Inspiron 5100 touch pads

rollingthunder6,

Please state the problem, exactly.

Dear Bob ,

I have problems with my touch pad too, the motion of the pointer is not smooth and it can not go to any direction correctly (it is just like you have to fingers on touchpad!!), I did all your suggestions, first change the sensevity of the touch pad and it's speed (since it is so slow), after that reinstalling windows, downloading and re installing the driver , resteing the cmputer by removing its power sources, downloading and installing latest flash Bios (upgrading it to dell BIOS).None of them correct my problem, I then reboot the computer with dell diagnostic tool and the touchpad motion was very bad even in that enviorment, Now I am in UAE and I don't know what to do? how can I locate dell serive center in here to do something about the problem?

I would be very appriciated if you help me....

 

Regards,

Amir Arvand

Amir,

I would suggest contacting the Dell facility in your geographic area.

I have the same sort of problem and have been put through the same sort of remedies which don't work.

I have had an Inspiron 5100 for two months.  From the beginning there were problems with the right button on the key pad not working properly.  Quite often nothing happens.  You can move the cursor but clicking on a button or the close button does nothing.  I try Enter, Tab, Right button etc. - Nothing.  after a few minutes suddenly it works again.  I tried all the settings in Control Panel for Mouse.  Nothing helped.  I called Technical Service a week or so ago and was told - you must download the latest driver for the Touchpad.  Did this.  Perhaps it was a little better.  Difficult to say for this is not a constant problem but a recurring one. Seems to be getting worse. Spent over an hour this morning on the phone with Dell.  All sorts of trials but no real progress.  Now told I should download the latest BIOS Upgrade.  The computer is only two months old and it seems to me extremely unlikely that this upgrade would affect the Touchpad, or if it does Dell should definitely know that.  If this doesn't work, I should back up, reformat and reinstall XP.  I am naturally reluctant to do all this.  If the computer doesn't work, Dell should take it back and fix it.

Stuart

 

I have had the same problem as RollingThunder6 and countless others re the Touchpad and drifting arrow/cursor problem on my Inspiron 4100. Cleaning, downloading, reloading, and replacing the keyboard has not solved the problem. I agree with the observations of RollingThunder6. When is Dell going to address this issue directly and stop putting technical support as well as its paying customers through this aggravation over and over again? It's time to solve this problem with a solution that works!

Add two more disgruntled 5100 owners.  Our touch pads stink. My whole experience with Dell has been absolutely horrible.

My co-workers computer invoice was mailed to me with my name on it.  I ended up throwing my invoices away and paid his first installment.  After I straightened it all out, the collection agency was still harassing my boss at work (he has nothing to do with the purchase) they also harassed my wife and made her pay 3 months of his payments.  To top it all off I couldn't get Dell to pay me my rebate check.  Empty promises and 3 dozen frustrating phone calls later I finally got the rebate in the mail.

Touch pads---- first my co-workers pad went south.  Mine followed a week or two later.  We have only owned these laptops for a few months. If and when someone figures out the solution please e-mail me. I just don't have the will power to enter the endless maze of Dells customer service/tech support. - JK

Message Edited by jkarl on 11-16-2003 04:12 PM

Well I'm making progress, perhaps.  Dell have taken the Inspiron 5100 back for repair.  They were MOST reluctant to do so.

I was again on the phone for about 40 minutes with Dell Technical Service.  They had promised to send me the name of the file with the BIOS update to download but had not done so.  I told them that I did not want this anyway and that I had read more than a few messages on this board from people who like me had downloaded the latest driver but were then told to download the BIOS update and reinstall XP and had done so without success.  I wanted Dell to take the computer back and fix it.   Finally after a lot of argument they agreed and today DHL picked it up and it is on its way to the Dell Technical Centre in Shropshire, England.

My problem is a little different from most of the others in the thread as my problem is with the left button rather than the touchpad itself.  After about ten minutes it stops working.  You cannot click or close.  You can summon up the Task Manager with Ctrl-Alt-Del but then can do  nothing with it and cannot close it.  Enter, Esc and Tab do not help but after about five minutes the computer sometimes comes back to life only to stop again five minutes later.  You cannot click on the Start button.  You can get its menu with the Windows key but then cannot click on any item.  As you can imagine shutting down is a big problem, mostly solved by switching off.

They told me that they only take back computers for hardware faults not software and I might get it back with a "No faults found" comment.  I said that in that case they should not send it back.  Just give me my money back.

Well we'll see.  But I think it shows that if you are going to get anywhere with Dell, you have to be VERY persistent.

StuartZ, Zurich, Switzerland

 

 

We purchased the Inspiron 5150 and have had similar problems with the touchpad/mouse.  The mouse moves very slowly sometimes.  When moving your finger from left to right the mouse moves in a "v" shape on the screen, also when you move your finger from bottom to top a similar non-stright movement happens with the mouse.  On an older Dell model I could bend my finger and use my knuckle to move the cursor, not so with this new Insiron 5150, and that is when the setting is on the highest sensativity.  After calling tech support and a tech replacing the touchpad/palm rest once, the problems have come back.  The new one worked for about 2 or 3 weeks, but has been malfunctioning ever since.

By the looks of this thread, we aren't the only ones experiencing these problems.  When Dell can replace our shoddy touchpads with ones that work, I'll be first in line.  Until then, I'll keep calling tech support and run through their mouse tests that don't check for this kind of failure.

O. Edenfield
The Dickey Group Inc., Realtors
Hillsboro, OH

 

I have also had similar problems with the Touchpad on my Inspiron. After trying all the drivers Dell has as well as other things including a complete reinstall of XP (Oh, and lets not forget the "Bios" upgrades!!), here's what I found worked for me. (So far anyways...)

1) Disabled "Tapping" on the Stick. I set mine to scroll and assigned the "tapping" to do "Nothing". If you want you could totally disable the trackstick. The thing doesn't work right anyway! (at least on mine)

2) I Do not use any of the "Gesture" options. I found setting any of these made the touchpad erratic and unstable.

3) I Turned off "Drag Lock". This seemed to correct the unusual clicking/highlighting issue.

This is for an Inspiron 8500 w/XP Pro and may or may not work for you. Give it a try, nothing to loose! Good Luck!

It really is disappointing, having spent all this money on a "top-notch" computer and having to disable so many features which I would like to, and normally would, use. I think Dell needs to get a better driver from Alps or change the supplier of their touchpad's!