Please help! Touch buttons not working on Studio 15

Could anyone please help me?
The touch buttons on my Studio 15 won't work, I updated the QuickSet utility, and restarted, but still nothing happens... I'm really sad...

 

You are talking about the volume, media centre and eject button right?Check if there is any other drivers on the disc that came with the Studio...

I'm not on my Studio right now but I did do a fresh Vista install and I'm pretty sure it worked right away since I had to eject the vista cd to put in the drivers cd.

 

uhm... I installed a new version of QuickSet and they light up, but don't work stable... I'll do a fresh install of Vista x64, and I'll report.
The WLED screen is really bright!! hihihihi....
I did eject the CD with the touch buttons, but just once.... any thoughts, people?

 

I'd personally call Dell. They have 24/7 support right? Calls are usually taken right away.

 

I installed Vista x64, and everything works like a charm, it's a pity, the touchpad driver for x64 isn't ready yet!

 

install quickset again

 

How did you get through the x64 install? I'm having a heck of a time during install... it keeps complaining about missing a driver needed to see the DVD drive. I tried downloading dell's drivers to a flash drive... but none of them seem to work...

 

Uhm, where did you get the Vista x64?
I downloaded a normal torrent iso image, and it has all versions with SP1, and it didn't ask for any DVD driver...

 

I had a similar issue but is unrelated to the OS.

My studio 15 touch buttons stopped working properly. Normally when you hit them they dim away but in the broken state they would only light up for a second and not fade normally. In addition they would not interact with the OS to mute, eject etc. They would not work in Vista nor Kubuntu.

To resolve this I went into the BIOS and set the POST operation to Thorough (very slow). I rebooted the computer once and the touch buttons began working again. I went back to the BIOS and I reset the POST operation to Minimal. The touch buttons now work properly.

I also did some testing and found QuickSet to affect the FN+Fx buttons, if the program was terminated the touch buttons would still work and the FN keys would not.

Just a heads up for anyone who has the same issue.

 

I had this issue fixed, by disconnecting the touch panel, see the Service Manual, then reconnect this panel, and the problem is gone.
I also could fix it by taking out the battery and "discharging" the laptop, since these touch buttons are capacitors, they have to discharge.
Good luck

 

Hey Majestic, I have a kind of a similar issue. For me, every once in a while when my Studio1535 recovers from sleep, the touch buttons do their dance and then the eject button stays on. The screen doesn't come on for 3-7 mins after that but the buttons stay disabled until the cd drive has tried to eject the ghost disk for like 2-3 times (this usually happen a few minutes later). Then everything is fine. I know this has something to do with BIOS because when I originally bought this laptop, it had BIOS v. A01 and I never had this issue, but through technical support (for another issue) I updated the BIOS to A05 and now these problems are occurring.

I was wondering if you think your technique would solve my problem. Also, does anyone know where I can download the A01 version of BIOS?

Thanks.

 

I had the same problem with my studio 15 after installing the last version of quickset available from the website.

I uninstall it and reinstall the version in the CD's that I got with my notebook and everything starts to work again!!!

 

Err then use the working version from the CD... I'm not sure what the question is here...

 

Is not a question but a clue to anyone how may need it, cause it works without going to BIOS (and set the POST operation to Thorough) as majestic suggest, or disconnecting the touch panel as rafucho suggest.

 

mine just stopped working now. packed my 1537 to head to school. shut it down, packed it in the bag. when i got to my parking spot, i took it out and booted it up. now... it no workie. shut it down again and restarted it... nada.

time to open her up..... again.

 

have you been opening it to solve this? maybe it's time Dell replaces your panel... call 'em

my workaround was just discharging the capacitors through the power button, but after I unplugged the panel and plugged it again, it hasn't bothered anymore.

 

how do you discharge them?>

 

I had same problem. i did what RAFUCHO said. 1. COMPLETLEY unplug laptop from everything. 2. TAKE out battery 3. PUSH and HOLD the POWER button for 20-30 seconds and it completley discharges laptop. solved my problem and buttons are more responsive. too bad u cant see em in dark tho = / oh and idk why idid all that caps in explanation haha

 

that worked perfectly, thanks

 

During my motherboard replacement, the technician unpluged all.
Now my buttons are better and fine too.
I had problem with 2 buttons in the middle...
Not a big deal, but they are now better...really

 

I got my motherboard replaced too, the other day I was having some pimp lights in the panel. The volume up and mute buttons were blinking and the volume down (middle) stayed on. Really strange....
I think I'll get a new panel the next few days. I'll post some results

 

My touch buttons work fine... But when I boot up, the Eject button stays lit for about 5 minutes. I cannot put CD/DVDs into the drive as it will eject them immediately. But after that everything works fine. I just got my Studio a few days ago. Anybody know a solution to this issue?

EnergyXP

P.S. Discharging the laptop won't void the warranty, right?
P.S.S I already have the latest version of the drivers, as my PC came with them.

 

Thanks! I disabled the QuickSet from running at startup and everything works fine. The only thing is that it doesn't show the onscreen pictures of your volume, as well as the FN keys not working, but that is minor.
All I have to do is turn on QuickSet after startup, and then everything works fine.
Anybody else done this?

 

Just curious if anyone has tried the simple task of opening up and reseating the touch button panel and the connector to the motherboard? I remember reading in another thread elsewhere where this worked and was due to the relatively sloppy assembly and the cable not being solidly connected.

Just a thought. *shrug*

 

I've done the reseating the touch button panel cable connector in my Studio 17, the problem still exists.

 

Rather than starting a new thread...

I've a similar problem. I did a clean install of Vista so I don't have the Dell's Quickset or their Media Centre equivalent (can't remember the name). While most of the media panel buttons still work, the leftmost button doesn't (the one that looks like it should launch a multi-media application).

I forgot to test that button when I first received the machine, so I don't know whether that button actually worked before the clean install. Is there a way to configure that button to run Media Centre? My old Insiprion automatically runs Media Centre even after a clean install...

Thanks.

BTW, I get the Eject button lit up problem too, but it only stays lit for a few seconds and the drive tries to cough up a disc despite not having one. Then it gives up and the button switches off.

 

I have this issue too, but mine just stays lit, it doesn't try to eject anything. Then it will run fine after a few minutes.

EnergyXP

 

the way i look at this, i think it's a known problem with dell.
check out the function buttons. there's nothing really special (display, battery and sleep) except they added an eject button. my acer had instant display off, and other functions (besides the standard 3 i mentioned before). i think dell can't figure out a way around this hardware so they added an eject button incase the media button for ejecting the CD/DVD stops responding, like a redundancy feature.

 

Thanks everyone for this thread!! My eject button doesn't stay lit all the times but it has its own mind and feels like holding on to whatever I put in whenever it wants to. I've tried couple solutions such as: 1) updating to latest A06 BIOS 2) reset to Defaults then Thourough boot (instead of Minimal) 3) open and disconnect some cable under the media panel and 4) unplug everything and battery then hold power button to discharge. Solution #1 doesn't really do anything. #2 does help sometimes but it's back to same problem after a while. #3 I haven't tried this #4 solves my problem immediately. I can now eject whenever I want, even in middle of CD/DVD playing using any apps.

This media button problem seems to be a result of poor hardward design. Its inteface or cable connecting to motherboard collects static electricity or starts holding up charge. Dell needs to fix this design problem soon. This is a good laptop model to have but I really prefer the old style buttons instead of this touch panel with problems. I bet after a while using, my eject problem will come back but at least I know how to solve this now w/o having to open up the touch panel to reset cables like others have suggested.

 

Hi!
I just wanted to say that I returned my Dell Studio 15. Too much of a hassle. Anyway, I returned it last week. I doubt that I will ever buy Dell again. One of the major reasons is the customer service. Not to be rude, or to offend anybody, but it is quite annoying that Dell outsources their customer service. I mean, I couldn't understand them, and it was quite a hassle to get the return! But after about 1 hour, I finally got them to send UPS to pick it up.

So today, after some reasearch and some advice from a friend, I bought a Lenovo Ideapad Y530. I am quite excited because Lenovo is having a sale and the laptop is about $100 more expensive than the Studio 15 model I had, but it has much better specs. Plus, Lenovo has a good reputation, and customer support is in Georga.

So I am now a very happy camper!!!