and touchpad settings with precision touchpad options.
6. Block version 19.5.x of the Synaptics driver update
You can block the driver update with wushowhide.diagcab (unreliable) or with the following registry entries (reliable):
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DeviceInstall\Restrictions]
"DenyDeviceIDs"=dword:00000001
"DenyDeviceIDsRetroactive"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\DeviceInstall\Restrictions\DenyDeviceIDs]
"1"="ACPI\\VEN_SYN&DEV_326A"
"2"="ACPI\\SYN326A"
"3"="*SYN326A"
Save it as DeviceInstall+Restrictions.reg and replaced the 3 keys by your Hardware ID. You can find it in the Device tab of the touchpad properties of Device Manager.
7. Leave Flight mode
8. Test Windows update
Its a good idea to run a Windows update now, to check if version 19.5.x of the Synaptics driver update gets accidentally installed. If this is the case immediately roll back the driver through Device Manager before a restart (otherwise its too late and you need to start all over again). Try to block the update again until it doesn't get installed. Then this update should not happen again until a bigger Windows update.
If you used n1mgx28w (v19.3.4.111) the following problems don't occur and you are finished.
If you used n1mgx14w (v19.3.4.58) a remaining new problem was SynTPEnh.exe constantly restarting. What's worse, more SynTPEnh instances get started then killed and accumulate over time to a heavy load. Reinstalling the driver as suggested - even several times - did not help and a timeout wasn't the problem either. However, the problem disappeared after reverting an accidental 19.5.35.47 driver update of Windows 11. So it turned out, that the solution is replacing the Synaptics SynTPEnhService.exe in the driver directory with its 19.5.x version. To
9. replace SynTPEnhService.exe with its 19.5.x version
Stop-Service "SynTPEnhService"; kill -name SynTPEnh; kill -name SynTPHelper"
extract the 19.5.10.75 Rev.C driver directory from sp92533.exe
copy SynTPEnhService.exe to the installation directory, in my case C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\
Start-Service "SynTPEnhService"
The first start of this service takes much longer, so it seem like something is getting repaired. Thereafter SynTPEnhService.exe can be replaced again by its former version 19.3.4.58 or even 19.3.31.31. Same holds for the other two Synaptics enhancements files SynTPEnh.exe and SynTPHelper.exe. Their newer version might be better but I haven't noticed any other difference so far.
Alternatively you can turn off Synaptics enhancements [...] (Precision Touchpad enabled models only) and even save energy/battery life by disabling SynTPEnh Caller Service through the Service tab of MSConfig (detailed instructions). However, in this case the precision touch stops working after resuming Windows from sleep. Maybe the solution at superuser could solve the problem, but I didn't try. However, if you disable the SynTPEnh Caller Service there will be no scroll icon and following step is not necessary.
The Synaptics enhancements show an icon at the mouse pointer when scrolling. This can be difficult to work with because it is hiding the pointer area. To
10. Remove the scroll icon
- Type in RegEdit in your Start menu. Go to
- 'Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTPEnh' [...]
- create a New DWORD (32-bit) value
- Name the value 'UseScrollCursor' and make sure the value is set to '0'
or save and run this registry entry e.g. as Synaptics+UseScrollCursor.reg
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Synaptics\SynTPEnh]
"UseScrollCursor"=dword:00000000
- restart