Studio 15, touchpad problem

Hi all. I have got dell studio 1535. After a couple of days I noticed that my mouse cursor is moving very erratic. E.G. If you touch touchpad and move cursor in circle it's like jaming / stopping every 5 seconds for 0.5 sec.
I have done diagnostic, I reinstalled vista,Ubuntu, XP still this same.

I compared with other studio15 and the problem is the same.
Any ideas??

Thanks in advanced
Excuse for my poor english, i write from spain.

 

Have you tried changing / playing around with the settings such as touch sensitivity and so on, from within the touchpad properties?

Another possibilty is to try a different touchpad driver (what do you have now?)

 

I changed all setting in the touchpad control panel, and I update the driver for the last version. ALPS 7.2.101.104

I test in XP, Ubuntu, livecd XP, and Hirent Boot CD. The problem is the same.

I checked in other system Studio 15 and 17 and the problem is the same.

Thanks!!

 

Ah ok... but there is an even newer version, just in case u wanna try.. 7.2.101.211 from Dell.. see if it helps.

Else, Idk whats wrong.. and since u say its happening in other systems too, I have no idea...

 

Are the symptoms different on battery power and AC power?

 

If it won't work with multiple operating systems, then it is likely not a software issue, but a hardware issue.

 

Yes, Is a problem hardware, I agree totally

but to anybody it happens the same?

Since I have already said before I have tried it in different system, and it happens the same to him

My Bios is A05.

symptoms different on battery power and AC power? No, the problem is the same.

Thanks!

 

Can you check the BIOS version and touchpad driver version of the other laptop?

 

i've had my studio for almost two months now, plus I've been active on the studio portion of this forum, and i've never heard of this problem before.......it may be an isolated problem with your laptop......what has dell said when you told them of your problems? (if you have approached them yet)

 

The Bios version is A05 in all systems.

Bog, in your studio 15... no jamming/stop your touchpad?

You can test, click a drag windows, and move in circle.

Thanks

 

The problem is common....I think

In this link other user tell the same problem.
http://forums.opensuse.org/hardware/392669-dell-inspiron-1525-trackpad-problem-2.html

I paste interesant post.

 

My touchpad works as expected. Interesting post from the SUSE forums, though.

 

I received my Dell Studio 15 (1525) today, and I have this same problem with my touchpad. The cursor is extremely erratic and jerky. For example - if I move my finger back & forth on the touchpad, the cursor will move smoothly back & forth for about 1-2 seconds, and then it will start skipping and jerking as it goes back & forth. Also, the scrolling is very sketchy - sometimes it works, but othe times I have to run my finger down the scroll bar 2-3 times before it finally starts scrolling.

And I have played around with all of the settings extensively - the speed, sensitivity, scrolling, etc - but I'm not able to get it to work like it should. It's not a huge deal because it still works for the most part, but it's a little frustrating because I'm just so used to the buttery-smooth performance of the Synaptics touchpad on my HP. That touchpad was so good it felt like it was could predict exactly where I wanted my cursor to go!

Has anyone found a fix for this problem, or is this a hardware problem which means I will need to send it back to Dell?

 

This happened to me a few times while on battery power, but it doesn't seem to happen anymore. I didn't notice it because I use a mouse instead.

 

Having a similar problem with my touchpad. My friend came over with Ubuntu loaded on his thumb drive. He booted my Dell Studio 15 with Ubuntu.

After we rebooted my computer like normal my mouse was not responding consistantly. It would stop every couple of seconds. It was non-responsive and then it would work for a few seconds.

When it does work it shakes erratically and when I stop moving my finger it still moves and shakes slightly.

I'm blaming this on Ubuntu right now. Hope someone finds a fix.

 

I think you hit the nail on the head!! I almost always use my laptop on battery power, and I usually only have it plugged in overnight to charge it, so I haven't used it yet while on A/C power. But I just plugged it in right now and the touchpad seems to work fine while it is plugged in, but then as soon as I unplug it the jerkiness and hesitation starts again. ***? I checked the advanced power settings to see if there is some setting which might reduce touchpad performance while on battery power, but I can't find any touchpad related options. Anybody have any ideas?

 

I don't see how booting from Ubuntu on a flash drive could affect the touchpad performance in Windows at all. Even if you had the OS installed on a seperate partition on your hard drive, that still wouldn't affect anything in Windows b/c it uses totally different drivers. When you started having the problems, were you on battery power by any chance? See my above post...mine seems to only do it while on battery power.

 

right here, it's jerky too.... it begins as soon as I unplug the laptop from the AC adapter.... baaaahhhhhhhhhhh Dell

 

Looks like Dell needs a BIOS fix to address this issue. I am also having issues with my card reader. It was working just fine and now won't work at all.

 

Hi isabido!

Have you found a solution for the touchpad problem? I have exactly the same problem on Studio 1535: the cursor stops every 5 seconds for about 0.5 seconds. A technician changed palmrest and mainboard, removed the hard disc, but it's still the same. Even outside of Windows. No problems with an external mouse.

You said you tested it on several Studio notebook and each of them had the same problem. Then I can't believe that we seem to be the only persons who are annoyed by that.

 

Just looking for a solution to the dell studio 1535 and thought I would share what I have gone through.

First contact with dell about the issue they had me try a few things, touch pad settings etc... Then they remoted into the system and checked the touch pad settings. When all this had failed to fix the problem they said they would replace the top cover which includes the touch pad. So I though to my self sure this might fix it. Wrong.

Second Contact with dell they wanted me to reinstall vista. Not a problem because I work in IT. Dell stated they would call me back in a week. Reinstalled vista using the DVD supplyed with the labtop. Reinstalled the drivers and still the same problem. Dell never called back.

Third contact with dell. By now I am getting at dell because this issue has gone on to long. I went though the same stuff with dell again on touch pad settings, drivers, bios updated to the same version for the 3rd time. So the lady on the phone wanted to replace the touch pad again. I asked how come and what is the point because this seems not to be the problem. I told her is sounds like a motherboard problem or bios problem to me. She put me on hold for a few mins and came back and said they will replace the motherboard and touchpad again. So the same tech comes out again with parts. This time dell sent the bottom cover, motherboard, topcover, keyboard, trim pieces around the keyboard, and touch panel for media buttons. So really its a new labtop now for the most part. Still the same problem everyone else is having.

Forth contact. TBC

Sorry to say this will be my last dell notebook I will ever own because when you spend 900+ bucks on something you think it should work out of the box. I was thinking on asking dell for a replacement/refund but not sure how to go about this. Any inputs are welcome.

 

Hi davidstudio15,

is your problem exactly the one that some of us have? Cursor stops about every 5 seconds for about 0.5 seconds, resulting in short jumps/skips? And with external mouse no problems? No difference between AC adapter and battery?

It seems to be irreparable. I'm wondering if maybe EVERY Studio laptop has this problem and most users just don't notice it (hard to believe) or use an external mouse most of the time. I just called Dell again, they want to call me back.....

 

A few months ago when Dell's community board was active, many owners of Inspiron 1520's and 1525's as well as some Vostro 1500 owners complained about the same problems, touchpad problems as well as erratic cursor movements and it was determined that the A.C. adapters which were shipped out with the computers were defective.

Dell agreed to send out new A.C. adapters which according to posts I had read in the past solved the problem while others said it did not solve the problem. Dell has since made some changes to their community board and I could not find any posts last night over at Dell's forums posted by anyone having problems with their Dell laptop computers.

 

kk2008

Yes I have the same problem with my dell studio 15. Move your cursor around in a circle and every 5 seconds it jams for .5 seconds and jumps. Even the dell tech that came to my house said he doesnt know what is going on and it would be a waste of his time to replace more parts since he basicly replace everything related and unrelated the the touchpad problem.

One more note: It doesnt matter what power setting the labtop is on or if it is plugged in or not. The same thing still happens. The only thing that really seems fixed now is the media buttons no longer will stay lite up all the time. That problem seems fixed since the motherboard change.

EDIT: When my razer mouse is plugged into the labtop the cursor seems just fine.

 

Yeah, moving the cursor in circles...I did that a hundred of times. Such a basic thing like touchpad control doesn't work properly...so annoying! The tech said the same to me: Everything, that could cause this problem, has been replaced. Even the keyboard. No difference between AC and battery. Everything ok with an external mouse. And it has nothing to do with Windows.

I also have the problem that sometimes the touchpad buttons don't work. Maybe there is a connection to the cursor issue.

 

Interesting to know I'm not alone on this issue...

So far the Touchpad has been replaced to no avail...

 

Two questions

Being dell has now had three touchpads in this labtop. (Its on the third one now) is this a lemon? If it is a lemon, what rights do I get because of this?

Second Question
How many days do you get to return a labtop to dell, I bought it in late september early october of this year. The reason I am asking here and not on dell chat is because I seem to get better responses from everyone here over dell.

 

1. Any lemon rights would vary by state (or possibly even county or city) so you have to look into it that way... In PA the Computer Lemon Law never left the appropriate subcommittee...

2. 21 days.

 

Fourth Contact.
Talked to dell today about the touchpad issue again. Now they are sending my labtop to depot and they said if they cant fix the thing they will exchange the labtop. I will keep posting with new news.

They even put me through to a manager because I have been having so many problems with this thing.

 

I noticed dell has release a bios update for the studio 1535 labtops. A06. Has anyone tested this bios yet to see if the touchpad problem has been resolved. I would test it myself but dell currently has my labtop in the shop.

 

I sure hope A06 fixes SOMETHING. I am at my wits end with this thing (about to open a separate thread about it). Touchpad issues, lockup with hard drive indicator lit solid, 4+ minutes from logon until usability. ARGH!

 

I know how you feel. My labtop will be here on tuesday this week. They called me and sent me a email saying they have repaired the system. We will see.

 

This is a common problem but to some it is acceptable.

It drove me crazy and I sold my Studio 15 because of this and it's horrible speakers.

Something is clearly wrong with the touchpads shipped with the Studio 15s.

 

Yes something is wrong, and I've spent hours of frustrating troubleshooting trying to find out what. I used the PSA, hit the FN key and power up. Run the basic diagnostic tests and then do the custom tests. Touchpad is very responsive during this test. Re-boot and no touchpad at the login screen 4 out of 5 times. Touchpad locks up totally and requires shutdown. When it does manage to function it's only for about a half hour or so and then down it goes. I've flashed the bios, uninstalled and updated the drivers several times. I've already replaced mobo, keyboard, media strip, ac adaptor and battery for other problems, now what's left is the front panel.

Worst of all I've had no response from the " Unresolved Issues" website link and had to open yet another case via tech support. Here we go again....this is my daughter's Flamingo Pink built in July, my Purple built in late September has had no hardware problems as yet.

 

Hmm have they replaced the actual trackpad for you yet? If they do it enough times without resolution it should qualify as a lemon and an entire replacement notebook will be in store for you.

 

They just emailed me offering to send me an empty box to ship the unit to their repair center. This was regular tech support, not unresolved issues whom I've still to hear from. I'll wait a few days and see if "unresolved" respond with a better offer, like a replacement unit, and if not, I'll probably ship the unit back for repair. After reading a few other posts about the repair process this will be the last resort for me.

I would rather they just send me the front panel which incorporates the touchpad, it's a seamless design made of cheap feeling plastic, and let me replace it myself. I trust myself better than the "techs" they send to the house. I'm just real dissapointed with the results of contacting the unresolved issues department, they used to respond in a day or so, I'm wondering if they are just so swamped with all the studio 15 complaints.

 

I haven't done super extensive testing, but based on my limited testing the poblem isn't with the touchpad itself...

The problem is with the ALPs drivers.

If you don't have the touchpad drivers installed "Dell Touchpad" then you won't have any problems.

Hopefully that translates into a driver update...

 

In my case, the Alps driver is not the reason for the problem (cursor hangs every 5 seconds). It happens even outside of Windows in Dell Diagnostics.

@davidstudio15: Has the repair fixed the problem? If yes, do you know what exactly they've done?

 

Yes, I think you are right about the Dell drivers. i was running the pad with just the ps/2 mouse driver and didn't have any problem. Last night I un-installed everything including all the mouse drivers, re-boot, let vista install it's drivers and used the pad for about an hour on and off. Nothing happened. But limited functionality without the Alps driver, no scrolling or those type of settings.

Anyhow I decided to go ahead and re-download the latest Dell Touchpad Driver to the desktop. Turned off everything including Norton and re-installed. So far it hasn't crashed, no hangs, but I haven't used it that much, more tonight. Time will tell here....

 

kk2008

I received my studio back and it still had the same problem. Sigh.

So I called dell up AGAIN and a guy tryed to fix the problem but couldn't. So he contacted upper support to call me back the next day and they never did. After playing phone tag for a few days, upper support called me about the issue.

I requested a refund because of all the problems with the labtop (five touchpads, three motherboards, and some other parts). The lady offered a exchange for another studio 15. Not wanting to go through the same crap again I asked the lady on the phone for a credit or refund. At first she said she counldt do that because I called about the problem on the 25 day and not before 21 day. and it was against dells policy. After talking with her she said dell would refund me but with a restocking fee of 20%. I told the lady this was a out rage (other words were said) and after some more time I was lowered to 15% after I said I would pay a 10% overstock fee. Which puts me out about 120 bucks.

Being that this labtop was a gift for my girl friend. She needs a new one before college classes start again in mid january. I am thinking on getting a pink XPS M1530 but do they have touchpad problems. Does anyone know if they do?

 

I would hold off on that XPS1530 if you are thinking about the spec that includes the 'nvidia card. They were having major heat problems and there was never a definitive answer as to whether the later systems had the chip fix or not. You see how cheap they have been lately? They are supposed to come out with a new studio XPS system, but when is the question. On the other hand, I have a Studio 15 built in September that has no hardware problems at all. It really is infuriating.

I just got contacted by corporate tech support, and yet again will have to go through another series of emails and phone calls. Re-installing again worked for about a day....

 

I'm surprised that you're considering to buy another Dell after this experience.
I was thinking about an exchange Studio, too. But I'm afraid to get an even more faulty laptop. Mine has the hanging cursor, sometimes touchpad buttons don't work, crackling sound (resolved), hissing, beeping noises and scratching sounds. The cursor problem is the most annoying one, but most of the time I use an external mouse, so I can grudgingly accept it...

 

I just installed the Alps Touchpad driver 7.2.303.107 from the Toshiba website. The install has to be done as administrator and it was a little weird as I never got a setup complete notice. I looked in hardware device manager and saw the Alps Touchpad driver listed, so I re-booted and there was the litte TP icon in the notification area. Opened that up and under the advanced button were the touchpad options. I set them to basic mostly, with scrolling and so far they are working great, TP seems very stable, has not jerked or died out as yet. Hoping this is a cure....I'll post back after using the driver for a few days.

 

Well unfortunately this did not provide a permanent fix. Touchpad died a few boots after the Alps driver install. So now they are sending yet another tech with a new touchpad panel. Here I go again...

 

Have you guys tried the newer version of Alps Touchpad driver? It might be able to fix the problems. It's under the drivers and downloads section of Studio 1537. I noticed that the touchpad feels more responsive. Maybe it's just a placebo effect. The new version also has circular scrolling and zoom function for the touchpad. Hope it helps.

http://support.ap.dell.com/support/...1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=17&fileid=272502

 

You are using this driver with a 1535 unit? They have a different chipset don't they? How is it doing so far?

 

No.
I'm with this new driver and it is better!
Happy X-mass!

 

It's running fine. Overall it's better than the original one. But the touchpad sometimes still does not respond properly for a moment. I think it is a hardware problem. The driver contains a few new features which I stated above.

 

A few months ago over at Dell's Community Forums board owners of Inspiron 1520's, 1525's and some Vostro 1500's were posting complaints about the same problem. A Dell laptop liason nicknamed "Secret Agent Bill" was informing owners who were complaining that their problems were related to faulty Dell A.C. adapters shipped out with their computers.

Those disgruntled Dell computer owners were then instructed to send a P.M. to Dell's laptop liason, "Secret Agent Bill" listing their computer's service tag ID number, owner's name and shipping address and replacement A.C. adapters were being shipped out to replace the faulty ones. As people continued to complain from the posts I read Dell continued to send those faulty A.C. adapters out to new computer purchasers.

I guess it was easier for Dell to continue sending out those faulty A.C. adapters as new orders continued to roll in and to send out replacement adapters when those new customers began to complain. Dell must have had a stockpile of a gazillion faulty A.C. adapters otherwise it would have seemed logical to me to stop sending out the faulty adapters and instead immediately begin sending out the good adapters once the problem was brought to light to Dell.

Many owners posted follow ups claiming the new A.C. adapters solved their problems while others who had also received new A.C. adapters posted they had noticed no change, their computers still had eratic cursor movement as well as touchpad problems. I followed that thread on Dell's forum board for quite sometime until it was eventually locked by Dell.

Dell's Community forum as it was months ago is no more, it's been revamped but is not as good either. This website's board on the other hand offers a wealth of information when it comes to laptops of any brand. I'm glad someone over at CNET told me about this site. I only wished your desktop board was as informative and had as much action as this board does.

 

Ok now I'm moving my cursor in the circle, but for me everything seems normal.or I do not notice something strange
how exactly I can be sure I'm problem/issue free
by the way Dell has/have website (i don't remember its name), but you can check 'if you have faulty AC bt its serial number"