Ideas for Mounting Laptop Stand?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Joey Ketcham
  • Start date Start date
I got the RAM Mount and have it installed and love it, but ran into kind of an odd thing with my laptop when mounted on the tray. When using the mouse it jumps around. I thought at first maybe my palm was resting on or touching the touch pad, but it wasn't. I made sure that only my finger was on the touchpad and it still does it. When I remove the laptop from the tray, it goes back to normal.

Its a Toshiba S7414 and the only mouse I know of is the touchpad on top, so I don't know why it would jump around like that when in the tray.
 
hmmm, thats very odd indeed Joey, I wish I had some suggestions, well besides maybe getting a cheap mouse to use in your seat or something. Im not sure what else to say, wish I could help! Anyone else have any suggestions?
 
Randall Cooper said:
hmmm, thats very odd indeed Joey, I wish I had some suggestions, well besides maybe getting a cheap mouse to use in your seat or something. Im not sure what else to say, wish I could help! Anyone else have any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Yeah, and I'm a computer tech and didn't have any ideas. I mean it acts like two controllers for the mouse and something is hitting the other while I'm using the touchpad, but there is no mouse stick on the laptop and I certainly doubt there would be anything on the sides or bottom. So doesn't really make any sense.
 
change the settings on the touchpad to be a bit less sensitive? I know some laptops, like Dell, you can adjust these settings. I don't recall about Toshiba's but at this point, it sounds like it might be worth investigating. Very puzzling indeed!! (pc tech myself)
 
Chris Strahan said:
change the settings on the touchpad to be a bit less sensitive? I know some laptops, like Dell, you can adjust these settings. I don't recall about Toshiba's but at this point, it sounds like it might be worth investigating. Very puzzling indeed!! (pc tech myself)
Click to expand...

I was talking to my brother who is a Network Admin about it, he seems to think that maybe the mount is putting just enough pressure on the laptop that it's causing it to bend just enough to effect the mouse.
 
yep that's what's happening. Move the side "latches" up some to a beefer part of the laptop.
 
D. Hayes said:
yep that's what's happening. Move the side "latches" up some to a beefer part of the laptop.
Click to expand...

That did the trick, plus it put the latches out of the way of my USB ports on the side. The mouse no longer jumps around either.
 
I thought that moving the latches up fixed the jumping mouse issue, but that wasn't it and I figured out the source of the problem... my power inverter.

The reason I thought moving the latches up fixed it was because after I did that I tested it without plugging my laptop into the power inverter, so the mouse worked fine. But just a bit ago with everything hooked up and the laptop connected to the power cable which plugs into my inverter, it was messing up again. I unplugged the power cable and the mouse went back to working perfectly fine, I plugged the power cable back in... it began jumping around instantly.

So it's probably a safe bet that my power inverter is messed up, guess it is time to invest in a new one.
 
Here is a picture of my Expedition with the RAM Mount installed:

vehicle3.jpg


More pictures in my photo gallery at http://www.kschaser.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=37
 
While this is probably a bit off topic... one thing to watch out for with inverters is that they will often output a square wave instead of a sine wave because it is much easier to do. This often does bad things to computers. Some of the high-end inverters will output a clean sine wave but you might want to check it. I've plugged a laptop into an inverter before and heard the power brick start squealing an awful noise because of this. Of course, a better solution is just to get a 12v adapter for your laptop and plug into the auxiliary power (cigarette lighter) outlet or a RigRunner. I've also seen square-wave inverters that say laptops should be fine, so YMMV. I'm not positive this is your issue, but it's something to watch out for.


Joey Ketcham said:
I thought that moving the latches up fixed the jumping mouse issue, but that wasn't it and I figured out the source of the problem... my power inverter.

The reason I thought moving the latches up fixed it was because after I did that I tested it without plugging my laptop into the power inverter, so the mouse worked fine. But just a bit ago with everything hooked up and the laptop connected to the power cable which plugs into my inverter, it was messing up again. I unplugged the power cable and the mouse went back to working perfectly fine, I plugged the power cable back in... it began jumping around instantly.

So it's probably a safe bet that my power inverter is messed up, guess it is time to invest in a new one.
Click to expand...
 
Adam Boggs said:
While this is probably a bit off topic... one thing to watch out for with inverters is that they will often output a square wave instead of a sine wave because it is much easier to do. This often does bad things to computers. Some of the high-end inverters will output a clean sine wave but you might want to check it. I've plugged a laptop into an inverter before and heard the power brick start squealing an awful noise because of this. Of course, a better solution is just to get a 12v adapter for your laptop and plug into the auxiliary power (cigarette lighter) outlet or a RigRunner. I've also seen square-wave inverters that say laptops should be fine, so YMMV. I'm not positive this is your issue, but it's something to watch out for.
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm starting to wonder if using a power inverter is the best option. Though I did come across this one here recently, http://www.weatherconnect.com/product.asp?itmky=748927&cat=132 which I believe outputs sine wave. I'm thinking of going with that one.
 
I think "modified sine wave" usually means square wave, but it does say ideal for laptops. So I have no idea on this one.

If you're looking for a really cheap 12v power supply for your laptop, try ebay. I recently got one for my new toshiba laptop for $12 including shipping.

Joey Ketcham said:
Yeah I'm starting to wonder if using a power inverter is the best option. Though I did come across this one here recently, http://www.weatherconnect.com/product.asp?itmky=748927&cat=132 which I believe outputs sine wave. I'm thinking of going with that one.
Click to expand...
 
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