Touchpad mouse drag lock

Question

I enter this again to open a new thread as was suggested by Dell. The original entry was added into thread http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=latit_input&message.id=8727.

A short description about this drag lock issue in my case: Sometimes my D600 (with Win2000, Alps Touch Pad version 5.4.102.4, BIOS A5) when running Excel 2000 goes into a mode where Excel paints a cell area and there is no other way to exit than killing Excel from Task Manager. If I restart Excel, it continues to be in that drag lock mode. In this mode Excel accepts no keyboard input, not even ESC key, and does not respond to anything except resizing the painted area based on mouse movements. All other applications run normally, well, at least almost all (see below). I have the situation active in this laptop even now when I write this.

I noticed that once Excel has entered this weird mode, also Eclipse 3.0 (www.eclipse.org) behaves wrongly. I have had Eclipse to enter the same weird mouse mode even without Excel. All other Eclipse windows seem to work normally but the text editor does not accept cursor movement keyboard keys. For example, painting a piece of text with touchpad works OK. After hitting an arrow key the cursor shape stays as in the text editor even when it is moved outside the window. After switching to another application and then coming back to Eclipse window, the cursor shape behaves again normally. But not the arrow keys in the text window. The same applies as with Excel: restarting Eclipse does not change anything, but restarting the computer removes the problem, sometimes for days.

An earlier suggestion was to diable "Fast Initialization" from Alps Touchpad Driver properties in Device Manager. I have not tried that because it has side effects, which I like less than the occasional mouse drag lock.

Few questions: How can Windows and/or mouse driver remember the mode in which it was in the previously instance of the application? How the weird mouse mode propagates from Excel to Eclipse (and vice versa), which two are totally different applications and written using different software technologies? Does Excel and Eclipse utilize some rare functionality of the mouse driver because no other applications seem to get confused? Last but not least: How to get rid of this anomaly? To me it does not look like a case of broken hardware, I would advice Dell to inspect the latest touchpad driver carefully.

Leo

Herpes · Answer

Our company just purchased a whackload of these Dell computers and many of them are having the same problem. How long does it take Dell to figure out these issues?

DELL-BobT · Answer

Herpes,

Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.

Please try the following:

Try installing current drivers from the Downloads area on your systems.
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Go to the Windows Update site to obtain the any other drivers that you need.
Please list the troubleshooting steps that you have tried.

dupdup · Answer

Everyone I work with has this problem with their D600's. Except it occurs in all applications, including Internet Explorer. Pretty much acts like I'm holding down the left mouse to do a area selection when I'm not touching any mouse buttons. I have disabled the touch pad and upgraded the mouse driver multiple times.

My theory is that the (disabled) touch pad is still sensing the heat of your hands and is getting messed up. When I don't rest my hands near the touch pad (which is an awkward typing position for me) the problem does not manifest itself as much.

Dan

Herpes · Answer

I have updated the drivers to the latest one.

Still have problems.

I turned off the "Sticky Keys" feature and it does not help.

When the problem occurs I hit the left shift key about 6 or 8 times, and it disappears. For other, they slam down on the touchpad until it goes away (and it does).

Please solve this stupid problem.

dupdup · Answer

I actually taped a piece of cardboard over the touch pad and it seemed to help. The area select did happen, but probably less than half as much. Really looks like a quality laptop with a piece of cardboard taped to it ;).

Hope this works for you,

Dan

Herpes · Answer

We are trying to disable the touchpad... will let you know what happens.

hewatn · Answer

I have the same problem. I use the touch pad exclusively. In addition to sometimes having the touch pad and leftclick highlighting text on the web and in Excel, I also have been experiencing a reverse problem where the right portion of the touch pad stops working for scrolling and the touch pad and left click combo for scrolling doesn't work either. The only option I have is to try to use the up and down keys to manually move the cursor or completely reboot.

Message Edited by hewatn on 09-11-2004 07:14 AM

Message Edited by hewatn on 09-11-2004 07:17 AM

Herpes · Answer

I still have the same problems. Even if I disable the touch pad (as I don't use it) I still get the problem intermittently.

Why has Dell not responded to this thread? There IS a problem, but why don't you fix it? Or at least replace my notebook with a working one?

If this is the extent of Dell service, I will be sure never to get another Dell product again.

hewatn · Answer

Has anyone who has posted to this thread actually called Dell's technical assistance service?  My laptop is relatively new and still under warranty so that is my next step.  I'll post here when I get more information from them.  BTW, I compared the sensitivity of the touchpad on my D600 to my daughter's Inspiron and there is a HUGE difference.  Her's is far more functional.

Leo53 · Answer

I have not contacted Dell, because my D600 is owned by my employer, who has outsourced all PC-support to HP. I don't bother explaining them the same thing over and over again, especially when they will probably ask me to demonstrate the problem, which I cannot do on regular basis. If somebody has more direct access to Dell support, please make them involved.

An earlier posting mentioned about hitting shift keys several times to fix the problem. I have tried shift and also the mouse stick buttons. Somehow after tapping the keys in random order tens of times the drag lock situation disappears and D600 continues to operate normally. If only Dell could produce an updated touchpad driver, which automates this tapping procedure :-)

Leo

Art · Answer

I have not seen this problem, but:   'I have not contacted Dell, because my D600 is owned by my employer, who has outsourced all PC-support to HP.'   ????   All HP portables have Synaptics TouchPads installed.   The service tag (on bottom of Dell) should get you support from Dell.

Leo53 · Answer

This is Dell forum, not HP's. FYI, HP sells services, not only hardware. Their Business & IT services is able to support all computer brands, including Dell. I apologize if my poor wording confused you.

Perhaps I should indeed make HP involved... you never know if they can provide the BIOS/driver/whatever patch that fixes the problem. Dell does not seem that interested. If they have found out the reason or if they are working on it, I wish they would post a status update to this thread. And if they don't care, that would also be a valuable statement to read, better customer service than the present arrogant silence.

Leo

Art · Answer

Leo,

You are correct, I have an HP printer and their support is excellent, was not aware of the service plan you refer to. It just struck me that HP uses Synaptics (which I prefer) not ALPS.

I have not experienced what you describe in Excel at all.

I have a D800 with ALPS driver 5.4.102.4 and Dell has just put up a ...102.8 version.

In the long-ago past I had gotten best results (support & drivers) on beloved Synaptics TouchPad by going directly to Synaptics website.

I have not done it yet (new computer, other issues) but perhaps a visit to ALPS website would be worthwhile.

After I close MS Access program, it takes a reboot of windows before it will open again. Not Dell installed, so I don't expect support from them for that.

Art, D800

Edit:

Need to mention my short experience with the newer driver on Dell's download site 5.4.102.8(A07) {input: Alps GlidePoint/StickPointer, driver} that restores Stick Function and promises to smooth the scrolling. Unfortunately, it caused my system to freeze and then hang on shutdown twice in a few hours so I went back to ...102.4.

Dell "Recommends applying... during next... update cycle."

I will take this to mean after an sp2 approved BIOS update is offered. I am still on BIOS 10 as BIOS 11 says "not for sp2".

(I had gone back to sp1 after blaming freezes and hangs on sp2.)

The ALPS Driver problems were while running on D/Port and Dell USB Keyboard & Dell Optical Mouse, if that makes a difference

Message Edited by Art on 10-19-2004 04:37 AM

hewatn · Answer

I haven't found the root cause to the drag lock problem, but I have found a work-around.  I'm not certain if it works for Excel, but have found it helps in Word and with Internet Explorer.  When the drag lock occurs, try a left double-click.  This seems to release the drag.  Hope it helps.

MANOL · Answer

I have D800 recently bought and I have exactly the same problem. The ALPS driver although i installed the latest version , doesn't seem to work properly as far as the locking of drag is concerned using touchpad. It is really annoying because when you use touchpad quickly moving your hand on the touchpad it moves the files and folders around + marks an area e.g in Word or excel etc. In the mouse properties under 'Touch pad' there is a DragLock Settings check box with two sub-check boxes (Auto Release and Tap Release) which should give the solution but it doesn't. I noticed that whatever checks or uncheck you make the behaviour doesn't change at all. THERE MUST BE A BUG IN THIS SETTING IN THE ALPS DRIVER.   Synaptics driver solves this problem You can download the Synaptics driver from synaptics site and after installing it go to CONTROL PANEL >> Mouse >>> Device Settings >> select the device and press>> Settings >> +Tapping >> Tap and Drag >>> UNCHECK the ' tap again and hold to drag' >> APPLY and you finished.   BUT ...... SYNAPTICS IS NOT WORKING PROPERLY ON MODEL D800. (I was told so from Dell's HelpDesk) I installed it but it doesn't give me the above 'TAPPING' options at all.   ANY IDEA FOR THE SAME PROBLEM BUT FOR MY MODEL (D800) ABOUT LOCKING THE DRAG FROM TOUCHPAD OR ANY SYNAPTICS DRIVER THAT CAN WORK FOR THIS MODEL GIVING THE TAPPING OPTIONS  ?????????????????????   PLEASE HELP !!! I AM WORKING ON THAT 4 DAYS WITH NO SOLUTION !!!!!!! THERE MUST BE A SOLUTION OR THEY MUST ISSUE A NEW FIX FOR THIS DRIVER !!

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Touchpad mouse drag lock

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