XPS M1530 Alps Touchpad Issues HELP

Just received my XPS M1530 system with the works.
It's beautiful. Works like a charm too...EXCEPT, the touchpad pointer is driving me nuts. It seems to "hiccup" every once in a while, so that maybe 1 out of 10 times, it won't respond to my movements. This happens just often enough to be really annoying but not enough to convince tech support of a real hardware failure. I've done a little googling on this and it seems there are a host of pointer issues affecting the Alps touchpad used in this system, and in other notebooks as well. I know for a lot of XPS owners, it has a tendency to stop working for a few minutes after coming out of standby. How they put up with it is beyond me. And furthermore, at the 1920 x 1200 resolution of the WUXGA screen, you have a lot of ground to cover with the pointer so any issue in consistency is a big deal.

I've updated the BIOS, fiddled around with the settings and tried many driver versions. Nothing could account for this aforementioned glitch.

This isn't nitpicking. The usability of the touchpad is a dealbreaker. If this can't be resolved I'm going to send it back. Before I do though, I want to ask if anyone here has had similar issues and perhaps any success in dealing with them.

The SOP of Dell's tech support is to make you install some remote access program, commandeer the computer and whoop-dee-do, download the latest drivers from their own website and install them, which I've already done. And when that doesn't work, they asked me to return the system.

Any thoughts?

 

I don't have my XPS to comment specifically on the one there, but I'm using an Inspiron 1525 with an Alps touchpad right now and I have to say I have no problems with it. It's not the same as a Synaptics, but if I had never used another touchpad I'd never know. If your problems are that bad you might need a replacement.

However, lots of people say the m1530 touchpad sucks. Tough call really.

 

I'm using an ALPS touchpad with Synaptics drivers...I'd recommend removing the ALPS drivers and then install the synaptics.

 

+1 on that idea.

I'm using the Synaptics driver for the Precision M6300 on my M1530, and while it's still not as nice as the synaptics pad on my old M140, it's at least usable now and not skating all over the place.

Of course, you lose many of the "features" (scrolling and whatnot) on the Alps touchpad when using the synaptics driver, but smooth tracking is really the only feature I care about.

 

Thanks for the replies. Where might one d/l the synaptics driver you're using?

 

The one I'm using is from here:

http://support.dell.com/support/dow...stemID=PREC_M6300&os=WLH&osl=en&catid=&impid=

Can't say whether or not it's the best one, but it works OK for me. I'm using x64 though.

 

I get mine directly from here. I lost ZERO functionality (yay for me!), and actually gained some features (like tap-zones, horizontal/vertical direction locking, on the fly sensitivity decreasing which helps precision):
http://www.synaptics.com/support/drive.cfm

I chanced upon it when I first installed Vista x64 and Dell did not have a suitable driver (I had no scrolling) for my touchpad. This is, I think, far better than Dell's. The only feature I thought I'd miss is the ability to disable my touchpad when a mouse is plugged in, but in the end I don't miss it at all.

Cheers!

EDIT: The link I provided, basically is the same driver as FountainHead's for all functional purposes (perhaps a debugged a little more?)

 

Mine works pretty decently with the standard included drivers. Its as good as any other notebook I have used or tried. At times it could be a bit smoother, but its really not a big deal. For anything like games or stuff like that I gotta plug in a mouse anyway. For surfing around and other basic tasks I haven't had an issue with the touchpad.

Though in general, I am not a fan of touchpads. I prefer the little "pencil eraser" nubs they use to have on the IBM Thinkpads. Those are much better then any touchpad.

 

Hmmm...I know several people that love them (commonly referred to as "Nipples"). I've never cared for them, why do you love them so (you can't scroll with them)?

 

Your link is actually a newer driver, 10.1.8 vs 10.1.2 on Dell's site. I'm going to give that one a go.

Actually, the most precise pointer I've used in a notebook was back when they still had the trackballs in them. Not that I'd want to return to those days or anything.

 

Hmmm I tried those drivers off of Synaptics site, but still lost scrolling etc....

 

Same here. I just tried it since I'm having problems with my 1530 and I cannot scroll anymore in IE.

 

I'm also using the synaptics driver, and have been more or less since I got mine. I find that it does work a lot better.

 

No problems with scrolling or anything? So strange.

 

I agree, mine works awesomely.

How about we post the OS and system we're using.

Vostro 1500
Vista Ultimate x64
Synaptics drivers
Scroll WORKS

 

m1530
Vista Business x32
Synaptics Driver
No scrolling

The touchpad does feel more accurate and not as floaty with the Synaptics driver. Too bad I can't scroll....

 

M1530
Vista X64
No Scrolling.

 

i have no prob with the alps touchpad. took a little fine tuning but works as good as any ive used.

 

Oh my bad guys. I had installed the synaptics driver previously, but uninstalled it to run a different alsp driver. So I am not running the synaptics driver. Thats why I have scrolling. But I am running an alps driver that works great, and gives me some cool gestures.

 

How's this fix working out ?

I returned a Dell Studio 15 because of this problem, and the Sony FW we got instead has the same Alps pad with the Same Alps problem.

Thanks in advance..

 

Studio 17, going to test.

Vista 32, no scrolling. What about a Dell driver?

 

Vista 64 with alps drivers. But I have a different problem - my settings keep getting returned to default when I reboot. It's driving me crazy as for my taste the default speed is much too slow! Please help!

 

Are you using the driver mentioned in the first post here >
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=255232 ???

You might want top try the synaptics drivers

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3581145&postcount=6

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3581228&postcount=7

 

Yes using those drivers.

Don't want to change to synaptics drivers as I like the ability to scroll...

 

If you are running logitech setpoint, you either need to turn it off, or set it use OS settings. Otherwise it replaces settings with it's own.

 

That doesn't appear to be it - setpoint now uninstalled and still having the same problem. Arrgghh!