Sony Vaio Touchpad problems with non-genuine battery charger

Hi there. Hope you are all fine. I have a Vaio (VGN-NR31Z/S) and recently I've replaced the battery charger, 'cose the other one got dead. I could not find a original one, so I bought a similar/compatible charger. Since then, I've experinced some problems with the touchpad. Not working properly, mainly when the battery is about to get 100% charged. I've been through many pages over the net I could not find any good comment in how to solve it… any ideas? Thanx, Ever

Hello junkiedeluxe, Sorry to hear you having problems. Is the touch pad particularly warm when you try to use it? Have you tried using a USB mouse to see if the same thing happens? Cheers, Nahumi

Hi Nahumi: Many thanks for your post. Actually when I get the mouse on, the problem disapear. It only happens when the battery charger is on. And only with the touchpad… dunno why. I've read somewhere, that Vaio has somesort of device that detects any non-original parts installed. Is that true? Is there any way to dsable that? Anyone???

As far as I know, and I could be wrong, but there is no way for any Sony VAIO laptops to detect whether your battery charger is an original or not. It is possible, however, that there is some software or hardware that checks the ID's of all internal components to see whether they are made by Sony or not. Unless specifically stated in the EULA (End User License Agreement), there should be no reason to why this would stop you from using your laptop. With that in mind, I doubt your problems are caused by that. However, it could be a side effect of using non-original parts in the first place. Cheaper battery chargers can sometimes be made of lower quality materials. The same goes with batteries, and pretty much anything else. My gut feeling tells me that the touchpad stops working because of the heat generated by the battery. This might be down to the charger itself. Using a different ampage or voltage to the original charger may cause the battery to heat up more. It also shortens the life of the battery. This does, however, depend on the type of touchpad it is. If the laptop is particularly new, it might use newer capacitive sensing technology. This is particularly affected by the quality and design of your power supply. In worst case scenarios, using the wrong type of charger or power unit will stop the touchpad from working. So, unfortunately, my advice would be to try and get your hands on an original Sony VAIO charger. I think the part number you need to look out for is VGP-AC19V12, but you might want to contact Sony directly to find out for sure.