MS mouse and Synaptics touchpad problems

Question

I have an Inspiron 5150 and recently bought a MS Wireless Intellimouse Explorer for use when the Computer is 'Docked' through a USB hub.  The hardware works fine but I cannot utilize the full feature set of both devices at the same time because the driver for the Synaptics touchpad and the MS Intellipoint 5.0 software will not co-exist.  When installing the MS software the first thing you see is a window telling you installation will not proceed unless the Synaptics driver is uninstalled.  As some posts have recommended, I've tried uninstalling the Synaptics driver, installing Intellipoint, and then re-installing the Synaptics driver.  All this does is add a Synaptics tab in the mouse prooperties window, unfortuneately the screen the tab opens has no content.  Each device will work, but in a limited way, under the other device's software.  Using the MS software, virtual scrolling, other sensitivity settings, and the ability to disable the touchpad (to avoid extraeneous mouse movement when typing or playing games), are lost for the touchpad.  Using Synaptics software, full mouse button remapping and horizontal scrolling options through the mouse are lost.  The best solution I've come up with is using the Synaptics software and using installing the MS driver ONLY through the update driver feature for the Human Interface device, that is, cancelling the install when the intellipoint screen appears.  This allows for five button utility, but the wheel button and 2 side buttons are are not remappable from windows default settings, and side scrolling is not usable (although after using it I would have to say its really not very useful unless you routinely look at large spreadsheets and databases).  From what I've read Logitech drivers work with Synaptics drivers and I would like to see Microsoft and Synaptics work together to get this issue resolved quickly.  If anyone has a solution for full featured use, please respond to this post. Thanks I5150, Mobile P4 3.06, 515MB, 60GB, CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo, GeForce FX Go5200 32MB, SXGA+, TM 1300

jk79 · Answer

Unfortunately, that didn't work. After looking around on the web some more, both Microsoft and Synaptics know about this issue and each says to uninstall the others software rather than work on a real solution. So if you own an inspiron with the synaptics pad, know that you will not be able to have full functionality with BOTH the Touchpad and a Microsoft Mouse.

Microsoft "Fix": http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817456

Synaptics "Fix": http://www.synaptics.com/support/troubleshooting.cfm#10.0

Locked Topics – Laptops General

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