Dell Vostro 1510 JUMPING CURSOR Keyboard Issues

I have been working to try and find a solution to this issue, and this is what I have been able to find out so far: 

 

I have been endeavoring to find the cause of the dreaded jumping cursor when in a text document.  The behavior is quite simple.  You are typing along, and all of a sudden, your text starts appearing somewhere else.  It is usually up and to the left, or it will be back several spaces or words, and this type of thing can drive  you completely out of your mind.  I do not believe this to be at all a keyboard issue but rather something is wrong with the Synaptic Touch Pad, perhaps it is too sensitive to vibration.  I do not see any option buried in the Synaptic software that lets you control the level of the contact or something, but that is probably part of the issue.

 

Unfortunately, the Dell Vostro 1510 Bios Ver. A13 does not have an option to disable the touch pad completely when a USB pointing device is found, so the only way to do this is through the Mouse settings in the Control Panel.  There are numerous threads on the web about this issue, all pointing to Synaptic and their touch pads and Vista, so I do not know if this is a combined problem.  However, this is a very basic type of problem that any real system tester would have found within a day or two of utilising the system, so it is extra frustrating and annoying that Dell did not detect and address this issue with the Vostro 1510.  Perhaps it is an isolated problem, but I think probably not.  Perhaps it has to do with a defective Touch Pad...

 

The only way I have found to solve this problem is to disable the touch pad completely within the Mouse settings and use an external USB trackball or mouse.  Not exactly what I want to do for traveling.  I hope dell can address this issue as it is serious.

 

One other behavior I have noticed is that it is worse, much worse actually, when I am sitting on my couch and have the laptop on my lap, at an angle to me (knees up). 

Update #2

Additional Update with Solution -

Below are some of my additional notes from trying to solve the above and the solution(s) I came up with...

Cursor Jumping Issue with Synaptics Touch Pad on Dell Vostro 1510.

Issue noticed:  11/29/08
Resolved: 11/30/08

Time on task:  6 hours

Notes:

OS:  Windows Vista Home Basic
System:  Dell Vostro 1510

Synaptics Pointing Device Driver:  v11.1.18  20Jun08

Symptoms:

When in a text document, the cursor will reposition itself to someplace else in the document.  Often this is
up to the left or back several words.  While initially thought to be a keyboard issue, it has been tracked to
the Synaptics Touch Pad and has been reported on various makers systems, including Dell, HP, Sony, etc.  It has
been observed in Vista for me, but has also been reported in XP.  In some cases, Dell has suggested a swap-out
of the motherboard of the system, but this has not solved the issue.

Work Arounds:

(1).  Use a USB external mouse.  Disable the Touch Pad within the Control Panel, Mouse, Device Settings Menu.
Unfortunately, the Dell Vostro 1510 currently does not have an option in the BIOS to shut down the touch pad
when an external pointing device is plugged in.  So, the only way to do this is via disabling the touch pad
within the menu.  When your system is booting, and until the desktop is up in Vista, the Touch Pad is enabled,
only to be disabled when it is fully loaded at the Desktop.

(2). Removal of the Synaptics Driver v11.1.18

Okay, as a test I completely removed the Synaptics Software from the Control Panel\Program Features and just
let Vista install its own driver.  Unfortunately, the same behavior is being observed...  Additionally, doing
this makes it so you cannot turn off the Touch Pad, as this option has been removed from the Mouse Settings
sub menus.  I imagine you can still disable it in the Device Manager.

(3). The problem is clearly that the "tap reflex" of the Synaptics touch pad is causing the cursor to move
to where ever the mouse happens to be at that time.  If it is within the document, it will position itself
within the document, if it is outside and on an active destop item, it will go there.  The problem is much
less observable if you keep your palms off the palm rests or with the lightest pressure that is possible.

(4). Another simple solution, which I saw in another thread on this problem was to simply position on an object
which if clicked will have no effect.  I have tried the desktop background, but if you click on that, the next
keystrokes will highlight some app on your desktop.  One area that seems to work is the center of the taskbar
at the bottom of the Vista desktop.  This is essentially a dead area and if you get a click down there, your text
document just get unselected.  Far better than having the cursor move someplace else in the document which
will drive you totally insane, as you will keep typing for several minutes before you notice the issue...
Still, this is not ideal.

(5). Installation of older driver from Synaptics.

The Next Step on my journey was to re-install the Synaptics driver, but I do not see the latest issue on the
Dell website, so I went to the Synaptics site and downloaded version 10 for the Vista 32 system.  An, after I
quick series of tests, I see the same behavior. You see there is the blinking cursor, then there is the
other position of the cursor as shown by the I, where you last left your mouse before clicking on the last
character you typed.  When this problem  happens, your next character you type will appear back at that location.

 

(6)  Another work-a-round is to just try and keep your hands further apart, so as to have no contact with the
touch pad.  You will notice that it is not much of a problem then, and if you can keep your hands off the
palm rests, perhaps even better.  I do not see any difference in performance between ver. 10 and ver. 11
on this issue.  I do not understand why Ver. 11 is not listed on the Synaptics site...  What we need here is a
way to reduce the sensitivity of the touchpad or to simply disable "tapping".

                              *****************S-O-L-U-T-I-O-N*************************

I removed the Synaptics Driver again via the Control Panel, Programs option. I rebooted the system and let
VISTA install the default Touch Pad Driver.  Which is simply something called a PS/2 Driver as it is shown
in the Device Manager.  Then I went and installed the DELL supplied ALPS Driver, file to download is: R179644.exe.
Upon installing, the driver will report that the Driver is already on your system.  I went ahead and said continue,
as even though the driver is on the system, the ALPS software suite is not...  The install went off fine.
Time to reboot!

 
Now I have the Alps Driver set installed.  I am seeing if in its default operation, have the problems as were
encountered with the Synaptics drivers, and from what I see in the first and second line, it does not appear to
be happening.  But I am continuing to type along to see if this nasty problem will resurface. 

So, I am doing some more typing and trying to type as fast as possible to try and see if I can get it to happen. And,

so far guess what, yeah, I am not seeing the problem. So, could it be that the Alps driver set here has solved the problem,
could I be so lucky.  Hmmm, it seems so.  It is definitely much better, I can certainly tell you that.  So, here I
am continuing to type.  I am also doing this on my lap with the laptop on a lap desk and it being up at a thirty
degree angle or so, and I am hitting the keys pretty hard.  I have the mouse positioned inside the document, and
I am also trying to hit a lot of words with Ts in it.  Let me see, Trying, testy, temtation, terrible, trendy,
terrific, timely, tawny, the, then, there, though, thanks, that, this, thou, though, thought.  Okay, not a skip
in the bunch.  No, problemo.  I am pressing on the palm rests hard as well.  Wow. I think I have solved this
issue!!!  If I dare say such a thing! 

I am really surprised it was totally a driver issue and NOT that it was a hardware problem. Thanks so much to ALPS

and as for Synaptics, they really need to call up ALps and buy the use of their drivers.  Either that or DELL should

forget about using Synaptics touch pads and just stick the  ALPs who has always been the undisputed leader in

touch pads, anyways!  Thank You Alps!!!!

version working:

ALPS
Dell Touchpad
version 7.1.102.7
Dated: 8-24-07

By the way, the Dell Touchpad Software has so many more options than what is installed under Synaptics, it is
absolutely a joke!  Really, the Dell (ALPS) suite allow you to control all sorts of touchpad attributes,
including the disabling of tapping, as well as adjusting the sensitivity of the touch pad.  Bravo.  Wow this
is great, I am really happy!!!!

Hope this helps others...

Kind Regards,

~ cmdrDecker