Studio - Jammed Touch Sensitive Eject Button

Hi, I have a Studio 1537 which is almost 1 year old. I had the exact same problems as most of you did, the eject button jamming at bootup etc. I had a desktop pc, but bought this laptop just to do one very important research project, but ended up doing the research on my desktop anyway, because after a while the problems got worse and my appetite to work on the laptop totally disappeared.

But I knew that I had to do something about  it before my warranty ended (I still have 6 weeks of warranty left) so I contacted Dell support two weeks ago. I also have problems with my hd, even though Dell diagnostics tells me that there's nothing wrong with it, a simple SMART capable tool, called Speedfan, tells me that I have to replace it because of a very large number of pending sectors and offline uncorrectable sectors (though I don't know what those exactly mean.)

Dell support told me that concerning the hd, they will trust their own diagnostics tool and not some other tool, which might find out something the Dell diagnostics can't. But, oh well, I was like, ok, there has been no crashes or anything, so in the end I was ok with that. But they had me doing a fresh install of windows vista and all drivers and such, which took two of my precious days which I could have spent on my research.

For the problem with the eject button first they wrote me that I should take the battery out and while not connected to power press the power button and keep it pressed for about 6 seconds. I was like, oh my God, could it be really that simple? Well, it wasn't that simple, as after two bootups the problem returned.

So I contacted them again, this time they did send me a technician and he replaced the multimedia pannel, we tested it and the jamming was gone. This was two days ago, so I was like: "why the heck didn't I contact them before..."

So I was totally happy again, but then just one day later the problem returned, I couldn't believe my own eyes, I had seen the technician replace the part, but now to the eject button jamming problem there was added the problem of the volume higher button jamming. Most of the time the eject button would get stuck for about 10 seconds, then it would go off and the volume higher button would jam, then that would stop and the eject button would jam again. So the problem had deteriorated.

In total awe I started to look for people around the net who had the same problems and finally stumbled upon this here. I applied the patch just 20 minutes ago, but have seen no problems after I cold booted and rebooted about 6 times. I had the jamming problem almost ALL the time, so, depending on all the feedback here and the facht that I didn't see it return makes me believe that it is gone forever. We will see.

THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE INVOLVED CREATING AND LATER MAKING THIS FIRMWARE PATCH STILL AVAILABLE.

It is totally weird though that I just happened to stumble upon this. There are quite some other threads with people finding other solutions, rewiring the cable under the pannel, unscrewing screws so the cable has more space under the pannel etc. If I wouldn't have seen this, I might have fooled around with my laptop for no good reason.

It's just weird that Dell hasn't created a special page for this problem. It seems to me that Dell has moved on as quicly as possible from this chapter of touch-buttons and left all the frustrated users on their own. I really can't believe that this could be the official policy for such a big global supplier of electronics. I will never buy anything from Dell again and I have a fairly big social network and am telling now for a year to thousands of students and colleauge's not to buy anything from Dell. I think now if I was to buy a notebook or netbook I would definitely go for ASUS, most of the parts of my desktop pc are from ASUS and they never made any trouble about faulty parts. I could even exchange a 2,5 year old motherboard with a much newer model without paying anything extra.

I still hope though that some day some Dell technician will put some more time into this and create a valid firmware upgrade that also is official. The least they could do is make a sticky out of this topic, so people looking for this problem will at least have no problem finding it on this forum.

 By the way, after applying the new firmware, the lights of my buttons still make a wave from right to left and then left to right (or other way around, don't remember). Also at boot or reboot or waking from sleep there is just once a sound from the dvd-drive checking if there is something in the drive. Nothing after that. Even the light doesn't go on while doing this.

One a side note, after reinstalling my system my remote control doesn't work anymore, any ideas on that one? Do I have to install something for it upgrade some drivers? I have one unknown device in my system list, don't know if that might be the remote control device, but I can't any  drivers for it on dells site or via windows update. This really is another setback.

Hi Bill, I am just curious into what other problems the engineer found the updated firmware could cause.

Thanks.

I did end up running the firmware patch. The random eject issue is gone, all the lights work on the media console. The only issue I have since running the firmware patch is I cannot rip/burn onto DVD's anymore. The DVD drive plays DVD's but will not burn onto a disc. I have hooked up an external DVD drive and I can rip/burn on that..but not the computer  drive.

after i installed the new firmware, same problem as other guys here....

the LEDs are working, but the buttons arent

only the fn+f10 working...

my laptop is a 1535, A06 bios, optiarc dvd+-rw ad-7640s

and after 2-3 times reboot, once time the eject is come again

so, whats next step?

ok, now it isnt ejecteing the drive7-8 times, only 1, but the buttons are not working....

Try to reinstall the firmware following exactly the instructions. You have to remove both battery and supply cord after the firmware install for 30 seconds at least.

now it's working

thx guys....

i missed this "30 sec".........

Are you sure you removed both the battery and AC adaptor after and held down the power button for at least 30 seconds? That is a crucial step!

Good to here you got it sorted.

Hi non-vtec,

You saved my life and money dude.  From past 1 year i was facing this issue and googled many blogs to get the fix and failed.

Today i saw your post and implemented immediately and it worked like a champ.

I have decided not to buy DELL laptops any more...but i will rethink about my decision.

Thank you very much...:)

Regards,

Suresh

Here you go:

Problem: Media Control Buttons Disfunction on Dell Studio 1535/1536/1537

Description: Media control buttons on Dell Studio 1535/1536/1537 systems may report intermittent disfunction issues.

The typical failures may include:
1. Media control buttons automatically light on.
2. Optical disk automatically ejected.
3. Some media control buttons have no response.

Solution:
Update firmware for system hinge cover.

Create a bootable CD:

NOTE: Please make sure you have CD imaging software installed in your system, which can create a bootable CD based on ISO image format.

1. Download the firmware installation file FM7_X0D.ISO, and save it in your system.
2. Run the CD imaging software to create a bootable CD based on this FM7_X0D.ISO file.

Take Roxio Creator as an example for the procedure.

1. Insert a blank writable CD in your system.
2. Open Roxio Creator.
3. Click File menu.
4. Go to New Project / Copy / Burn Disc Image to Disc.
5. Click Browse.
6. Add this FM7_X0D.ISO file from the location you saved.
7. Click button to continue, till complete the CD creation.

Flash firmware:
NOTE: Please make sure A/C power is being used while updating the firmware.

1. Insert this CD in your system.
2. Reboot the system, and enter one-time boot menu by pressing F12.
3. Boot from the CD drive.
4. The CD will auto-run and update the firmware.
5. Once completed, screen will show pass and Flash Successful.
6. Shut down the system by holding the power button down.
7. Remove A/C power cable and battery and hold down the power button for 10 seconds.
8. Replug in A/C power cable and battery to continue normal operation.

NOTE: Please make sure to remove A/C power and battery and hold down the power button for at-least 10 seconds once firmware update completed.

Download Link: http://csmicfool.com/files/FW7_X0D.ISO

I have just tested the link and it DOES work.

someone should sticky this information and have the file saved/hosted for permanent future use for customers. i applied that firmware fix well over a year ago now and it's been working perfectly ever since. i still cant believe dell will not officially release that firmware fix on their support page.

for customer service and cost it makes sense to have ALL the people experiencing those issues to try that simple re-flash first before spending thousands of dollars throwing away replacement parts and sending out service technician to try and fix these issues.

hopefully they newer models do not have these issues.

don't blow ur mind its only a firmware actualize

download the FW7_X0D.ISO

and in a blank cd write a image (can use roxio)

tools

- write image on cd

- and select the downloaded item .iso

- write it

-then whit the writed disk and ur lap conected to the ac power

restart it and get start whit the dvd rom

let go run and when finished a lot of words "pass" and a somthing like actualised

then take out the disk whit FN f10

and shut down ur lap

then disconect the ac power and the batery,

conect the batery and the ac power then get on and its all

LUCK!! 

Thanks, but can someone repost the right link for this download or send it to me please?  The link posted seems to be broken.

(there goes my eject button again... :()  I have been putting this off for far too long and I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!!  Does anyone have this download to fix this "control panel thingy"??  Much thanks...

I have uploaded it here https://rapidshare.com/files/2226776336/FW7_X0D.ISO 

Although I suspect Dell will probably remove the link soon, Please don't or at least host this on an official Dell server so people can continue to download this firmware in the future.