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Go to SolutionTouchpad two-finger scrolling solution
Like many others who have had issues with touchpad two-finger scrolling not working reliably on my XPS 13, I spent a significant amount of time trying to find a solution and finally found it. Download and install the Dell driver below and your problem should be solved (don't worry about the compatible systems):
https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-au/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=dffht
Applicability of that package may depend upon the particular touchpad hardware.
On my old XPS I use driver package 19.2.17.55, which can be found in Microsoft Update Catalog by searching for the touchpad's hardware ID dll04B6. When I tried newer versions, they did not work.
It's important to use drivers that support your hardware, which may not necessarily be the most recent drivers.
@khaledh wrote:
Two-finger scrolling worked well right after I installed that driver, but then next morning it's back again to not working reliably.
This suggests that there may be something else occurring here. Perhaps there is some interaction between touchpad driver and some other driver, service or application, or something interferes with touchpad's two-finger scroll.
Do all other functions work? Can you access the Synaptics touchpad's Properties interface, to ensure that two-finger scrolling is still enabled? Have you tried the test that is included in that Properties interface, and does the scrolling work there?
Nothing about Synaptics in Apps & features. No system tray icon for Synaptics. Also no mention of Synaptics in the device manager, only "HID-compliant touch pad", which in the driver details shows the driver provider as Microsoft, and date is 2006-06-21. I tried the additional mouse options, no mention of "Device Settings" there.
@khaledh wrote:
I don't have any Synaptics software I can access to see the touchpad's properties or run tests.
Are you sure? Do you not see Synaptics package in Settings | Apps & features? Do you not see Synaptics driver in Device Manager?
On my system, I can access Synaptics properties via a couple of methods:
- Settings | Mouse | Additional mouse options | Device Settings | Settings... button
- Or, right-click systray touchpad icon.
It seems that you aren't using Synaptics drivers, but are using default MS drivers.
Did you ever have Synaptics drivers installed? Did you confirm that by one of the methods I mentioned?
One possibility, since you said that you installed a Synaptics driver package and that two-finger scrolling worked for a time after that, but later stopped working. Maybe the Synaptics drivers got removed when Windows Update "updated" your system to use MS drivers.
You might try unplugging Ethernet and disabling WiFi, then installing whatever Synaptics driver package Dell lists as approved for your system. See if you can access Synaptics Properties, as I indicated, and check Apps & features and Device Manager for Synaptics entries. See if everything works. Reboot, try various applications, use the laptop, see if it still works.
You could also go into Windows Update settings and choose to pause updates for x days, which would allow you to re-establish Internet connectivity without an unexpected update. See if the touchpad continues to function. After Windows Update begins again, if touchpad functions stop working, again check Apps & features and Device Manager to see if the Synaptics package is gone.
Are you on Windows 11?
Single-finger functions work properly (moving the cursor, clicking), but any two-finger gesture doesn't work reliably (I have to try many times), e.g. scrolling, pinch-to-zoom, right-clicking.
I don't have any Synaptics software I can access to see the touchpad's properties or run tests.
I'm on Windows 10.
I tried re-installing the driver with the wifi disconnected. Nothing showed up in terms of synaptics software (features & apps, system tray) or drivers (device manager). The scrolling is still an issue. I'm now starting to suspect that it was just a coincidence that it was working well for a while after I first installed the driver.
The thing is, I bought this laptop in Oct 2020, and I didn't have this issue until earlier this year. So that tells me it's either a Windows or Dell update that caused it, or it's a hardware malfunction (especially with multi-touch gestures).
I hate to do this, but I think I'll have to do a recovery of the original OS and see if it the issue still persists.
khaledh
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Posted June 26th, 2022 13:00
Some progress. I read somewhere (I don't remember the page) that someone got it to work properly by updating the intel graphics driver. So I updated my Intel Xe Graphics driver to the latest version from Intel (not Dell), and the scrolling seems to be working smoothly now. At least so far. I'll see if it regresses again (hopefully not).