Driver Fix for Dell 1420 Touchpad (Enables More Features!!!)

While bigmo was looking for a better touchpad driver option for his Vostro 1700 he found a Latitude D420 driver that enables touch zones and additional gestures for the 1420 (might work with other Inspirons as well).

Here are some features added by this driver:
- page back/forward
- four corner tap zones
- touchpad disabled while typing
- change timing on taplock auto release
- re-size scroll areas independently of each other (one can be larger than the other)

I created a separate 1420 thread not to take credit away from bigmo, but to ensure it doesn't get buried in a Vostro thread or the incredibly long 1420 Users Lounge.

[URL="http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&ServiceTag=&SystemID=LAT_PNT_PM_D420&os=WW1&osl=en&catid=&impid=']Click here[/URL] to go to the D420 driver page. Choose 'Mouse & Keyboards" then select the Alps driver.

 

you can always download driver from synaptics (touchpad manufacturer) site that has all options enabled.

http://www.synaptics.com/support/drive.cfm

 

The Synaptics driver is useless for the Alps touchpad on the 1420. The only fix I've found so far to enable advanced features is the D420 driver.

Also, not all drivers are created equal. They will have different affects depending on the hardware they are being used on. This means not all Alps drivers work the same on different laptop models. The D420 touchpad driver just happens to work well with the 1420.

 

Going to try this on the 1520 and see what happens. Will report back with findings.

 

does this work for the vostro 1400???

 

Downloaded the D420 driver from the link above and no luck. After the install I rebooted and when I was prompted for my Vista password my screen was rotated 90 degrees clockwise. WTF! I logged in and my touchpad settings followed my screen rotation. I also got a program compatibility error for Alps for which the Vista resolution was to contact the manufacture. Not sure what happened but I would say that this won't work for the 1520.

Unless I completely botched this driver install somebody else want to try and see if there are different results?

 

Hmm sounds strange... I thought they were using the same touchpad for all the similar model laptops....

 

I can't really help those who are trying this on a non-1420. I personally know it works great on the 1420 and have a second hand report from bigmo that it provides some extra features on the Vostro 1700.

If this one doesn't work just experiment with some other Dell touchpad drivers (be sure to use the correct touchpad type, Alps or Synaptics). Who knows you might luck out. Be sure to create a restore point before testing drivers so you have a way to get back to pre-install state.

 

Has anybody had success getting the "Tap Zones" working on the Inspiron 1520? My old Inspiron 6400/1501 had them and i'm so used to using them that not having them now seems so odd, and frustrating when i keep trying to use them by nature.

Not sure what touchpad i have on my system, i can't find it in my Device Manager, so i don't know the manufacturer of it.

I bought this Inspiron 1520 in Oct 2007 from Dell.ca Via a mall Kiosk, not sure if that matters, i know different regions sometimes get different hardware configurations.

Thank You.

 

Well, tap zones work fine on my D630 using the driver mentioned in this thread. Just as a quick way to check what touchpad you've got, check the task manager and see if there's a process called ApntEx.exe or Apoint.exe running. Both of those would indicate you've got an Alps touchpad, which means the driver in this thread will work just fine (probably )

 

Similarly for Synaptics touchpads if the driver is intalled - syntpenh.exe should be running...

 

Thank you both for the replies. It is a Synaptics touchpad. I found my driver is a few versions shy of the newest driver. Even though dell.com says it's up to date.

I installed the new driver and can now program custom touch zones. this is great. makes life a little easier.

So, if anybody reading this has a Inspiron 1520 and does not have tap zones, you will need to go get the newest Synaptics driver from their website.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

it works fine for my 1420 but can someone help me and tell me why i cannot use forward and back in my browser? I have tap zones now but i cant seem to select the top left or right corner to be back/forward. Also what is drag lock and how do the settings effect it? Thanks

 

If you're using Firefox, then I'm having the same problem regarding the back / forward hot zones. It doesn't recognize them. Same with horizontal scrolling. IE, on the other hand, recognizes both of those functions.

 

installed and works ok but two things:
- now it doesnt work pressing both buttons to do the 3º button function (configuration has no effect)
- back and fordward also doesnt work

i liked it.. but i already got acostumed to using doble button clic as center button.. so ill stay with the normal driversd

 

You shouldn't have lost that capability, I certainly still have it on my laptop. I'm not sure why it would have stopped functioning the way it used to, in that regard. I don't remember having to reset that function, but I suppose that doesn't help you I certainly wouldn't use these drivers if I didn't have my 3rd button option.

 

Hi, I just downloaded and installed it in my inspiron 1420. I see no difference. I am not sure if I installed it correctly. Someone help. All I did was downloading the 2MB drivers. Double clicked on it. It unzipped the file to the dell driver directory in C. I dont think the driver is installed. How do I install it. Do I go to device manager and click where? Please help.

 

You won't see any difference until you change the settings. You can either do that from the mouse applet in the control panel, or also by using the icon in the system tray by your clock. See if you have 12 tabs in the Dell touchpad settings window, or only 4 or so different areas. If you have 12, you installed them correctly.

 

I have only four tabs when I click on the mouse applet on the control panel. It reads mouse properties. What else should I do inorder to install it correctly. Even though my touch pad has horizontal and vertical scrolling line it doesnt seem to work at all.. even before it never worked...

 

Sorry.. My Bad.. I had downloaded the wrong driver.. for XP. Just now I Installed the one for Vista and it works fine now. Thanks.

 

Unfortunately, horizontal scrolling will only work in a few programs, and Firefox isn't among those. I'm not sure why that is, but it always seems to work in Microsoft products for me. It would be nice to be able to scroll horizontally in Firefox using the touchpad.

 

the 1520 has a synaptics touchpad

oops already posted:tongue:

on the flip side, linux's synaptics touch pad driver is much better than windows
Windows features +
-> two finger tap = middle click
-> three finger tap = right click
-> horizontal scrolling = back/fwd for any web browser
-> when starting to drag a finger, the scroll zones are disabled, so you can cross into them and use them as regular mouse zones. When you reach the edge of the pad, and don't release your finger, the mouse keeps going, and the touchpad acts like a directional joystick