M15x & M17x Touchpad cursor movement & polling rate problems

Well i think its time to tip engadget with this issue that's one thing Dell don't like is bad press.For those that want to see some action on this issue take the time to tip engadget about this then maybe Dell will pull the finger out.That's what got Dell moving on the DPC latency was bad press nothing else.

 

My english isnt the best so hows about a generic letter we can send to AW/Dell support and we all sign our names ?

and flood the Dell technical support as I just got my laptop yesterday have to say its awesome apart from this slow skippy touchpad

 

I'm up for anything. Calling Alienware tech support sure isn't getting me anywhere.

 

If engadget had noticed the issue on their test M17x, wouldn't they have already reported it? I cannot find it over there.

 

So from that i take it we are all delusional & this issue does not exist.This needs to be addressed as many are getting seriously frustrated that such a great machine has such a poor performing touchpad.

 

Maybe they only had default Windows drivers installed at the time of review. It's not as noticeable a problem that way, unless you actually go into a game. General web browser navigation and benchmarking won't make the problem obvious. Try panning with the touchpad in virtually any FPS game though. Ouch, makes my eyes hurt because it's so jumpy an jittery.

 

Even with Windows drivers, the touchpad is garbage, compared to any other laptop built... ever?!

 

Engadget didn't catch the DPC latency issue, which was obvious in any amount of normal usage. They only reported on it once it was brought up here in the notebookreview forums.

What I find strange is that no review I have seen of the M17x or M15x complains about the touchpad. To me, this means one of the following:

1. Early models didn't have the issue. - Quite doubtful. Seems 100% consistent across anyone who uses the touchpad for any period of time, all the way back to early M17x's and all the way up to current M17x-R2's.
   
2. Most reviewers test a hardcore, high-powered laptop (desktop replacement) using an external mouse and never bother to play with the touchpad or at least don't use it for extended periods of time like those of use who actually own this system. - Quite likely.
   
3. This is mass hysteria and we're all nuts. - Nobody at Dell has shown any of us how to fix this or what we're "doing wrong", and we're all seeing the same thing, so that's not a reasonable explanation.
   
4. This is considered "normal" or "acceptable" for this system. - I think this is the most likely explanation both for the issue and for the complete lack of response, but also the absolute worst case in terms of the way it reflects on Dell's build quality, testing quality, and customer service quality.

I completely agree.

 

I'll stick with the fact that most reviewers only benchmark gaming systems. Few reviewers use a system for any extended period of time since they have so many to review. Benchmarks alone won't blatantly show this flaw.

 

Use the power of the internet & report this issue and Dells refusal to acknowledge or fix the issue.Then you will see some action on this .

 

This is my 3rd M17x. I had 2 R1s and now my R2 have all had this issue. My first R1 was with the first batch of M17x's shipped.

I am sure most use external mouse when testing/benching...

I mainly use external but when I have to use the touchpad its so frustrating... Out of all my laptops that I have ever owned it has been the worse..

 

Unfortunately, this issue might stay unresolved, unless someone will write/mod the driver for us. This time I doubt that Dell would be able/inclined to fix it. Dunno...

 

So from that I take it we are all delusional & this issue does not exist.
* Not at all. We are working this.

Maybe they only had default Windows drivers installed at the time of review.
* Good point. Hadn't thought of this.

Use the power of the internet & report this issue and Dells refusal to acknowledge or fix the issue.
* We are on it.

 

Thank You, Chris.
What we know for certain is that it's not a hardware problem. I had both R1 and R2 and used Linux as a second operating system with absolutely perfect polling rate (80-100).
I tried contacting Synaptics but they said this should be resolved by Dell and refused to participate.

 

good looking out Chris, hopefully we can get a fix for this soon, people have been living with this issue for way too long.

 

All,

Alienware enginnering wants the following data. Send it to my Dell email address ([email protected]) and I will throw it all into excel.
Name:
Email Address:
Shipping address:
Phone number:
PC Service Tag number:
Drivers used:
Touchpad testing:

 

Chris, when can we expect a firmware update for the dvd/blu ray player?

 

No idea. It was not discussed in our last two meetings. Is there a thread out here detailing the issue?

 

Thanks again, email sent.

 

Hi Chris,

I'm happy to provide this information to engineering. One thing I would like acknowledgment on is whether anyone in engineering has replicated this issue. A number of times early on in this thread, the mouserate utility is used to test with screenshots documenting the issue. It's a very simple test and takes seconds to complete. It would be very reassuring to have someone at least acknowledge that they know what we're talking about and can replicate it as easily as we can. This is what I've been asking for with my repeated calls to Alienware Support but always get the same answer: "We'll look into it and get back to you."

 

The issue shouldn't even have to be replicated. It's not like any of us have to go through special steps to have it have crappy polling rate. Just use the damn touchpad

Email sent.

 

email sent as well.

 

you really have to watch how u use your touchpad, not to much pressure, you cant go fast from one side to the other, you have to make multiple movements to get there. My wife hates it i got used to it but i would really like it to be as good as the rest of the laptop cuz it really is outstanding

 

email sent.

 

I completely agree, the issue is beyond obvious. But somehow, it has yet to be addressed in any way, so I'm just trying to get an acknowledgment.

 

Good call on making this a sticky

 

Hey,

I uploaded a video of how it looks like (I'm not sure that it looks as bad as it feels though).

The first part I am using my mouse (Razer Mamba ) to move the cursor around, then stop at the top and switch to touchpad. This is with Windows generic drivers.

<param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/SrvRB-7bfgs&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/SrvRB-7bfgs&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width='640' height="385"></embed>

 

yep, it's visible - mamba is smooth as butter, touchpad is as smooth as a grater

 

Thanks Chris, Email Sent.

 

Email sent too

 

I only got 10 so far. Hopefully everyone on this thread will send the data to my email.

 

Please everyone send your information.

 

Sent, Chris. Sorry, been a busy day. Thanks for following through for us.

 

I'll email when I get home from work.

 

Email when I get home from work later tonight.

 

No offense, but it's completely unnecessary and pointless to clog this thread with "E-mailed" (or even "Will e-mail...") posts. If you e-mailed him, good.

He will see in his Inbox how many people here are bothered by the touchpad.

 

What does it mean by "touchpad testing?"

 

I assume he meant what games/apps you've used to see the problem and how to reproduce it.

 

Agreed - to better track this and assist Chris with tallying his emails, I have created a simple poll. Vote option 1 if you have sent your emails. Any Option 2 votes will be removed (had to have 2 options for a poll to be created).

Thanks.

 

I don't see it as clogging. Communicating something to someone who's actually doing something to help that also bumps the thread isn't causing any harm whatsoever. Would you rather talk more about which drivers aren't working?

I know BatBoy has already spoken and I respect that decision but I have zero issue with other members posting that they've contributed.

 

email sent..

 

1. Posting "I sent an e-mail" does absolutely no use to anyone here. It's informative but I can't say that it .e.g helped me in any way improve my touchpad. In fact, there's counter-effect lots of posts but very little actual information

Its easier to just select the poll option. It is clogging - I know as I have gone countless times through giant threads on this forum, e.g. last time in ASUS forum I was looking for i-ULV CPU benchmarks and half-way through 200-page thread I found myself clicking through several pages where there was discussion about cheese. Same here... if someone looks for information, he'll have to dig through several pages of "E-mailed" posts.

2. The thread needs no bumping - it's sticky.

3. I'd rather let the thread be without anyone posting anything, unless they have something to contribute. At this point there doesn't seem to be much else we can do - we reported the bug.

 

What's good poll rate for a USB mouse?

 

125mhz is acceptable (8ms delay).

 

Okey dokey, and what would be considered a good/excellent poll rate?

 

You probably meant 125 Hz, not MHz.

I think maybe it can be seen from my video, my mouse with current settings is polling @ ~500 Hz. I'd say that's a good number. The Linux drivers I found for this touchpad have a polling rate of 80 Hz and one guy here who runs Linux said it works fine there.

 

I got 16 so far.

 

I totally do not understand how could this be an issue and haven't been fixed for so long. When those engineers doing test on either R1 or R2. Did their touch-pads function as normal and they did not notice there is an issue? If they are satisfy with it which means all touch-pads going crap on their way to end users.
And now they are asking for data. I reckon they do consider people here or outside as their voluntary testers not customers.

 

how many are you looking for Chris ?

 

Is there someway to edit the first post, or start a new thread even to have Chris's email and required info easy to display? I know that I just jumped on this thread and had to hunt through a few pages to find the requested info and email.

Here it is again for those just joining the discussion:

Alienware enginnering wants the following data. Send it to my Dell email address ([email protected]) and I will throw it all into excel.
Name:
Email Address:
Shipping address:
Phone number:
PC Service Tag number:
Drivers used:
Touchpad testing: