m15x owners - keyboard responsiveness

Just wanted to get a pulse for who was still having problems with this issue? I can't decide how annoying the problem is for me. I'm experiencing sluggish keyboard responsiveness and missed characters while I'm typing. It's not all the time though and depends on what I'm doing. It's almost as if there's a cpu spike which causes the input to lag. I'm wondering if AW is actually aware that something needs fixing or if this problem will persist?

I'm using Vista Home Premium in case that has any relevance.

 

It has something to do with the OSA software, which is needed for the Fn key combos, touch controls & AlienFX. For me, I feel it's gotten better over time (gotten used to it?) but for some it's really annoying.

 

In my case, the problem went away completely when I uninstalled the trackpad drivers. Try that, and see if it works. Obviously, that's just a work-around, and considering that going without trackpad options is another annoyance, it's not even necessarily a fix at all. But the good news is, I found specifically where the problem seemed to stem from. As you may have read in other threads, I sent my system in a week ago for this very issue. I will keep everyone informed if it comes back fixed.

 

Good to know Callidor, keep us updated.

 

what exactly are the trackpad options you lose? speed control?

 

At times I too have that same problem and it's very annoying. It's only occurs if I try to write words with the same letter twice in a row, but it's caused me to miss a lot of passwords. Both of the hardware mentioned has had new drivers released on the alienware site so maybe there is a fix?

 

Yeah, I've had this problem too; I started a thread about it yesterday - it mostly happens when you type two letters quickly in a row.

 

Default windows drivers taker over, but they are for a generic pointing device, not a trackpad. Tap clicking is always on (I'm sure for many people that's no big deal, but I prefer to turn it off), and you cannot enable virtual scrolling.

 

Well, regarding the keyboard responsiveness - I talked to tech support today, done some testing and they will send me a keyboard replacement! Hopefully it should fix it - if it doesn't I'll have to send it in.

 

virtual scrolling being the scroll bars at the bottom and right side of the pad?

 

Yeah, the feature which lets you scroll without moving the mouse on the screen. It's really hard to let it go once you get used to it

 

I have the keyboard issue.

I really look forward to a fix for this!

 

i'd rather lose virtual scrolling than having the unresponsive keyboard .... the new keyboards won't do anything, this is software based.

 

just an udpate, i did uninstall the synaptics touchpad driver and i can confirm that the keyboard does work fantastically now. Im just using a mouse, but the touchpad still works... in fact, it doesnt turn off anymore with a mouse plugged in. Any ideas how i would manage to turn the touchpad off without the driver installed? Maybe i deactivate it before uninstalling the driver? Problem is that i keep touching it accidentally while typing

 

its an extremly overblown issue. its not even a big deal. somtimes it happens. but i would say 1% of the time.

 

That is not at all the case for me. I got my system back today, and it was not fixed. At this point, I am fairly certain that I will be returning my system, and getting a (better) Sager laptop, for less money. I'm not one of those people who's disowning Alienware over this..or claiming to hate the m15x. I just found a better deal...

 

I'm curious Callidor, estimate how many times that problem happened in your post above (if you didn't type it on your m15x, estimate how many times it would have happened)

 

I didn't..and as I've explained, the problem is only triggered by certain things. If the laptop were experiencing the issue, and I did not take care to fix the resulting typos, you could be assured that the text would "loksmethg lke this."

 

I can verify that the keyboard responsiveness is definitely more than a minor quibble. It does seem to affect some of us more than others but is extremely frustrating to fast typers such as myself. The touchpad driver install is an unsatisfactory solution. I also experienced first hand this week how AW's customer service turns into an ugly side at the first hint that you wish to cancel the computer for a refund.

I sent it back today and went for a m1730.

 

If you put in a new keyboard and it still has the problem. It might be a motherboard problem. I doubt that it's a software issue, since other m15x users here don't have the same problem and they are using the same keyboard drivers.

 

I was expiriencing the exact same problem until I noticed that Alienware has a new set of drivers for the touchpad in the drivers and downloads area. They are the exact same version but they have the WHQL.

I tried them and the keyboard worked without a problem. I noticed that it won't disable the touchpad when an external mouse is used (same as Carnyl) but this might be something you may want to try.

I'll keep testing them, if somebody has any comments please let me know.

 

is there a way to have the OS recognize the mice independently, such that the touchpad could work an z-rotation axis and the mouse would work x-y?

 

nope, the keyboard is still unresponsive at times even with the WHQL driver. This can be quickly checked by hitting the backspace key in fast repetition.. if not every backspace is registered, it's being unresponsive and words like "too" "good" "cool" "book" won't type out properly the first time.

It makes sense that without the touchpad driver, the touchpad doesn't turn off with the mouse plugged in... since i believe that's a feature of the synaptics touchpad driver.

 

a bios update will fix this in the future just as it has done for many other laptops i have owned from hp and dell. idk why but my last hp dv2000 had this till an update came out and fixed it, if it happens rarely, then ur lucky, i hope they fix this by the time i get mine in

 

i think all of the people complaining about the keyboard responsiveness can type, faster than they speak. Im a norm speed tyer, so i should be fine.

 

that is not true... I have the same problem and it is very significant and I have to type slower than normal and still cannot overcome it.. especially when you're typing double letters in a row.. VERY ANNOYING. I hope they will come out with a REAL fix for this..

 

has AW said anything about this? what does tech support tell you guys?

 

i don't have this problem,
i typed as fast i as cood and it work fine


test: too, woohoo, yaaahoooo,... no problem

 

Our product group has made it a priority to come up with a solution for these keyboard related issues. We have been following this thread and others like it and should be coming up with an answer shortly.

 

that is nice to hear AW-Steve.

 

my keyboard responsiveness is sharp, no problems.

 

yea thanks a lot aw-steve
this problem is rather irratating

 

Hopefully it's just a simple software update. It would suck to have everyone send their m15x's back to AW.

 

I don't know if you have already fixed this issue and maybe this advise may sound like something stupid but... have you tried the options in control panel -->keyboard?
maybe you can do something with that

 

thanks, Alienware-Steve. This is the only remaining issue for me on my m15x ... otherwise it's hands down the best computer system period (desktops and notebooks) i've ever had.

 

So does anyone know of any instances of this issue occuring on other laptops, or does it seem to be specific to the m15x? I ask because as I get close and closer to ordering my Sager (should be ordering on Monday), I get nervous about all the little things that may go wrong >.>

Fortunately, there was no mention of this, or any other commonly known issues with the NP5793 down on the Sager boards, so I'm hoping I should be making a safe bet.

 

I'm fairly certain it's confined to the m15x. I have never experienced the issue on any other laptop and I don't seem to find anything related on any of the technical forums for other notebook manufacturers. It's really frustrating to be honest. I had really wanted the m15x to be the perfect laptop and thoroughly QA'd to where they would have caught all these issues but it looks like they rushed it out the door a bit too quickly. I hope they end up scrapping the Ripley design in exchange for something more resilient. Ah well, enjoy the new Sager. I'm still waiting on my m1730 after returning the m15x and I hope it doesn't have any issues either.

 

I hope so. The reason I'm concerned though is because it seems to be somehow tied in with Synaptics drivers. Are there any windows laptops that don't use these? If it's a problem with the software, or perhaps with how vista interacts with it..well i'm nervous. Problems tend to follow me. :/ Someone please tell me I'm being unreasonable for fearing this problem on other laptops.

 

Haven't had one problem yet with Keyboard & find it the best I've ever used on any laptop.

 

Well, my m1710 uses a synaptics driver and it doesn't have any keyboard issues. I'm fairly certain it's confined to the m15x.

 

I don't know if thats the real keyboard lag, in normal windows the responsiveness is perfectly normal but when gaming, it is somehow strange to type, like I have to press the keys harder to get the stroke registered?!

 

I was having the keyboard lag, then I updated to the WHQL drivers on the alienware site, which seemed to solve the problems except when I play games! This is unacceptable!

I don't think it's the keyboard but when I hold down a key I noticed that you can see when the lag happens as you can actually see it "lag" every second or so.

 

So many happy costumers. It's a joy to watch how many of these problems are being solved by AW. I mean... really good company!
Sorry for your bad experience kefka.

 

Are you guys having it lag within games even with the synaptics driver removed? I hope I don't have this problem all over again with the new one. I don't think anyone had discovered the synaptics driver solution before I sent the last one in, but I remember having the same lag issues while playing UT3. It was like some of my double tap dodge moves weren't registering correctly. Sigh...

 

I did have a problem going into sleep mode when I first got the system. I called tech support and they immediately sent me out new memory. I had netlist 2x 2gb sticks in there. They sent me 2 x 2gb of Qimonda memory and now it works flawlessly. I don't blame alienware for this because vista is a ***** when it comes to sleep mode. My desktop has the same problem when I use use 4gb of my corsiar mem but not when I use 2gb... anyway, I am very happy with the laptop, otherwise.

I will try getting rid of the synaptec drivers and test it out. It seems that keyboard lag is a common laptop problem after searching around about it. I wonder if it's the synaptics driver that is the common problem. If that is the case these vendors should put some pressure on synaptics.

 

Kefka, were you saying that AW's standard RAM they put in your machine initially was Netlist? Or was Netlist the RAM that you had put in yourself before AW corrected it by sending you Qimonda RAM? Just wondering what RAM Alienware puts into M15x's.

 

The initial memory installed by alienware was the netlist, sorry it wasn't more clear. As far as I am aware this issue only affects people with the netlist who have more than 2gb installed.

Here is the model of the netlist ram as listed in my invoice:
MEM-MOBLDDR22GBP53NT

This is the new memory that they sent me:
MEM-MOBLDDR22GP53QMC

As you can see the only difference is one is GBP53NT and GP53QMC. QMC for Qimonda and NT for Netlist.

As far as the touchpad goes, I uninstalled the synaptic driver and doing this did solve the problem of keyboard lag in games. It is just interesting that the whql driver doesn't have lag in windows but causes lag in games. I will have to test and see if it happens with both DX and OpenGL games

Update: I tried using the generic drivers from the synaptics webpage 10.1.8 and they are having the same problem in games. Seems we will have to wait for a new release of a synaptics driver.

 

Good to know Kefka, thanks for testing.