Touchpad driver for Late 2008 Mac books must be updated

In case you failed to notice a firmware update for the trackpad was released about 3 weeks ago. SMC and EFI firmware updates were just released today. You can find these at www.apple.com/support/downloads/.

I have to agree with this. I've had exactly the same problems with my bootcamped XP. Three finger right-clicking sometimes works. Clicking and dragging works for an inch or two, then the mouse pointers "loses" the icon that was being dragged.

I agree that a touchpad driver update will likely fix this. Apple just needs to take their heads out of the sand long enough to see this. I figure we'll be good by mid 2009 or so. For now, I just use an external bluetooth mightymouse under XP and it's all good.

Raidrunner wrote:
HAS ANYONE TRIED EDITING A TXT FILE IN WINDOWS WITH THE TRACKPAD!?!?!?!?

Yes, and it sucked, thus the mighty mouse for now. I agree that this is unacceptable, ESPECIALLY at the price ($2499 in my case). I switched from Windows to this, as I've had a PowerBook G4 in the past, that was very reliable, except for the flaking paint issues *ahem apple!*. Anywho, I expect that they'll get this fixed at some point.

If not, then those "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" commercials are going to start backfiring once the press gets word of the NUMEROUS as yet unfixed issues with their shiny "green" new toys.

Oh yes. Since I'm already on a bit of a rant, I might as well add that the new EFI update did NOT fix the sleep/wake issues on mine, in the slightest. The very first time I closed the lid after updating it (SMC as well), it woke the display up and started the fan, as it started heating up (the GPU, of course) right away. I opened the display, and had to move my finger on the trackpad to get it to wake up. I then closed the lid again, and this time it stayed asleep until I got to work.

These problems BETTER be fixable, or Apple might find themselves with a reputation for quality similar to that of Dell. Don't think that'd go over well in the board room...

Yes this continues to be a major problem with the MacBook Pro (late 2008) and MacBook (late 2008) and yes, it only applies to those machines as the trackpad on the earlier MacBook Pro machines works exactly as expected under Bootcamp.

The two firmware upgrades from 10-Dec-2008 didn't fix this but that's probably because it is a driver issue. I wish they would hurry up and get a new driver out. Because of this problem I have not been able to take my new Macbook pro out on business trips and I'm still using the old one for that.

The Trackpad works flawlessly under OS X and when running Windows under VMWare (probably because it uses the OS X driver to control the mouse, not the Windows one) but the machine is completely useless (without an external mouse) under Bootcamp right now.

{quote:title=Raidrunner wrote:}Thank you! someone that understands the difference between firmware and a driver. The firmware update addressed problems with freezing and tracking under osx. The driver in osx was a prime concern considering the brand new spiffy touchpad, someone obviously did not really use the computers to run windows for a little while because this would be an immediate and glaring problem. Now ATT: Apple, you have intelligent devoted users willing to give real feedback on this problem. Step up!{quote}
I found it odd that they released it in this state because past MBPs worked so well with Windows. I was always bragging to people that my previous MBP was the best Windows laptop I've ever owned. This one would be as well if the trackpad was stable. The biggest problem with it is the jittery performance that causes it to lose selections. It is impossible to perform consistent drag and drop operations under Bootcamp that work fine if you run them under VMWare Fusion.
{quote:title=Raidrunner wrote:}P.S. Am i the only one that thinks the power use needs a serious looking at under windows as well? Fan's tend to run in windows, no 9400m chipset support, no cpu stepping and backlight settings "default" every time you boot compared to osx that remembers your backlight settings to save energy. {quote}Windows is a pig on power usage - you can't blame Apple for that but I am surprised they don't let you use the 9400 in Windows if you choose to. I'm not aware of any other major Windows laptop vendors who are shipping this configuration so perhaps it doesn't work with this setup. It would be nice if some third party came out with a higher capacity battery for the MBP than the one Apple ships.

I just received my new MBP today and I've already bootcamped it with Windows XP, and I'm also noticing the poor functionality of the trackpad in XP. I installed the OS X driver/firmware upgrades and the trackpad works perfectly -- in OS X. I haven't tried three-finger-clicking in XP to get a right-click, but even if it did, dragging is still pretty poor.

In the meantime, I'll be getting a mouse to carry with me for gaming in Windows, but I'll keep my eye on Apple's updates to see if they fix this problem soon.

Guys, we're in luck! Apple just released today the "Multi-Touch Trackpad Update for Windows." I'm installing it now to see if it cures our woes...

UPDATE: SUCCESS! My trackpad now works as perfectly in Windows as it does in OS X. Apple, you've saved the day again.

Message was edited by: Dana Evans

I wouldn't be feeling so righteous right now.

I've had two BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH crashes since installing the new driver yesterday and they were both identified to come from AppleMTP (the driver for the touch pad!). Previously I'd have complete lock ups with no error message - at least now I'm getting the error message confirming the problem is in the touch pad drivers.

In addition while the new driver provides better performance of the touchpad but it still isn't perfect. When you use it in tap mode I still find it accidentally tapping (even when I have NOT removed my finger from the pad) along the screen as I move. I know the problem isn't me because I used Windows under Fusion (which I believe simply gets input from the OS X trackpad driver) and everything works exactly as expected.

So one step forward, two steps back, one quarter step forward again.

Apple PLEASE fix this driver some more!! Right now the machine is worthless for me under Bootcamp. I must admit however that being forced to use Fusion all the time has definitely increased my opinion of what a great piece of software Fusion is. Vista is surprisingly snappy under Fusion 2.0. Unfortunately I NEED Bootcamp (for games) to work reliably or this machine was a waste of money. So far it is in the "waste of money" camp for me unfortunately.

We don't have the exact same software setup. I'm using Vista, not XP. So my guess is that this is a driver error in Vista. My machine has work flawlessly except under Windows. No crashes, no freezes, no glitches under OS X or even when using Vista under VMware Fusion. Every lock-up I've had has been related to moving the mouse cursor in Vista under Bootcamp.

In addition my install is about as pristine as it can be on both the OS X and Vista sides. My RAM and hard drives are factory installed. I have not "hacked" Windows or OS X.

So thanks for trying to help but I'm not an idiot. The blue screens simply confirm what I suspected all along, the trackpad drivers are unstable.

So is anyone else seeing this behavior under Vista on Bootcamp?