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5 Posts
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301136
XPS 15z trackpad problems
Hi all,
I bought a Dell XPS 15z laptop last week. In general, as my previous XPS m1530, it is an excellent laptop, but my experience has been ruined so far because of the trackpad behaviour.
Reading some of the posts, I see several people are reporting various problems with the trackpad (interference with the screensaver and poor 2 and multi-finger responses). My major problem with the trackpad is that there is no way to completely disable it!!!
If the "Disable TrackPad when external USB mouse is present" is selected, or even if the "disable" option in the trackpad settings is checked, the trackpad is never completely disabled:
Every 10 seconds or so, the trackpad comes back to life for a very short time before being disabled again. At first I thought I could live with it, but after a couple of days of usage I can tell you it is a nightmare having the cursor and even the windows jumping randomly whenever my thumbs touch the trackpad while typing. For instance, while writing this post I've had to use my external mouse three times so I can return the cursor to the appropriate typing position :(
I'm seriously considering using an external keyboard until this problem gets fixed. This problem is really annoying and it is spoiling my experience with what otherwise is an excellent laptop.
Cheers,
Andres
Kerby23
2 Posts
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August 7th, 2011 01:00
Same problem on my 15z -- the multi-touch is usless - super laggy, takes multiple tries to get it to do anything, can't decide it if wants to zoom or scroll, thought I could just turn it off and use a mouse but it won't stay off, randomly turns itself back on every few seconds for a couple seconds, then back off.
Danenbarger
6 Posts
1
August 7th, 2011 05:00
I can only conjecture, but I think that the reason Dell does nothing about this problem is that they do not want to grow this laptop's sales. Why? Because Apple has caused a shortage of aluminum case manufacturing and Dell cannot obtain enough deliveries. It, at least, makes sense.
lbcorr
2 Posts
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August 7th, 2011 11:00
I updated to the latest driver after I posted and I have not had any problems since. It could be luck only, but it's probably worth a try. I've got Cypress 2.3.6.5 (Windows 7).
cmespinoza
34 Posts
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August 8th, 2011 10:00
Per another parallel thread, some users are reporting that source of the issue is the Dell Quickset software.
Uninstall the Dell Quickset software and see if that fixed it. One drawback is that the CD eject button won't work, you'd have to eject your disc via software from now on. But it's either that or the ability to type.
If you don't see Dell Quickset in your list of Programs, all you need to do is run the installer again and select Uninstall. Here is the short URL to the download page. http://dell.to/p1gmbr
Also recommended is a tiny freeware app called TouchFreeze. This band-aid app should help until Dell and Cypress fix the driver issue altogether. code.google.com/.../touchfreeze
BadgerP
64 Posts
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August 8th, 2011 19:00
I have a fix that works for my purposes, maybe it can help you too.
Disable the setting, "Tap to click". It will prevent the mouse cursor jumping.
Bonus fix: Stop Cypress trackpad battery drain. The multi-gesture support drains battery and overloads the CPU. So I fully disabled it.
Alex.K.
1 Message
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August 22nd, 2011 05:00
Sorry, but that is not a Fix - it is an amputation :emotion-6:
Alex
aras1
97 Posts
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August 29th, 2011 14:00
I agree. For the price and power of the XPS 15z, we should not need to disable a useful feature. I posted my problem here:
en.community.dell.com/.../19928783.aspx
but wonder if it is related to the touchpad as is being discussed in this thread. As I have written elsewhere however, if I simply stop typing when I lose my cursor, the window I am typing in spontaneously reactivates without me touching the trackpad. I wouldn't expect that to happen if it was simply a result of me unintentionally brushing the trackpad.
louiesolomon
7 Posts
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September 1st, 2011 09:00
It's been posted on this forum that new drivers should be released tomorrow that fix many of the issues had with the Cypress trackpad.
pmbAustin
16 Posts
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September 1st, 2011 23:00
Have you tried turning the sensitivity way down in the trackpad's control panel?
pmbAustin
16 Posts
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September 8th, 2011 19:00
The software driver for this trackpad really is horrible. I can put two fingers down to scroll, drag them across the trackpad to scroll, and lift my fingers up before the page even BEGINS to scroll. And the scrolling is jerky... no smoothness, no "coasting". It's pretty much unusable.
And I've always had Toshiba laptops before, and I've NEVER had this issue with random palm touches while typing causing the cursor to jump around.
Dell really needs to do something about this. It's almost unusable. A near-perfect laptop is being rendered extremely frustrating to use because of extremely bad drivers.
I wish Dell would address this, and issue improved, updated drivers! If the hardware vendor cannot provide them, then they should work with Microsoft to get better ones and create or update them themselves!
CinderBDT
22 Posts
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September 8th, 2011 22:00
2.3.6.12, A04 drivers have been posted. Personally, I'm still seeing CPU usage that I don't like when gestures are enabled, so I have gestures disabled. But for me, the drivers have fixed the external mouse problem and I'm able to type on the keyboard reliably as long as I use an external mouse. I hope others will try these new drivers and post experience here about this specific problem of jumping around when typing.
pmbAustin
16 Posts
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September 8th, 2011 22:00
I just installed them, and even after a few hours I can tell they suck a lot less than before. Which isn't to say the drivers are GOOD yet. But at least it's more usable and less frustrating.
Considering_a_M
2 Posts
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September 8th, 2011 22:00
Have had the new drivers installed for the past two days now. The new drivers are a huge improvement over previous versions. The touch pad seems to be more reliable and responsive now with almost none of the random screen jumps that were occurring before. I have not tried the disable touch pad with mouse installed option, but I have been using the laptop with an external Logitech wireless USB mouse (brand new mouse only a few days of use on it). The laptop seems to be working fine with both the mouse and laptop keyboard. In fact, it would have been all but impossible to type this posting with the previous driver using the laptop keyboard. Not a single jump yet on this post. That said, it still might be necessary to play with the touch sensitivity level.
Oh, and I do have the 2 finger touch enabled, but I opted to disable the three finger touch. I have not had a chance to look at CPU usage with the 2 finger enabled, but I have not noticed any performance hit with normal use of the computer.
Finally a useable laptop!
Anonymous
5 Practitioner
5 Practitioner
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274.2K Posts
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September 9th, 2011 11:00
Posting the link to the latest driver for those that need it.
BadgerP
64 Posts
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September 9th, 2011 13:00
I created a new thread to discuss a specific problem the persists in the new driver - the CPU/battery drain. en.community.dell.com/.../19404027.aspx
It also related to the laggy responsiveness of multi-tough others have mentioned.