M15x & M17x Touchpad cursor movement & polling rate problems

well linux should just be fine with all of the bios updates we've had for this machine

 

Hint:

Drivers =/= Windows.
Brains =/= Dell.
Customer Care =/= Dell.

 

it's enough to make a mind explode aint it?
hopefully it won't effect linux in any way.

chances are they'll change something to make it "compatible", since linux now has pretty good generic device support it SHOULD be ok.

 

Yay! So we've hit 2/3rds of a month. What, its been moved to end July? Middle August? Well thank you, dell.

Sarcasm aside, really. So its a bios update after all? Not touchpad drivers?

If its a bios update i'd rather wait till end August than risk having another A03 incident again.

 

Does anybody think waiting for a complaint is the way to run a company rather than actually testing your product yourself before shipping it. Could Dell have thought the touch pad was OK I don't think anyone could think it was OK. Build/ship/take complaint/wait/fix/

 

damn dell give us the driver *@*

 

+1

10char

 

That was the point I was trying to make. Even if they had received the complaint yesterday, they'd already be a year+ "late" fixing it IMO, as they shouldn't have shipped a product with an obvious issue such as this.

 

Not long left in late July...

 

Suggestion for you all.If Dell don't come up with anything before end of month its time to report this issue to all the relevant sites & let the world know of this long outstanding joke with the Touch pad.This has gone on long enough with like no official acknowledgement from Dell of the issue .Enough is enough they have had plenty time to address this.

 

Throttle, USB issue, super reflectiveness of the screen and now this..
I'm losing my desire in ordering my new M15x :/

iPhone users sued Apple for antenna problems, so you know what I mean.

 

I agree. A Dell "representative" making a passing acknowledgment of the issue in a forum is anything but official and if the company fails to follow through with a fix, only the rep's reputation suffers. It's likely the Dell reps that visit this forum only have so much say in the prioritization of this issue.

Considering that Alienware Tech Support people continue to claim this is neither normal nor a known issue, obviously there's been no official acknowledgment within the company either. If Dell doesn't follow through by the end of this month, I agree, we need to start taking other action.

 

Oh, and on top of everything else. With the latest official M17x touchpad drivers, my mouse freezes after about 5 minutes of use and I either have to hook up an external mouse or reboot.

 

+1. Thats 5 more days for dell, and a much overdue driver/bios.

 

The person that mentioned he was working on it is the real deal. I am not sure why this is taking so long but I assure you he is the real deal.

 

err yes its the real deal. that guy's from dell, of course its the real deal. its just taking too long, too long. and a lot of delays too.

 

The question isn't whether he's the real deal, the question is whether he has the pull to get a relatively serious issue such as this one resolved in a timely manner. Remember it took him weeks just to get engineering to look at the issue to begin with. This is nothing against him, it just means it's looking like time to start exercising other options to ensure this is fixed soon.

Every engineering department prioritizes. Sometimes it takes extra effort to get your issue high enough on the priority list. The squeaky wheel gets the oil and we've been quite quiet and patient for a while now.

I'll give them their 5 more days, for now...

 

Ok, I agree it has taken awhile.... What are you going to do in 5 days?

 

Everyone will say this is BS and we are tied of waiting, than someone will come on and say they are just a little behind it will be soon maybe 2 more weeks. Most will say OK give them some time their doing it. Then in two more weeks when it doesn't come. Than it will be back to just another 5 days. Than the members on the board can start to talk tough again maybe a class action suit or threaten a mass revolt spread the word to other boards. Come on they don't give a dam, if they did it would have never been shipped like that in the first place.

 

the problem is, IF they wanted an extension, they COULD HAVE THE COURTESY to tell us. the biggest point here is that there is absolutely no proof as to whether they are even working on it, and the "mid-July" was moved to "late-July", and fyi, we are about to leave July altogether. that is the problem. If they wanted time, couldn't they tell us?

 

Start calling support and asking for managers. We can also try the executive support team at [EMAIL REMOVED BY MOD - SEE FORUM RULES - USE GOOGLE]. Only once you start insisting they take you seriously do you have the possibility that they will. If that fails, we can start letting gadget blogs like Engadget and Gizmodo know that there are known open issues with this premium laptop that have existed since day one and that Dell is ignoring. It's not pretty, but that extra pressure can help make things happen.

Dell has made an art out of committing to things and not following through. At some point we have to take them to task on it.

 

Just a reminder, forum rules do not permit posting of private information - this includes email addresses for individuals (even if they are well known email addresses which can be obtained via Google).

Questions, PM myself or any other mod.

Thanks.

 

I would just be patient and/or contact the reps around here. That seems to be all you can do at this point. Unless you want to plead ur case and try to get a refund.

Aside from that I am also curious... Does that M11x have this problem also?

 

AFAIK m11x does not suffer from this issue.

 

Guys, engineering is still working on this and is aware that it is a high priority item for those of you on the forums. It's looking like there will be a bit of a delay from the original ETA of late July though (this is apparently relatively complex). We're now looking at mid to late August for a new BIOS that will substantially improve the polling rate of the touchpad. This is why I don't like to give ETAs, as many people will now want to shoot the messenger (e.g. me!) since this is late... My apologies and be assured that I will continue to push engineering for this release.

Thanks.

 

thanks for the heads up, erawneila.

 

so there is improvement but not enough at the moment?

 

I haven't gotten to test anything yet, but it is looking like there will be an initial BIOS that improves it and then another BIOS later that gets all the way. This is still just me guessing though, I don't have anything official yet. I'll let you know as soon as we have something available for you guys.

 

thanks for the update, i'm sure i'm not the only one here who hates being left in the dark.

 

Dude, what about M17xR1???.. we have awful polling rate too.. and we want a solution... and the problem is anoying not only for the people on this forum..

 

Thats brings up a good point. Since a BIOS is the apparent fix, will they be coming out with a new BIOS for both versions of the M17X and the M15X? Or will some of us have to wait even longer for this apparent fix?

 

I don't believe he specified one system over another Tyranus. My guess is the fix would apply to both the 15x and 17x or else he would have mentioned only one model.

Better to wait and see how AW rolls this out...

 

So that translates to a few more months, going on from how they roll.

 

I personally dont think it will be that long. The people involved are rly on this and I know first hand they are not just blowing smoke. I know it sucks to wait but I would give it more patients. Especially since prior to people discovering the performance under linux, most just dealt with it and accepted it.

With that said I am rly anxious to get this finally fixed as I was prolly one of the top frustrated people. lol

 

It's not an email address for an individual as I stated. It's the email address for Dell's executive response team. Seems a little ridiculous to consider the email address of Dell's executive response team against forum rules.

Hilarious and unsurprising. But thanks for the update. As mentioned, this is high priority, "for those of you on the forums," which is quite different from saying it's high priority for Dell to address. And relatively complex? Really? Is that why this was ignored since day one?

 

guys.. i think dell knew the problem since they designed the laptop, they are not stupids.. i mean the first time i got the laptop in my hands i said: oh my god.. my touchpad is broken. I thought the problem was maybe the texture of the touchpad zone, then i found this thread about polling rate. I mean i am just a simple final user, i am not an engineer ... but i knew somethig was wrong with the touch pad.. so i think ... and i am sorry guys but i am starting to think this problem has no solution except change the hardware .. (even if it works in linux) .. otherwise i can't imagine why dell's engineers didn't fix this problem early

 

Hello erawneila firstly , thanks very much for all your hard work pushing this through engineering - I know everyone here appreciates it

Also, I am sure everyone understands that delays can occur and a BIOS update is no trivial matter ( I have no idea what is involved here but I guess a ton of QA/Testing we are not privy to)

That said, can I ask why it was left to only a few days before the "expected" release date before updating anyone here ? - Surely, it would be logicial to assume engineering would be aware it would not be ready for another month more than a couple of days before the anticipated release....? This doesnt scream at me that the issue is indeed, being treated as a "high priority" .

Why ?
Why do we not have anything official yet, and why are you "guessing?"
This issue was raised in Nov and I think not noticed/ignored , then again (this thread) in April where engineering were looking into it .. ..
I am struggling to understand why - (an issue of high priority )we have nothing firm or official at this point in time.

I have just purchased a m17xr2 (my first AW/dell laptop) for a laptop costing 3.5k+ - you can no doubt understand wanting something a little more "firmed up" .
Yes this is my issue buying a laptop, assuming the issues would of been done + dusted by the time it arrived - but you can understand at this price point having to rely on the odd forum posts for an update is somewhat frustrating


When are you expecting an update from engineering with something official?


Finally erawneila , I apologise for the tone of my post; it is not meant as a slight on yourself/attacking you - I really do appreciate the efforts you are going to , to rectifiy this issue (and I understand there is a big element of shooting the messenger in my posting.)
- however it is somewhat frustrating when the only contact RE this issue is on a forum (or in my case emailing reps from the usa..) , dates slip , and words like "guessing" and "those of you on the forum" are used.

I did email Chris prior to your posting , and after your posting I called Dell myself and asked for an ETA of a fix

Whilst Chris was very helpful , Dell (sales) were not, They told me the problem did not exist......(spoke to a couple of reps) which as you can imagine was not very reassuring.

 

Well put. I'd like to hear the answers to all of the above as well.

And it does concern me quite a bit that (still) nobody in tech support knows anything about the issue when I call and ask.

 

Do you actually expect to get answers?

You'd be better served on your own talking to Dell/AW supervisors on the phone and escalating it up the chain.

 

I agree, and that's what I plan to do.

 

Sweet. Let us know how it goes.

 

I totally agree with you man. I'm not an engineer either but I still have th feeling its the texture of the touchpad. The polling rate might be the culprit also but the texture is certainly contributing to the problem. Maybe I'm wrong...but thats just what I feel.

This is really very disappointing. I suffer throughout the whole year getting multiple replacements of the Studio XPS 16 and finally when Dell replace it with an Alienware, its got this stupid touchpad issue. All year I was just calling up Dell to get a replacement and now my warranty has already expired while waiting for this stupid issue to get resolved. What am I supposed to do now? Just wait for the damn thing to get fixed?? I cant even demand another replacement now without the warranty. What kind of a company is this?

 

It isn't the texture, try an m11x. Same pad texture, 1 million times better results

 

i had initial thoughts like yours. however using linux on the m15x is a dream. the mouse is PERFECT.

just try a live boot cd and see.

 

when will they fix the problem ? :S

 

Trying it out right now Will let you guys know how much better it is!

 

i recommend linux mint 9

looks absolutely gorgeous and is quite functional out of the box. i recommend trying wireless before committing to an install however, mine had slight issues.

 

Way ahead of you I've been using it for over a year.

 

haha yeh same.
only OS on my asus eee.

 

Great OS for a netbook. I can't wait for elementary os