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Inspiron 15 7000 (7537) touchpad frustrating!
Hello all,
I recently purchased a new Inspiron 15 7000 (7537) with Windows 8. I'm getting used to Windows 8, but really struggling with the integrated touchpad. It's getting so frustrating I'm considering returning it. The problems are hard to pin down, but in general:
-I often get the right click shortcut menu, when I'm just trying to click. I've even changed both the right and left hand buttons to both be "click" (and neither be shortcut menu), but I still get the shortcut menu a lot.
-Sometimes the cursor gets stuck and doesn't respond to movements. I've tried adjusting the touch sensitivity and disabled palm detection. No change.
Any advice?
Thanks
dhagquist
8 Posts
0
October 8th, 2014 11:00
Just a reminder, disabling "tap-to-click" in the touchpad settings has done wonders for me. I missed the return window too and am stuck with it, but I've managed to tweak the settings a little so it's tolerable. I also did some tweaking to the palm rejection setting, which seemed to help. I'd prefer that I be able to use tap-to-click, though, so I'm still upset with Dell for not looking into this issue. I have a feeling it's just the driver.
I've also been curious if anyone has installed Windows 7 on any of this line of laptops, and if the touchpad performance improved as a result. Seems like Windows 8 has some serious bugs (see below), so I wonder if Windows 8 has anything to do with the poor performance of the trackpad.
Unrelated Windows 8 issue: out of the box I experienced some blurry text when using certain programs (most 3rd party software like Chrome, Eclipse, etc). It's called DPI scaling. Basically, Windows 8 is trying to scale text size a little larger since the resolution of the laptop screen is high (1080). Unfortunately, it usually results in blurry text. In order to fix it, you have to go find the exe file of the program you're trying open (usually in Program Files), right-click the exe file, go to properties, under the compatibility tab, put a checkmark in the box for "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings". You have to do this for each program that looks blurry. There's another option in display settings to completely disable it for everything (including the OS) but that will change the look of everything else that wasn't blurry to begin with and might make things too small.
Hope this helps!
Huntsman3
15 Posts
0
October 9th, 2014 01:00
Have you tried updating windows 8 to 8.1?
dhagquist
8 Posts
0
October 22nd, 2014 19:00
UPDATE:
I installed Windows 7 on this laptop and things are much worse. The Synaptic drivers from Dell will not install on Windows 7 because of an unsigned driver error, so you have to use slightly older drivers. Which would be fine with me if it worked, but the performance of the touchpad is now much worse. I disabled the signed driver mandate in Windows and the drivers would still not install correctly. I've tried 4 different versions of the drivers and settled on the lesser of all evils. It is still worse than it was in Windows 8. Still getting cursor jumps, but more frantically. When holding and selecting a selection-square the cursor will jump large distances, making selecting multiple things with the mouse very frustrating. Sometimes the cursor just jumps down to the taskbar for no reason. I messed with all the settings and all combinations to no avail.
I guess I'm going to re-install Windows 8 and consider selling this guy. Thought I'd let you all know in case any one else was considering Windows 7, and hopefully I can save you the hassle. Don't even get me started on how to install an OS from a USB stick on this laptop. A WHOLE other headache.
Huntsman3
15 Posts
0
October 23rd, 2014 02:00
Thanks for keeping us informed djohnh.
Windows 8.1 with Classic Shell at http://www.classicshell.net/ windows 7 look and feel is the best option:emotion-1:
Using the methods described by others here, we have found track pad usable because the laptop has the option touch screen as well.
I find it odd that Dell have not responded here with a statement that a new driver is being developed to cure the problem so many people have!
dhagquist
8 Posts
0
October 23rd, 2014 15:00
Sorry to keep spamming, but I finally got the Dell touchpad drivers working in Windows 7. I had to disable driver signing enforcement by hitting F8 when booting up (and through command prompt, google it if you need to know how, real simple). I still got an unsigned warning, but this time it installed correctly. The touchpad is now behaving exactly like it did in Windows 8.1 -- still slightly jumping once in a while (5-10 pixels) when tap-to-click is enabled, but it is MUCH better than it was with any other Synaptics drivers on Windows 7. So, it seems the OS does not make a difference.
In hindsight, it wasn't probably wasn't worth the headaches and despair installing Windows 7, but I'm happy everything is working now.
Huntsman3
15 Posts
0
October 24th, 2014 01:00
It is not spamming to provide other users with useful information!
Thank you for keeping us informed of your progress.
dhagquist
8 Posts
0
December 4th, 2014 12:00
I sent this to someone else on here as a PM, and thought I'd share with the world. These are my settings, and the touchpad performance has been much better for me. Hopefully it works for you! I'm back on Windows 8.1, btw.
-------
Here's what I did to ease most of the touchpad issues. Click by the up arrow by your clock in the lower right corner, click the touchpad icon and click Touchpad properties.
On the sensitivity tab I have the pointer speed at about 50%, touch pressure about 75%, and palm rejection at about 75%. Click "Tapping>" (just below the cancel button). In the past I disabled "tap to click" and it helped a lot, but I missed having tap-to-click functionality. So, now I have it enabled, but I have the tapping speed set to about 85%. The cursor will still jump a little sometimes, but it's way better. Disable tap-to-click to eliminate all cursor jumping if you don't mind losing the functionality.
Now click "buttons" underneath "Sensitivity" on the left. I have my double click speed set really high, and I think this prevents accidental selections and things like that. Mine is at about 95%. Two Finger Click is checked, Disable navigation is not checked.
Now click the Gestures tab on the left. I have gestures turned on and everything checked except for Rotate. Click "Multi-finger Gestures" (just underneath the cancel button). Here I have nothing checked. Here is where you can disable the pinch zoom if you like, just uncheck Zoom.
Once you're done, click Save. Hope this helps!
torrancehappy1
1 Message
1
August 6th, 2015 09:00
Go to Control panel => Device Manager => click HID(Human Interface Device)
=> Right Click HID-compliment touch pad, click disable !
That's it ^^
arevut
1 Message
0
January 6th, 2016 06:00
Hi all.
I can't install nor original or synaptic's driver of touchpad on Windows 10 x64. It's too important for me to have a possibility to turn off touchpad while I use mouse. Yes, I tried to delete previous versions of drivers and even device, but still no result. Did anybody face such a problem? Thanx.
Huntsman3
15 Posts
0
January 7th, 2016 01:00
Using device manager do you see any question marks.
You may have to use safe mode to get the drivers to uninstall and install cleanly. Remember to get all your needed files into an easily accessible folder before you start.
Do not download any so called reg cleaners or driver cleaner/repairers otherwise your laptop will be a real mess.
Mudhound
3 Posts
0
April 19th, 2017 12:00
After doing the Windows 8.1 update, my touchpad does not disable after I plug in a mouse. Any suggestions?