The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.

Log in or Sign up

Latitude E6520 Alps pad, Synaptics replacement?

Discussion in 'Dell Latitude, Vostro, and Precision' started by Zorael, Jun 16, 2011.

Thread Status:: Not open for further replies.

Zorael Newbie

Reputations:

0

Messages:

2

Likes Received:

0

Trophy Points:

5

I just got my Latitude E6520 yesterday; the new one with Sandy Bridge. I immediately tore out the included mechanical disk, inserted my Vertex 3 SSD and installed linux - where I now notice the touchpad is an Alps pad. The linux Alps driver is sort of okay, but it's vastly overshadowed by the Synaptics driver in terms of features.

I had the same problem on my rebranded MSI Wind U100 netbook, which included an Elanech "Finger-sensing Pad" that was simply inferior in every sense. I eventually purchased a Synaptics pad elsewhere, opened the netbook case, pried off the Elantech pad itself and replaced it with the Synaptics. No regrets, I'd do it again three times over.

Is it possible to do something similar with the E6520? I'm semi-loathe to void the warranty, but I'd at least like to explore the possibility. Has someone else done this? Are the dimensions of the touchpad device known?

Zorael, Jun 16, 2011

#1