Studio 15, touchpad problem

The Banatec tech came out yesterday and changed out the touchpad panel.
I'm still using the legacy Vista ps/2 mouse driver just to test the hardware. It's hard to troubleshoot these intermittant problems, but last week the pad became totally unusable. Now it seems ok, but I'm getting a little static shock going through my palms when in the fingerprint reader area.....Anyone heard of that problem? It's always something. I'll try the newer drivers later this week. Thanks.

 

I have that EXACT same problem...

 

Over a week now and no failure with the new touchpad panel. The replacement did not have the "spilt milk" pattern. I loaded the Alps driver for the 1537 and it's been flawless so far. Keeping fingers crossed. The static shocks were due to the Banatec tech pinching the LCD power cable with the small metal tab, it was digging into the wiring, after fixing that problem myself the shocks have been eliminated. But of course there is now a new problem, the media bar is acting up again and that was one of the first things we had replaced. I re-seated the ribbon cable and it seems ok now. Anything else with this unit and back it goes for a replacement. It's been since July and it's finally operating as it should for now...

 

Just got my Studio 15n yesterday and noticed this problem today. Touchpad seems to completely drop out for a brief moment every few seconds. This happens constantly whether I'm on AC or battery power. It happens regardless of what OS I'm running (WinXP/Ubuntu). I'm running the A06 BIOS.

Being that I'm within the return period for the laptop, what's my best course of action here? I don't like the idea of my brand new laptop being disassembled for a questionable-at-best "replace parts and pray" procedure several times. Can I request a direct replacement at this stage?

 

They really give you the run around when it comes to replacements. Customer service will tell you that it's up to technical support. TS will try everything in it's power to send out replacement parts and techs who sometimes mess things up even more. The touch pad issues vary but first see if there is a driver update, the new Alps driver for the 1537 model seems to work well, what model is your unit? You say you are running Win XP not Vista?

 

This is a Studio 15n model so I'm running Ubuntu Linux. I had booted into a Windows XP live CD and got the same results, but I can't install drivers in that environment. I called Dell's Ubuntu support number today and the CSR fairly quickly offered to ship a prepaid box for the laptop so I can send it in to get the touchpad replaced. I'll update this thread with my results.

If this doesn't fix it I might consider returning it as it's still brand new. Does anyone have experience with Dell's 21-day return policy with laptops?

 

So here's an interesting development: I went to Staples tonight on an unrelated mission. I spotted a Studio 1537 on display, so I powered it up to do some testing. I observed the exact same problem at the Windows Vista login screen. I was unable to actually log in and the HDD was thrashing constantly. I am beginning to think that this problem may affect a large number of Studio 15s, or possibly all that use the Alps touchpad. Do all Studio 15s use this touchpad or are some equipped with the far superior Synaptics touchpad? I suppose the updated driver discussed earlier in this thread can hack around the problem, but that doesn't help me with the Studio 15n model running Ubuntu Linux.

I will go to Best Buy tomorrow and do some more testing to see if I can further confirm this.

 

It seems like there are two problems being described here. One is the touchpad freeze (not working at all). The other one is the intermittent jerking/stopping for just a moment. As people have mentioned, if you make little circles on your touchpad, you will see the cursor freeze up every few seconds.

Maybe some people can tolerate this. It's completely intolerable for me. When I'm trying to do fine cursor work, the cursor keeps overshooting or jerking away from the place I'm trying to work. annoying.

Is there anyone with a Studio 15 who DOESN'T have this problem?

Of the people who don't report it, how many are just not sensitive to this kind of thing? A lot of people don't pay attention to these kind of details, and if they have to keep repositioning their cursor they figure it's something wrong they did themselves.

 

I also have a Studio 15 where the touchpad becomes completely unresponsive for a few seconds..

Other times it seems to jump around the screen... wish there was a software fix for this.

My XPS m1530 had touchpad issues too before, until new drivers came out and obliterated the jumpy touchpad after closing the lid and re-opening it.

 

The tech came out tonight and swapped out the motherboard and touchpad on my Studio 15. Still has the problem. I asked if he sees this a lot, and he said he does. I asked, "So have you ever fixed it by swapping out the motherboard or touchpad?" and he got a pained look and said "I'm not sure." Which I took to mean "No."

I'm guessing all Studio 15's have this problem. It's subtle enough that many people won't notice it, if they are the kind of people who don't pay much attention to what they are doing.

Sigh... it's the best choice for me for a lot of reasons. And returning it means I'll be hit with the 15% restocking fee. I might live with it until a driver fix comes out.

 

It has been some time since I have post so I though I would give a update to what is going on with my dell studio system. Sent the system in for a refund after the 21 day with a 15% restocking fee back in December. I am still waiting for my refund of over 750 bucks. It has been over 30 days so I decided to give dell a call again about what was going on. Dell told me to wait 8-10 days more because my credit was in process. If anyone is deciding to return your studio after the 21 days be prepared to wait well over a month for your money back.

Oh and I have decided not to buy a dell xps m1530 because some of those labtops suffer from the same problem.

 

Thanks for the update.

 

Maybe I just haven't read Dell's terms of sale close enough, but I find it hard to believe they can charge a restocking fee on a defective product. These touchpads are definitely defective IMHO.

My Studio 15 should be back from repair on Monday.

 

You probably understand this, but the problem is getting them to admit it's defective. The salespeople won't let you return a product if you haven't tried to get it fixed via tech support, but tech support will keep trying to fix it and not admit it's fundamentally defective.

Actually, I believe some people in tech support will admit the fundamental defect, if you can find the right ones. The guy who came to fix mine seemed to admit it, but I failed to press him on it, so I'm not sure.

The problem with the intermittent "freeze" is subtle, if you aren't paying attention. So it's hard to get the tech guy to even understand there's a problem.

 

I actually have one unit that didn't have any touchpad problems. The other one was another story but the last replacement and driver change seems to have fixed all the mentioned glitches. I don't know how much the Alps 1537 driver fixed things or the new touchpad and since it's fixed now I'm not going to experiment with rolling back drivers.
It took from July until January to get the unit working without any weirdness, and in the end they actually replaced just about every component in the unit except for the display panel, com cards, HDD and DVD. You'd think it would have been cheaper for them in the long run to just send me a replacement unit, refurbish the defective unit and pawn it off on their outlet.

 

Hi Joanrod,

I'm not sure if you have the same problem I do. You mentioned things like the touchpad dying completely. What I saw, and I believe the OP of this thread saw, was a brief freezing of the cursor every five to ten seconds. Very brief, so that many people would not notice it. But people like me who do fine cursor work would be very annoyed.

The tech didn't believe me that anything was wrong when I showed him. So I had him try it. He obviously wasn't paying any attention so I had to coach him to notice the problem when it happened.

I suspect that many people would not notice this kind of subtle problem, especially if they have nothing to compare it to. When you've used a really good touchpad for fine cursor work, however, it's obvious.

 

Got mine back today. It's not fixed. The repair paperwork says that the corrective repair action taken was "BER", whatever that means.

I must say that Dell's quality is quite poor on both the Studio 15 and an older Inspiron E1505 that I've had since 2006. The E1505 has a slowly separating LCD hinge. The Studio 15 has this touchpad problem, the keyboard has lots of flex, and the front bezel has a large gap on the left side.

I also own an HP DV6000T from 2007 which is solid as a rock. Hell, the touch sensitive multimedia keys on the HP are always lit up, which is something Studio 15 owners have been clamoring for but probably will not get. I made a bad decision when I purchased the HP and opted for a WXGA screen, which over the years I've found to be way too small. I decided that I wanted WUXGA, and Dell is currently the only laptop vendor who offers WUXGA at a reasonable price.

I'll probably begrudgingly keep this thing because I will likely just use my Asus EEEPC when I'm in a small enough area that forbids mouse use.

 

Good news. I was able to secure an authorization for full refund, based on my complaint that the touchpad problem is unfixable.

I thought I was going to have trouble bypassing the 15% restocking fee, but I read elsewhere on this forum that Dell rarely charges a restocking fee under any circumstances.

 

I would like to add my own two cents to the thread. My Studio 1535 has the same touchpad problems. 1 out of 10 times it will become really jerky and float around randomly on the screen, going either too far past where I want it to go or constantly returning to one position no matter where I try to move it. What's more, it seems to react to my finger even if I hover it about half a centimeter above the pad, as if there's an electric field between my finger and the pad or something. I have the latest Alps driver but it still messes up.

Did Dell make a lemon with this one?

BTW, some of you were talking about Media Button problems. The quickest fix is to get a technician to come out and replace the whole hinge component. Cleared it right up for me; never had a media button problem since.

 

Hi all,

I do as well have the same issue with the touchpad being very laggy and erratic randomly. Sometimes it just stops moving and I have to tap the touchpad once for it to 'reactivate'.

Has there been any fixes around this?

 

It's just an inherent quality of Alps touchpads, like the ones used in the Studio series.

 

I have the same problem with an Studio 1537, the guys at support make update the BIOS to A09 and now it seems to work, but every now and then its hangs.
When i got back to the tech support they say that I have to re install windows vista.
Does anyone notice that this happens when the system is under load?

 

The touchpad will always periodically hang up for a few seconds. That's just an inevitable fact of Alps touchpads.

 

I had the same Alps touchpad problems with my XPS 1530 about 3 months ago. Mouse periodically freezing.

Dell replaced my first XP 1530 under the 21 return policy. The second XPS 1530 did the same thing. I returned that one too.

Since Dell didn't/doesn't sell a laptop with a Synaptics touchpad that has a 15.4" 16:10 aspect ratio, I purchased a Thinkpad that uses a Synaptics driver.

The Thinkpad mouse works perfectly.

I will never buy another laptop with an Alps touchpad.


Dell needs to stop selling units with the faulty Alps touchpad.

 

The new Studio 15 uses Synaptics, although it's 16:19 15.6". Not that you can really tell much of a difference. It fits in the same bags and everything.

 

The extra 1/2" makes a big difference to me, especially coming from a 4:3 9.25" tall Inspirion screen.

 

+1 to that.

The Alps touchpad on my Studio 15 is the worst touchpad I've ver used.

 

I agree, the Alps touchpad for the Studio 15 is the worst touchpad I've ever used. It misses taps, it's jerky, and misses finger movement. Sometimes it seems to go out to lunch. My family would much rather use the old Dell Inspiron E1505 than the new Studio 15. Avoid it at all costs!

 

The same thing happens to me on my Studio 17 but it is very intermittent... No idea why it happens.

 

The new Studio 15 uses a Synaptics pad, not Alps.

 

Correct. Studio 1555 uses Synaptics. All other Studios use the Alps.

 

For those having problems with the Alps touchpad, you guys can consider trying the driver from Toshiba. I'm using it. It feels better. Less problematic. It has more settings too.

 

A link would be appreciated!

 

From my personal experience with the XPS 1530 Alps touchpad, the driver was not the cause of the hesitation/freezing. I tried probably 10 different drivers, Synaptics, Alps, and other brands. None of the drivers made one bit a difference in how the touchpad behaved. That doesn't mean there might be a driver out there that might help. But from the ones I tried, nothing made one iota of difference.

 

Sure! Let us know whether it works or not. Thanks.

Alps Pointing Device Driver (32/64bit) Version 7.2.303.107

 

Would you recommend I try this on my dell studio 1537? I already have the latest driver from dell but it is awful.

 

There's no reason not to try it. If the driver doesn't work for you, you can just reinstall your previous driver.

 

How should I go about installing the Toshiba drivers, I mean should I uninstall the Dell drivers first restart then install the Toshiba drivers or do I need to rename the old dell drivers folder in program files as I have read on the internet some people getting error messages when they install the Toshiba drivers.

 

Just uninstall the current driver provided by Dell and install the Toshiba driver. It should work fine. At least there aren't any error messages on my Studio 1535.

 

Sorry I have not replied but it is summer so I have been doing things, I installed the Toshiba driver and it much more responsive than the dell driver not perfect like the synaptics driver on my acer but it is sure better the dell driver.

One more thing googleing alps touch pad driver shows that there is a later driver available version 7.5.2021.101 (see http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/KE...LPS-Touchpad-Driver-752021101-for-Vista.shtml ) If anyone is willing to try it then please report back

 

from the time i have installed windows 7 on my studio 1555 i have been facing problem with the touchpad which basically stops gestures from working such as scrolling the pointer also stops means it freezes.As a result i have to connect an external mouse to continue with my work..but after sometime the touchpad again starts working..so can anybody tell me what should i do??i have already tried all the possbile drivers and had tried all the touchpad settings..

 

Try the windows 7 drivers from the synaptics website http://www.synaptics.com/support/drivers

 

i have already tried drivers but the problem still persists..

 

See also: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=363610 ("Touchpad freezing lessened with Toshiba driver")

 

Not for nothing, but this is just my two cents.

Recently I had my inspiron 9400 laptop die on me. This was an experience in it's own and from this experience with dell, to me they are like enron, dead! I had paid the money to get the computer fixed (under repair services of course to which they tried to screw me out of more money) and they had sent an idiot to come out to repair my computer.

The technician disassembles my computer and then “tries” to install the new heat sync and video card to which he couldn't. So, what does the genius do? He stacks them up on top of each other and compares the cards (this went on for at least 5 minutes and another 5 minutes to figure out how the video card goes into place – Mind you i've disassembled this computer many times and never had a problem!) Now, it's off to repair the screen because there was no response from the monitor (common problem from what I gather). So, now he rips out the bezel and takes out the display and inserts a new one.

At this point, he's placing his fingers all over the screen and applying force to put the plastics around the monitor while holding his thumbs firmly on the screen. do they get these people? Okay, onto the finish. Now, after he places the plastics around the bezel he decides it's time to place all the screws on the screen and other plastics to make more room for himself, sort of using the screen as a tray to hold the plastics, screws and other trinkets he came with.

As he is now trying to align the plastics with the top portion and the bottom portion of the body he forgets he has wiring left outside the laptop (the wifi wiring). So, he's forcing down to get it to close. After being told, he looks and says “oh I didn't notice that.” Real smooth.

Replaced Items from this repair: LCD, Video Card, Hard Drive.

Continuing problems:

The laptop was then sent back to the depot because now I don't know what new problems this repair nazi performed. The depot says they repaired the computer replacing the heat sync, fan and video card. I get the computer back, windows will not load. It's doesn't stop there either. I tried to install Ubuntu, 9.10, 10.04, Windows XP and FC10

Repair Process: New 500GB hard disk, stock hard disk, removed ram modules (tried 512 sticks, and 1gb sticks). Each installation the install scripts for linux would bomb, or I would get BSOD's from windows. Back to hell I mean dell again!

Second Repair Attempt a Technician Who knew what he was doing:

Technician comes back out to my house and replaces the CDROM, RAM, and Motherboard.

Issues: Technician mistakenly had taken my 1GB sticks and left me with 512's had to track him down. The issue still present. BSOD and cannot install an operating system. (tested with the new 512's too)

Third Repair: Back to the depot. – Replacement box (time wait for replacement 21 days – total time wait 1 month 2 weeks with previous 9400 repair)

After the repairs had failed, dell decided to replace the 9400 with a studio 1747 --- BIG MISTAKE! So I receive the laptop and I install Ubuntu 10.04 in it. Works pretty good. 1 Problem, the touchpad. I tried MANY software applications including gsynaptic and about two others. The touchpad is acting like a rebellious teenager. It flies across the screen like peter pan at an air show. So, I adjust the settings in the applications for touchpad, and still nothing. So, maybe I figured it's an issue with ubuntu as they had removed support for HAL and it is a beta version. I then install FC 12 (yes I ditched FC 10 from the previous installations) same issues. Okay, back to windows.

I install windows 7 ultimate and all the drivers (a version I purchased outside dell – I wanna strangle everyone at dell at this point and you will see why). After playing around with the mouse being unresponsive and acting like it did in linux, it is doing so in windows (and right now as I type up this documentation). So, I call up dell. (call back to dell start time: 3PM End Time 7PM arguing with a tech and her manager to have the touchpad replaced) They sent out the first technician whom I didn't want here to fix the studio. Unfortunately I didn't want to be around because I didn't want to initialize an altercation with the brainiac as from what I had learned from whom was home at the time he did the same thing he did when he repaired my 9400.

So, he replaces the touchpad and the palm rests and leaves my computer half assembled (plastics on the palm rests were sticking up while the lid was closed – this could have caused additional damages to the screen). So, I call dell back (call time approximately 2 hours 45 minutes) and the issue continues again. I tell them that this is a hardware issue as i've tested with multiple systems and I get the following:

“Sir you installed, Linux, windows, and Linux again. In fact because you've installed all these systems it will void the warranty and the issue is caused by you, and now you're using a windows 7 not purchased from dell.” Okay hold on, since when has linux caused a system problems?!?!?! So after telling this genius that this is not possible and I have other systems that run linux (every system in my environment) this is impossible. This idiot then tells me that dell has a statement that if you install any third party applications it automatically voids any warranty – but wait, it gets better.

So, now I tell her that I'm back on windows 7 and it's ultimate purchased from a retail store, she begins to tell me: “this isn't dell branded we can't support it and this is a problem with your os that you purchased from a retail store. This is also considered a third party application” (windows a third party application wow this is new to me) So, now I argue with her some more that this is a hardware issue and she's telling me I'm wrong. RIIIIIGGGHHTTT! So, now I call, Microsoft and give them the low-down to which they agree nothing more they can do. Gee, thanks.

So, after calling back to dell after the phone call with microsoft, I get another rep who knows less than nothing. She then tells me I have to re-install the original system software that came with the machine. Guess what? I can't! Their CD doesn't want to boot.

At this point I'm contemplating selling the computer and giving dell the boot and going back to apple for my laptops. I had enough. They won't refund my money, they won't fix the issue, they are using the finger pointing game like children and I can't take this no more. It's been already at this point 2 months that I have no laptop to run my business with and it's already cost me 2 meetings and presentations for web development. My next step is legal action.

Everyone here has had an issue with the studio laptops and as customers we cannot let corporations push us around. Even if we have to sign a petition we need to take a stand. These less than quality products are not our problems. They designed them, THEY BETTER FIX EM!

 

for what it's worth, I had a Dell Latitude E6500 that would freeze intermittently. It would drive me nuts . I'm not talking about gestures or anything, which were already not all that sensitive. It's just basic cursor movement. I was not happy and I'm close to not buying any alps touchpads anymore, but I know that they are such a huge player, with synaptics, so I'm thinking that surely they know how to build a touchpad that works? Is this a driver issue or is this just a case of an inferior touchpad from an inferior company?

 

Not sure if anyone is still following this thread, but I thought I'd share something that has seemed to fix the erratic trackpad on my Studio 15. A Google search threw up something called a FLEA reset, no idea what that means. Basically power down the laptop, remove the mains lead, remove the battery then hold down the power button for a least 5 seconds. It has something to do with dissipating the static build up on the motherboard, whatever it does, it seems to have sorted out the trackpad for me.

Another fault I had was with the touch sensitive media buttons above the keyboard, they would light up randomly and the disc drive would randomly eject. Dell replaced the panel but the fault returned, I fixed it by taking the panel off and unplugging it from the motherboard. OK so I lost the use of the buttons, but the annoying eject fault has disappeared.

EDIT - Another quick tip while I'm at it, to improve the volume of the on board speakers, uninstall the Dell audio drivers, reboot, the use the standard Windows drivers. The increase in volume is huge, so much so that it's too loud on max volume.

 

Search the forums for Dell Studio 1535/1537 touch media buttons problem and there should be a really old thread with a link to a firmware fix for the random ejects.

 

Thanks for the heads up, I've had a search but not found that particular thread, any chance of a link?

 

Please enable your PM. This thread is very old and specific to the Alps touchpad.

I will PM you the link and instructions on fixing the touch buttons.