Studio XPS 1640 typing glitch

ypingSince I did a clean install on my computer, there has been some sort of weird t

^some sort of weird typing glitch going on, like what happened right there. Basically, I'll be typing on a website or a document, and suddenly the cursor will appear somewhere else in the document. It doesn't happen all the time, maybe once every couple of minutes of continuous typing, but it's incredibly annoying espcially when the cursor appears all the way at the top of a long text. I think it's some sort of software error, because I don't remember it happening before I did the clean Vista install. One time when it occured I happened to be pressing the Shift key, it selected all my text, which makes it seem like it thinks I'm pressing an arrow key or something (but my hands are only touching the letter keys).

Does this happen to anyone else here? What seems to be the problem and what can I do to fix it?

 

It does happen.

And its easily fix able, you may or may not believe it - but its actually you touching the touchpad while typing. This will make the cursor jump around on the screen.

- disable the touchpad and your problem will be solved.


Cheers

 

Agreed. Happens to me on my asus too.

 

I think I need to have the Dell touchpad software to disable the touchpad, but I can't register with their download site in order to get the software!

 

Well, that isn't the best solution when you are actually using the touchpad instead of an external mouse.

Install the touchpad drivers (from Synaptics) and there should be something "Tap off when typing" so it doesn't happen.

 

I know its a dumb question, but are you accidentally touching the touch pad? I used to have something similar happen to me on my HP laptop, and then I discovered it was cause i had a tendency to graze my touch pad when typing.

I disabled my touchpad when typing and discovered it disappeared, reappeared when i was typing long sessions with it on.

I just learned to be more aware of when I am typing.

**EDIT** well when I originally had this thread open no one had responded So ya, what everyone else said

 

Yeah, that's most likely the problem, even though I've been consciously trying to avoid brushing against the touchpad as I type. I downloaded the Synaptics driver and disabled the touchpad (I never use it anyway), and so far everything's been working fine.

 

It is definitely accidental brushing of the touchpad. I noticed this myself. I have since trained myself not to do it as I didn't want to disable the touchpad. I rarely ever do it now. I guess one could lower the sensitivity of the touchpad but I haven't played with that yet.

 

In the Dell Touchpad settings, there is an option for "TouchCheck", which basically helps recognize accidental finger brushes over the palmrest and ignores them.

 

Ah... That must be why I can't recall having the problem before I reinstalled Vista.