Has anyone been able to configure the Synaptics pointing stick to make a left mouse click when tapped or pressed down? How did you do it?
I am using the latest drivers from support.dell.com (Listed in the mouse control panel as 7.5.7 02May03) and have tried all the options in Mouse Properties -> Device Settings -> Pointing Stick settings and in Mouse Properties -> Buttons -> Devices=Pointing Stick on PS/2 Port, Right-handed is selected. The device does register taps and presses but it switches into a select mode and has never produced a mouse button click. See the first message in this thread for more details.
Since I have tried everything I can how else should I try to get this click working, other than asking in this forum?
I've got the same problem with my Latitude C400 - I've tried both Dell's and Synaptic's drivers (from the Synaptics website), and my pointing stick will NOT produce a left-click when pressed.
My first telephone conversation with Dell Tech Support ended with the Tech trying to tell me that the pointing stick will not produce mouse clicks.
I ended that call, called back, and got a more knowledgeable Tech who started working with me on the problem. He ended up shipping me a new keyboard, which did NOT cure the problem.
I also use an IBM Thinkpad, and have developed the habit of using the pointing stick to produce mouse clicks - it takes me a few minutes to readjust to the Latitude without that ability.
After several frustrating emails with a Dell "technical" support person who seemed to be extremely lazy or stupid they also replaced my keyboard and palm assembly. I was not at all surprised when it did not make any difference. The onsite support tech who installed the keyboard seemed to sometimes get something that seemed a bit like a left click by giving the stick a slamming hard tap. Since the stick consistently goes into what seems to be a mouse-button-down mode with a gentle tap I stand by theory that this is a driver issue.
The onsite support tech said we stand little chance of getting the issue fixed and suggested calling customer relations to complain about the incompetent tech support.
Ideally Dell tech support would try to reproduce the issue on their own machine. If they find the problem they will track down the driver developer and get it fixed. I've seen this work from inside Microsoft and wish Dell cared as much about customers as I saw Microsoft care when I was an intern there. One caveat: I don't know who much Microsoft customers pay to get to tech support and I haven't paid Dell anything beyond the warranty. Judging from my experience so far I'm not about to pay for Dell their so-called-technical support.
Yeah, its pretty much a "random walk" when calling Dell Tech. Support - my experiences range from wonderful to gawd-awfully incompetent.
I think my next step will be to reopen the touble ticket, and generally make myself a pain in the rear until its either resolved, or Dell admits the darn thing doesn't work, and compensates us. In any event, I'm hoping to move up the tech support "food chain".
The next step in the Dell trouble-shooting "tree" for this problem is replacing the palm rest assembly.
The Dell (really Unisys) tech just finished that swap, and the pointing stick still exhibits its incorrect behavior. So far, the keyboard and palm rest have been replaced.
I was able to make the pointing stick work for taps and presses, by rolling back the driver from the Dell or Synaptics driver to the "standard" Microsoft PS/2-compatible mouse driver. I rolled the driver back, rebooted, and the pointing stick worked for taps and presses. BUT, on the next restart, the pointing stick would only work for movement - it ignored all taps and presses.
Additionally, once rolled back, tapping or pressing the pointing stick WILL work like the left mouse button (for at least a short period of time), BUT you lose all of the cool Synaptics functionality for the touch pad, like scroll and tap zones.
This is looking more and more like a driver problem, and not a hardware problem. I'll be calling Dell to reopen the trouble ticket, and we'll see where it ends up.
Hey thecap (and anyone else watching this thread):
On 10/17/03 Dell released a new version of the Synaptics Touchpad drivers which seems to cure this problem:
Look for:
Synaptics Touchpad Driver, v.7.6.4, A11. Filename is Tp2aa11i.exe
I uninstalled the old driver through Control Panel, installed this version, and the pointing stick is working the way its supposed to: Press-to-select is now working as designed.
I downloaded and installed the new driver over the top of the previous version. After a reboot it all my issues with clicking with the pointing stick seemed to go away.
Thank you to everyone who helped get this fix out.
thecap
4 Posts
0
October 5th, 2003 16:00
Has anyone been able to configure the Synaptics pointing stick to make a left mouse click when tapped or pressed down? How did you do it?
I am using the latest drivers from support.dell.com (Listed in the mouse control panel as 7.5.7 02May03) and have tried all the options in Mouse Properties -> Device Settings -> Pointing Stick settings and in Mouse Properties -> Buttons -> Devices=Pointing Stick on PS/2 Port, Right-handed is selected. The device does register taps and presses but it switches into a select mode and has never produced a mouse button click. See the first message in this thread for more details.
Since I have tried everything I can how else should I try to get this click working, other than asking in this forum?
gjmalcyon
11 Posts
0
October 20th, 2003 15:00
I've got the same problem with my Latitude C400 - I've tried both Dell's and Synaptic's drivers (from the Synaptics website), and my pointing stick will NOT produce a left-click when pressed.
My first telephone conversation with Dell Tech Support ended with the Tech trying to tell me that the pointing stick will not produce mouse clicks.
I ended that call, called back, and got a more knowledgeable Tech who started working with me on the problem. He ended up shipping me a new keyboard, which did NOT cure the problem.
I also use an IBM Thinkpad, and have developed the habit of using the pointing stick to produce mouse clicks - it takes me a few minutes to readjust to the Latitude without that ability.
thecap
4 Posts
0
October 20th, 2003 16:00
After several frustrating emails with a Dell "technical" support person who seemed to be extremely lazy or stupid they also replaced my keyboard and palm assembly. I was not at all surprised when it did not make any difference. The onsite support tech who installed the keyboard seemed to sometimes get something that seemed a bit like a left click by giving the stick a slamming hard tap. Since the stick consistently goes into what seems to be a mouse-button-down mode with a gentle tap I stand by theory that this is a driver issue.
The onsite support tech said we stand little chance of getting the issue fixed and suggested calling customer relations to complain about the incompetent tech support.
Ideally Dell tech support would try to reproduce the issue on their own machine. If they find the problem they will track down the driver developer and get it fixed. I've seen this work from inside Microsoft and wish Dell cared as much about customers as I saw Microsoft care when I was an intern there. One caveat: I don't know who much Microsoft customers pay to get to tech support and I haven't paid Dell anything beyond the warranty. Judging from my experience so far I'm not about to pay for Dell their so-called-technical support.
gjmalcyon
11 Posts
0
October 20th, 2003 17:00
Yeah, its pretty much a "random walk" when calling Dell Tech. Support - my experiences range from wonderful to gawd-awfully incompetent.
I think my next step will be to reopen the touble ticket, and generally make myself a pain in the rear until its either resolved, or Dell admits the darn thing doesn't work, and compensates us. In any event, I'm hoping to move up the tech support "food chain".
I'll let you know what transpires.
gjmalcyon
11 Posts
0
October 22nd, 2003 20:00
The next step in the Dell trouble-shooting "tree" for this problem is replacing the palm rest assembly.
The Dell (really Unisys) tech just finished that swap, and the pointing stick still exhibits its incorrect behavior. So far, the keyboard and palm rest have been replaced.
I was able to make the pointing stick work for taps and presses, by rolling back the driver from the Dell or Synaptics driver to the "standard" Microsoft PS/2-compatible mouse driver. I rolled the driver back, rebooted, and the pointing stick worked for taps and presses. BUT, on the next restart, the pointing stick would only work for movement - it ignored all taps and presses.
Additionally, once rolled back, tapping or pressing the pointing stick WILL work like the left mouse button (for at least a short period of time), BUT you lose all of the cool Synaptics functionality for the touch pad, like scroll and tap zones.
This is looking more and more like a driver problem, and not a hardware problem. I'll be calling Dell to reopen the trouble ticket, and we'll see where it ends up.
gjmalcyon
11 Posts
0
October 27th, 2003 18:00
Hey thecap (and anyone else watching this thread):
On 10/17/03 Dell released a new version of the Synaptics Touchpad drivers which seems to cure this problem:
Look for:
Synaptics Touchpad Driver, v.7.6.4, A11. Filename is Tp2aa11i.exe
I uninstalled the old driver through Control Panel, installed this version, and the pointing stick is working the way its supposed to: Press-to-select is now working as designed.
thecap
4 Posts
0
October 31st, 2003 17:00
I downloaded and installed the new driver over the top of the previous version. After a reboot it all my issues with clicking with the pointing stick seemed to go away.
Thank you to everyone who helped get this fix out.