m15x Keyboard responsiveness (or lack of...)

I'm a programmer, just moved to a new job and the work laptop that was purchased for me is a nearly maxed out m15x:

1920x1200 LCD
2.8GHz Core 2 Extreme
4GB Ram
512 8700M GT

Yes, yes... I know its odd that a business would buy something like this, but it's nice when someone who likes toys pays the bills

Anyways, my specific machine seems to have extremely high build quality, no blemishes, no gaps.. No hardware/driver problems (I'm running XP Pro), the cores run at 30C-36C all day (I don't use a cooler, just a simple swivel riser for ergonomics and to let the bottom of the laptop breathe).

The ONLY issue I have, which doesn't seem very consistent... Is the keyboard. It's a pretty good keyboard as far as laptops go, the only better laptop keyboard I've used is the one on my MBP. But, it seems that not all keypresses register when in quick succession.

This could be hitting the same key twice very quickly, or hitting two keys in very quick succession, sometimes the second keystroke doesn't register. For me, I do happen to notice this a lot; it must be a curse of typing anywhere from 60-100 WPM at times (people often think I'm just mashing the keyboard when they hear me typing... )

I haven't seen much info about anyone else having these issues, or find any information on possible alternative keyboard drivers...

Does anyone have any information regarding this?

 

Doing some more searching, I saw that some people have mentioned changing some settings in the "Ease of use options". I can only assume this must be a Vista configuration screen, as I've never seen or heard of it in Windows XP Pro. But in Control Panel > Keyboard, I did notice that the default setting shipped for the "Repeat delay" option was more towards "Long" then "Short". Changing the repeat delay to the shortest possible, seems to have made things better real quick.

I can't say for sure until I use it all day probably, but this may have helped...

 

Cheers for that Tomservo, the only gripe have had with the m15x is the keyboard. I type quickly to and when im typing job reports or long emails, it looks shocking as most of the words are cut short by missing letters... i have noticed 't' seems to do this more oftent than not. But that little hint you gave there seems to have helped... +1 Rep for you

 

Many people have had this problem with their M15x. On myhive, you can download new touchpad drivers that have an update that often solves the keyboard problem too when installed.

 

others "solved" the problem by deinstallting the touchpad drivers (synaptics). AW said that they are working on this problem...

 

none of the "solutions" mentioned above worked for me.. and sadly I am having the exact same issue with my m15x too. but only more significant.. I can't type at normal speed, a lot of keystrokes miss, especially when I type two of the same letter consecutively.. it is extremely annoying and AW support hasn't been very helpful coming with a resolution.

By the way, the keyboard unresponsiveness problem is not subtle.. it's a very serious problem for me. Everything else works terrific though.. I hope AW comes up with a real fix soon.

 

try going to control panel, programs and features, and then uninstalling the synaptics drivers completely... then you have to restart the computer for it to work... this worked for me and many others. The touch pad works fine w/o the synaptics drivers- all you lose is the outside edge scrolling and the ability to turn off the touchpad, neither of which I ever used so it doesnt bother me

 

yes, if you completely uninstall the synaptics touchpad driver your keyboard will work perfectly fine.... i can confirm this.. until we get a fix from alienware (which Alienware-Steve said they were working on), uninstalling the driver is the only 'real' fix... ie, changing the keyboard repeat delay and rate won't do it, downloading the updated synaptics won't do it either unfortunately.

 

what do you lose by uninstalling the synaptics drivers?

 

So any updates on this?

I've conducted some tests, both in normal and safe mode and I noticed that happens more frequently after about 2-3 hours of use when they keyboard does indeed feel slightly warm.

I have also uninstalled the synaptics drivers but it didn't help!

In fact this thing is driving me mad as whenever I happen to touch the touchpad with my palm, the cursor jumps because I can't turn the touchpad off now as I use a mouse!! ARGH

 

you can download the drivers from the official synaptics website..

just an update for my m15x regarding this terrible problem i have..

1. I uninstalled the original synaptics drivers that came with my m15x and it didn't solve the problem at all
2. then i installed the latest drivers from synaptics website and still the problem persists
3. i updated my BIOS to the latest one x32 and it wasnt helpful either
4. Alienware sent me a new keyboard which i replaced and still no differences...
5. alienware acknowledged my problem and also admitted they have it with many other m15x users.. and they say they're looking into this matter..
6. so in conclusion.. all you can do is to wait for them to come up with a fix.. no one has any idea whats the source of the problem.. and darn.. it's pretty damn serious issue!

*EDIT* oh btw I'm using an external USB keyboard and there is NO LAG AT ALL.. so you figure out what's the problem here.. don't think it's the system.. it's something to do with the laptop keyboard itself..

 

Well, I'm in the same boat as you ^.

BIOS updated, Synaptics divers (latest just installed), new keyboard sent for replacement and there is no difference.

The only difference is that when I called AW yesterday, I was unlucky enough not being able to reproduce the problem. Basically, I wrote about half a pge and it only happened once or twice. The guy said he doesn't know anything about this, etc.

But it's good that they are aware of it! I'm also sending mine in for this and other repairs on Monday.

I've also tried typing with an external USB keyboard and it's as smooth as possible. It's definitely to do with somethin related to the keyboard either the keys or the conctors.

P.S.: I'm actualy tired of going back to corect the mispellings because of the kyboard's wil of ommiting letters!

 

You know what's weird though. Deleting the drivers for my touchpad worked for me and i can type perfectly fine fast, the only problem is i can't turn off my touchpad now which causes problems when i'm typing sometimes because my hand runs along it and it either deletes what i've type or clicks somewhere else which is really annoying

 

from: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=3556093

 

It would help it people stated the OS they are using. So far I have narrowed this down to a Driver issue on Vista.

Here are the steps to fix the driver issue:

1) uninstall the synaptics drivers.
2) reboot the system
3) let windows install the native drivers
4) reboot
5) install the WHQL synaptics drivers on the Alienware website.
6) if this is still not fast enough for you, go to the keyboard options under hardware and change the repeat delay to short.

This cleared up the issue for me. But the WHQL driver is missing some of the nice features of the original driver release (such as the autodisabling of touchpad option when an external mouse is used)

This is not a problem with the keyboard itself. The keyboard is fine.

 

This isn't the same issue as not being able to use the touchpad at the same time as the keyboard, it is actual lag on the keyboard. As in.. letters are being dropped. It is especially noticable when typing words with the two of the same letter in a row... such as letter, good, still, issue, difficult, etc.

 

I understand that; I only posted the quote & link because he noted:

It's an explanation is all.

 

Ah, didn't realize you were replying to that, sorry.

However, to fix this you need to instal the WHQL driver from the Alienware page, that will restore that functionality. Follow the steps in post #15

It's funny some people complain about the feature preventing touchpad activation while typing and vice versa.

 

Well mine does this to and its pretty bad and definetly annoying. I am working on tweaking it now to see if I can fix it. Really sucks.
ok just uninstalled the driver and wow it seems to work great now! Yay!

 

Does anyone have the original (laggy) drivers? I have uninstalled them and installed the WHQL ones but I miss the functionality of the older ones so much I am willing to pay the price of the keyboard lag.

 

I'm using the newer driver version of Synaptics (v10.1.8) from AW and I'm able to disable the mousepad even without an external mouse plugged in. Also, no keyboard lag. I'm running BIOS X32 btw.

 

Tom, they're working on a new patch to address this issue. The validation period of this new patch started a couple weeks ago but has been set back due to the number of hurricanes they've been experiencing in Florida. There are still a bit of testing to be done before they can officially release this patch.

I can personally update you when I get further news of it. For further information, please refer to this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=288995

 

well I did a system restore and got my old drivers back. I have minimal kayboard lag (or maybe I just don't type as fast as some guys around here) and i often use an external mouse, so I really like the old drivers' auto disabling function.