Synaptics pointing device (touchpad) loses settings on restart

Hi

Yes i know it may be a type error !

But i gave SHF the link anyway just in case he got the wrong driver .

See Yea

 

R155566.exe.

Hi

I do not see that driver at all and i did a search for it!!!

I see this one that should work for you!

Good Luck 

C3PO5:     R155586

SHF:          R155566

Jerry,

Looks almost the same, maybe he downloaded the one you are suggesting, but typed wrong...

 

If that's the case, I would recommend to uninstall from Programs And Features, and then isntall it back...

When you remove the driver from Device Manager may not remove the Synaptics application, go to Programs and Features and uninstall it also from there, then, try again installing.

I had mistyped the driver filename (sorry). It was indeed R155586.exe. Earlier, installing that driver (without uninstalling it first) didn't change any behavior.

 

So I uninstalled the driver (using Device Manager) and restarted the computer. Windows was unable to locate a driver for the device, and prompted me to download a Vista Hotfix. After I installed the Hotfix and restarted, Windows found a driver (not from the download of R155586.exe, which I had put on the desktop, but from somewhere else) and installed it. The touchpad did indeed then control the cursor, but when I went to Control Panel to try to change the settings, it said "Unable to connect to the Synaptics Pointing Device Driver."

 

At that point, in Device Manager, the device name was "PS/2 Compatible Mouse" (rather than "Synaptics PS/2 Port Pointing Device") and the driver version was "6.0.6000.16386" (rather than "9.1.18.6"), and there was no touchpad icon in the "Notification Area" (at the right end of the Task Bar). All of this was different from the factory configuration.

 

Because of these anomalies, I assumed the wrong driver was installed, so I then installed the driver downloaded from the Dell website (R155586.exe). The above anomalies disappeared, so I'm back to seeing the expected information in Device Manager and seeing the touchpad icon in the Notification Area. However, the original problem still exists. That is, any change in the "Touchpad Speed" setting is reset when the system restarts. However, note that changes in other touchpad settings ("Touch Sensitivity," Tapping Speed," or "TouchCheck") are NOT reset.

 

So, bottom line, I've installed the latest driver from the Dell website, but changes to "Touchpad Speed" do not survive a reboot.

 

Any other thoughts?

I uninstalled the Synaptics app (named "Dell Touchpad") in Programs and Features, as well as the driver (for "Synaptics PS/2 Port Pointing Device") in Device Manager, and rebooted. At that point the touchpad didn't work at all (so I guess I must have done it right!). In Device Manager, I saw a "PS/2 Compatible Mouse" with an exclamation point on the icon (reflective of the fact that Windows Vista had installed the wrong driver, consistent with the touchpad not working).

 

In the absence of an operable pointing device, I used keystrokes to install the R155586.exe driver from my desktop, and rebooted. At that point, the touchpad worked, and Device Manager showed the right device ("Synaptics PS/2 Port Pointing Device"), and the Dell Touchpad app was in Programs and Features. In short, everything looked fine.

 

However, the problem persisted. A change in "touchpad speed" will not survive a reboot.

 

Incidentally, when I installed the driver this last time, I had a Logitech MX310 mouse plugged into a USB port, and the R155586.exe driver installed a driver for the mouse also. Thus, in Device Manager, under "Mice and other pointing devices", I now have two working devices, "Synaptics PS/2 Port Pointing Device" (the touchpad) and "HID-compliant mouse" (the MX310 mouse). Both work, and I can change both the "touchpad speed" and the "pointer speed" (for the mouse) via the same properties window. However, when I reboot, both the touchpad and the mouse revert to the default speed.

 

Any further ideas? (You folks are very patient, and I'm grateful for it!)