Latitude D610 Pointer problem

Question

I'm using a Latitude D610 with and without a docking station.  The problem happens in both circumstances.   Shortly after I start the computer, and at random times during the day, the mouse pointer will slide, by itself, to the side of the screen and attempt to stick there.  It slides to either side of the screen, apparently randomly.    This movement happens with no external input - I am neither touching the mouse pad, the pointer, nor the external mouse.  When it has slid to the side of the screen, it continues to stay there for up to 20 minutes, and then inexplicably returns to normal operation.   How do I rectify this situation?   Thanks,   Rick_Ono

villanim · Answer

But are you touching the keyboard, typing? If so there are settings to disable the touchpad while typing. If this is not the case, I would download the latest touchpad driver for the 610 from Dell's site, uninstall the currently installed driver( do not perform an upgrade) reboot, and then install the new driver.

Torontiff · Answer

This problem began for me while I was carrying the laptop on a trip. I happened to ask the IT guys at the conference if they knew anything about this, and they gave some advice that has worked only partially.
The problem is that the stick pointing device is out of control. It needs to be disabled, leaving the touchpad and external mouse still operational.

They gave me 2 .exes to try to install. Unfortunately, despite fixing the problem (at best, the Mouse Properties window includes a Synaptics logo tab that gives Enable Disable toggle for each of the 3 pointing devices), whenever I put the laptop into Hibernate, the magic is gone, not to mention the Synaptics tab in Mouse Properties. Somehow Hibernate disables the driver installed by the good .exe. I have yet to figure out which is the .exe that really works. It may be R113921mousedriver.exe, but Tp2aa11i.exe at least stops the madness, even if it doesn't give the Mouse Properties tab you want.

If anyone can tell me how I can make the good Synaptics driver stick, I would be MUCH obliged. I have tried the updated driver available from Dell Download Tp2aa12i.exe, but it doesn't have the desired Mouse Prop tab and neither does XP_2k... from Synaptics, dated May 2006 (Pointing Device Driver 8.3.4.0).

Clyde Marc · Answer

My D610 has the same problem with the touchpad and the eraser button drifting off occasionally and sometimes not coming back into control until I reboot?  Does Dell have a way of turning off the eraser?  What's the problem?

Torontiff · Answer

CM, no one has responded to my original post with a solution. I would accept that we just have to reboot, but my laptop was not always like this! This only started almost 4 years into the Latitude's life! Probably kicked off by some Microsoft update that automatically downloaded and installed. :(

Rick_Ono · Answer

It's been a while, and I still dont have a good solution.  I have eliminated the problem by disabling the touchpad and eraser stick when the laptop is docked, but don't have any luck getting rid of the problem when using just the laptop.   I've tried new installations of the mouse drivers, but that didn't help.  I've tried other 'solutions' for this problem -- other .exe programs, but they don't work very well.   If anyone has any other suggestions, I would appreciate it.   Thanks again.

Clyde Marc · Answer

Thanks for your replies. I found these links but the first one costs. I haven't tried them but search for dell and pointer seems to find more comments on web and on Dell's forums.

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Misc/Q_20597727.html#a8419852

http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2006/03/24/disable-synaptics-touchpad/

Locked Topics – Laptops General

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