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andrewg_oz

3 Posts

98527

October 16th, 2007 11:00

Intermittent keyboard "stuttering"

A colleague and myself recently purchased two identical (apart from the colour!) Inspiron 1520 laptops. They have Core2 Duo T7500 cpus, 4GB RAM, Windows XP Pro, Wifi, Bluetooth and DVD burners.

Almostly immediately, my colleague started complaining that while typing, the computer would "stutter". His typing would outpace the characters appearing on the screen, which would appear about one per second. It would remain this slow for a few seconds, then catch up in a rush. Typing would then be fast and responsive for a while (~20 secs), then slow down as before for another few seconds.

During the slowdown everything would be slow, the mouse would disappear, menus be unresponsive, etc. None of this slowdown would occur while not typing. i.e. if use of the laptop was restricted to the mouse (typical browsing, for example), no slowdowns would be noticeable.

To cut the story short, after a couple of reformats and rebuilds we finally traced the problem to the built-in Windows Address Book! The severity of the stuttering was directly proportional to the number of contacts!

I never noticed the problem on my laptop because I don't use Outlook Express, but as soon as I entered a few contacts, my laptop started stuttering too. Clearing out the Address Book on both laptops removes the problem.

As a workaround, I've suggested my colleauge bring forward his migration to Outlook, since it has its own contacts management.

Now, I would imagine that it would be quite common for people to have a few contacts in their address book. I'm just wondering if anybody has noticed anything similar?

Jeff Leites

2 Intern

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480 Posts

October 17th, 2007 04:00

Once again, this sounds like keyboard lag.  See the thread here: http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_general&thread.id=257203
 
Most likely if will be fixed by preventing PCMservice.exe from loading at start up.
 
If you want to run a quick test, bring up the Windows Task Manager (CTL/Alt/DLT), select the Processes tab, find PCMservice.exe (easier if you click on Image Name to put it in sequence), click on PCMservice.exe to high-lite it, then click End Process.
 
If that fixes the problem, you have to prevent it from loading at startup.

andrewg_oz

3 Posts

October 17th, 2007 12:00

Thanks for that. It looks like disabling the Instant Office module of Dell Media Direct also resolves the issue. I found the Dell patch mentioned in the other thread, but it would not install. Doesn't matter now that I have at least three ways to fix the problem. Thanks again.

Message Edited by andrewg_oz on 10-17-2007 09:26 PM

Jeff Leites

2 Intern

 • 

480 Posts

October 17th, 2007 13:00

Since I haven't been using Media Direct, I forgot I had Instant Office. So I had to get out my notebook to see if it still worked. So FYI, with PCMservice disabled, Instant Office, as well as the rest of Media Direct still functions.

So, in my mind, it's better to disable PCMsevice to fix this problem, since it doesn't seem to prevent anything else from not working (even if you don't use Media Direct).
PCMservice is related to Media Experience, which isn't even on my notebook.

BTW, that Outlook patch wouldn't install on my notebook either.

I think the problem is that they don't install some obsolete programs, but the disk they use to install the system still sets up some kind of link to what isn't there.

fgburden

7 Posts

November 17th, 2007 00:00

I had the same problem of the stuttering keyboard, and unchecking the PCMService did the trick.  Thanks for that!  Now, what does the PCM Service do?  Is there something that won't work as well without that checked?
 
 

andrewg_oz

3 Posts

November 17th, 2007 06:00

I haven't noticed any problems, and I don't think anyone else has either. The general view is that PCMService relates to an old software package that isn't even installed on newer laptops! It probably shouldn't have been installed in the first place, and is a very annoying oversight on Dell's part.

sick of compute

1 Message

December 26th, 2007 15:00

Stuttering keyboard, still a problem, after all these months (years?)!
 
My brand-new Inspiron 1520 suffers the old "keyboard stuttering" problems. It seems that all solutions suggested to date are less than perfect. To review those solutions:
 
1)disabling PCMservice.exe in Task Manager: This still seems to work, but is obviously only a temporary fix, since one has to do it every time one starts up. Also, in the only official Dell response to any of these postings that I could find, "DELL-Bill B" seemed to frown upon disabling PCMservice.exe.
 
2)using the utility to prevent PCMservice.exe from loading at startup. Again, Dell did not seem to approve of this solution. Also, I admit I don't feel comfortable installing this utility on my machine, since I have no idea about where this utility comes from, and whether I can trust the source. Installing system utilities on your machine from who-knows-where is a great way to infect your machine with something devastating.
 
3a)emptying the address book of Outlook Express. Too bad if you actually use your address book!
 
3b)using Outlook instead of Outlook Express. Too bad if you prefer Outlook Express to Outlook!
 
4)disabling Instant Office in Media Direct. I thought this worked when I first tried it, but the positive effects were only temporary. It stayed disabled on my system, but the stuttering was back the following day.
 
5)installing a patch recommended by "DELL-Bill B" in his post of 3/2007. The problem with this solution is that the patch refers to Media Direct v3.0. I've got v3.3, and anyone should be a bit nervous about installing a patch designed for an older version of a piece of software. Also, it stretches credulity to think that Dell would ship v3.3 without having incorporated the older patches. Finally, the patch relates to a memory leak. It doesn't look to me as if this is a memory leak situation, since the machine isn't acting as it would if it were running out of available memory.
 
I've written a query to Dell but I'm interested what the latest user consensus is on the best fix for this problem (esp. as Dell may not provide a satisfactory answer soon enough for me).
 

Jeff Leites

2 Intern

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480 Posts

December 26th, 2007 16:00

As you saw for yourself, disabling PCMsevice.exe works,wheather or not anyone "approves" of it. You can also see from other posts in this thread that it works. If you don't trust the Startup Control Pannel utility (from mlin.net) to keep it from loading when you boot, there are other utilities available that let you disable programs from loading at startup, like PC Magazine's Startup Cop or PC World's Startup Mechanic to name two. I think they all work by moving or modifing the registry entry that runs the program at startup. Or you could disable it in msconfig and run in diagnostic mode You can always reinstate it with the above options if DELL ever comes up with another solution that works. There's no reason to suffer with the problem. Just a final note, I'm running XP, if there is another way to disable a startup program with Vista, I wouldn't know anything about it.

Message Edited by Jeff Leites on 12-26-2007 12:56 PM

topper12345

6 Posts

February 15th, 2008 20:00

You can permanently disable PCMservice.exe by going Start>Run>msconfig and under services uncheck the box.

May1955

13 Posts

February 17th, 2008 16:00

I have a brand new Inspiron 1520 and are experiencing the same stuttering described in the other entries.

I spent 2 hours on the phone with Dell uninstalling anti-virus, etc. etc.  Then I spent another 4 hours talking to Support - trying everything possible including uninstalling and restoring to no avail. 

 

My typing is nearly one line late in coming up.  If you would like to play games with the arrow keys - forget it!

 

I think Dell should handle this problem and it should not be up to people like me to find the solution.

This is certainly not my past experience with Dell - this is my 5th purchase.  I think for $1,800 this is unacceptable.   The 3 year old laptop that the 1520 replaced works better!!

 

Dell - please help.....we should not have to flounder around!   

bfloq

5 Posts

March 9th, 2008 09:00

I bought my 1520 in September and this keyboard issue has been intermittant.  Recently it has gotten to be unbearable, especially if I am trying to type a word document, getting to the point where it is almost useless for me to use this expensive piece of equipment for more than web browsing.  I tried to download the patch, but was not able to install it, so I disabled the PCMservice.exe .  At first this worked like a charm, but then the same thing started to happen again.  Each time I boot up, the keyboard will be fine for a while and then alternate between fine, unresponsive (for minutes at a time) and hyperresponsive.  I have been through all 3 in the past 30 minutes it has taken me to write this.  I am seriously ready to crack.  Does anyone have any advice for me? PLEASE!!!!        

Jeff Leites

2 Intern

 • 

480 Posts

March 9th, 2008 15:00

The main thread for this topic has become THIS ONE.

This is the first I've heard of the problem coming back after disabling the loading of PCMservice.exe. Are you sure you haven't done something to reenable it loading? You can check the running processes to be sure it's not there (CTL/ALT/DLT, Processes Tab, click on Image Name header to put them in alpha seq.).

The latest thing to come to light on the other thread is that disablilng the loading of the HotKey service(?) (on my notebook it is NVHotkey) also fixed the typing lag problem (either one disabled, while the other was allowed to load prevented the lag). So, that is something else to try.
Message Edited by Jeff Leites on 03-09-2008 11:11 AM

bfloq

5 Posts

March 9th, 2008 18:00

Thanks.  I am really becoming frustruated with the whole thing.  I did check to make sure the process was still not running.  Would I disable Hotkeys  in the same manner as  the  PCMservices?  I'll give it a go.  I was so frustruated with it that I actually called technical support.   He had me check the cable connection (incidently it *seems*
to be working a bit better now) and in the absence of having an exernal keyboard handy to try out he is thinking that this could be a issue with the actual hardware and are sending me a replacement keyboard.  The problem is that I am now living overseas and it has to be shipped to my address there and then onto me.  What a headache.  In the meantime I will try the hotkeys and maybe an external keyboard as well.  Thanks again.
S

Inspiron 1520

Private IT

1 Message

March 9th, 2008 20:00

Thanks Jeff:

 

I have been working on a customer's Inspiron 1520 for several hours.  Dell support suggested everything from replacing the keyboard to doing a clean install.  I knew neither could be the cause and used msconfig to isolate the PCM Service problem.  Dell service should be solution registered for this problem.

 

Dave

Jeff Leites

2 Intern

 • 

480 Posts

March 9th, 2008 20:00

"I have been working on a customer's Inspiron 1520 for several hours."

Hours of work, and it's a 30 second fix! Don't you hate that?:smileymad: I'd hate to get that bill :smileyvery-happy:

Jeff Leites

2 Intern

 • 

480 Posts

March 9th, 2008 20:00

" Would I disable Hotkeys in the same manner as the PCMservices?"

I don't know how you disabled PCMservices : smileywink: I guess so. I'm using a freeware startup manager program called Startup Control Panel, but of course that's not the only way. If you are having the same problem as the rest of use, you can see in the other thread that tech support has not been helpful at all.

Your situation sounds a little different, in that you mention that your problem is intermittent, and that it starts out ok, and builds up after booting. The originally described problem is there all the time, from bootup to shutdown, and only delays the keying a second or two. Also, if you held down a key, it would buffer it, then it would come " spilling out" onto the screen after a short delay. When you release the key, the buffer would keep displaying until it was empty. You'd have no control due to the delay, verses, when it works correctly, the held down key would display right away and stop as soon as you release the key. It made holding down the backspace key a nightmare: smileysurprised:

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