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Touchpad Woes ...
Hi,
Over the past week or so I've been having problems with the touchpad on my Alienware14. The first thing I noticed was that the lights under the pad stopped working no matter what theme I had running under AlienFX. All the other lights operate without issue.
Then the touchpad stopped working at all, in the sense that the machine no longer responded to cursor moves or button presses from the pad (external mouse worked fine). I solved this issue, temporarily, by reinstalling the symantec drivers. It would restart the machine, the touchpad would work, then fail on the next reboot.
The issue seems to be the recent update to Command Center:(Application_9T1FG_WN64_3.6.4.0_A03.EXE)
since all my woes have occurred since I installed this. I now have the touchpad operating correctly for the past two days having uninstalled Command Center.
So, has anyone else had issues? Anyone found a solution to allow me to run both a touchpad AND command center? Where I can I download previous versions to try them?
Alienware-Joe
671 Posts
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December 26th, 2014 15:00
On the Drivers and Downloads from the Dell website, you can find the following versions:
-3.6.4.0_A0-3.5.14.0,A02
Do keep in mind that the second you connect the external mouse it will automatically disable the touchpad.
Also, which BIOS version are you currently running on?
jamesfryar
9 Posts
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December 28th, 2014 02:00
Hi Jose,
Thanks, I'll try an older version and get back to you. I'm running the latest BIOS update (AW14XA09).
The mouse only disables the touchpad if that is selected under the 'disable internal pointing device when external USB pointing device is attached' in Control Panel - Hardware and Sound - Mouse - Device Settings'. That box isn't ticked so the addition of the mouse isn't the issue.
jamesfryar
9 Posts
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December 28th, 2014 09:00
Ok ... so I tried installing the earlier version of Command Centre ... and the problem returned. The touchpad no longer works (button presses, cursor movement) and it doesn't light with the setting chosen in AlienFX.
Unfortunately, now the touchpad doesn't work at all. Previously, if I uninstalled Command Centre and reinstalled the symantec drivers it'd would come back. Now, having uninstalled CC again, the touchpad drivers don't work.
The question is if there's some sort of driver conflict on this machine or is there a physical problem with the touchpad. Presumably if the machine isn't detecting the touchpad (dodgy driver) then would it also affect the lighting?
Any ideas? Driving me mental ...
jamesfryar
9 Posts
0
December 29th, 2014 04:00
I've been experimenting to try and see what the problem might be, so the first thing I did was reset my machine back to the factory settings. When I did that, the touchpad and alien command centre worked fine EXCEPT the light on the touchpad failed to activate. I tested it with the FXTester executable in the command centre folder.
What this tells me is that a) there could be a physical problem with the touchpad light, b) there's some conflict between the BIOS version I'm running and the touchpad or c) there's some setting in the BIOS that has deactivated the light. So, over to you Dell ...
I then proceeded to re-install the driver updates from the Dell website after the return to factory settings. These installed ok, or at least appeared to, and the system is running both Command Centre and the Symantec drivers (latest versions from Dell). The Command Centre is giving me an error when it starts up: "The value for column 'VID' in table 'Devices' is DBNull."
What this tells me is that there is a problem with the drivers. There is something conflicting here, and it's on Dell's website as a recommended or critical update. So again, over to you Dell ...
Anyone have any ideas? Please? Get the touchpad replaced (again)? The machine is still under warranty ...
Alienware-Joe
671 Posts
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December 29th, 2014 12:00
Well James, seems like a Hardware Issue.
There isn't a soft driver for the touchpad, and now specially that you're telling me that the touchpad isn't working at all I'm guessing there can be a connection problem with the motherboard as well.
We could try sending the computer to our repair facility for proper check-up if you want.
jamesfryar
9 Posts
0
December 30th, 2014 05:00
Hi Jose,
Grand ... let's do that so, since the machine is still under warranty.
Alienware-Joe
671 Posts
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January 2nd, 2015 11:00
James,
Could you please send me a Personal Message with your Service Tag and a link to this thread
I will just need to also confirm your address so I can start working on this.