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I had to reinstall Windows XP on my Acer Aspire 5720 and now I'm reinstalling all the drivers. There are two touchpad drivers -- Alps and Synaptics.

I ran the program Acer provides to detect your hardware, but it didn't report which touchpad I have. Is there any way to determine which driver I need?

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  • Well, did you actually try installing one of those and see if it works?
    – slhck
    Commented Jun 16, 2012 at 20:04
  • Yes, I installed the Alps before I noticed that there were two. It seems to work but I don't know enough about touchpads to know if that's good enough or if I really need the driver that goes with the specific touchpad.
    – cerega
    Commented Jun 16, 2012 at 20:13
  • If it were Synaptics, it's very unlikely that the Alps driver would've worked at all, as they are very different. Seriously, BT-DT on my VAIO (which also didn't say which, in info available from online or the paperwork that came with it); if you use the wrong one, it's likely to just give you no mouse at all. However, there are many versions of Alps drivers & some work better than others, despite release dates; you might want to also check other Alps drivers, if the Acer provided driver doesn't have all the features you want. (I use an HP-provided Alps driver on my Sony VAIO.)
    – Debra
    Commented Oct 23, 2013 at 19:13

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I couldn't find a reliable resource on whether that particular laptop uses an ALPS or Synaptics touchpad, but if you get one driver to work, stick with that.

Unless you have real problems with the driver (e.g. touchpad not working, missing features in the control software), just stick with the one that works for you.

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