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    Touchpad issue

    Discussion in 'Alienware 14 and M14x' started by Saduras, Apr 24, 2012.

  1. Saduras

    Saduras Newbie

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    Hello everyone,

    I have a M14x R1 since 1 month. In the last few days appeared a problem with the touch-pad. I usually use and USB mouse and after some time running the touch-pad doesn't work anymore, while the light around it still works and can be de- and activated. Does not change anything. After a shutdown and starting again it works fine.
    I already tried to re-install the driver, run it with the windows default driver and atm is the synaptics driver is installed.
    Always when the touch-pad stop working the synaptics tray icon disappears and AlienTouch in the Commando Center throws and NullPointer exception.

    Any ideas what else I could try?

    Thank you!
     
  2. Voodooi

    Voodooi AFK for a while...

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    I was going to suggest:
    - Driver (Synaptics-Driver R297683.exe (32MB) 4/21/2011 15.1.19, A0)
    - FN+Insert

    ...but you've already examined those options. I'd call tech support - might have to get your touchpad replaced.
     
  3. jostefan13

    jostefan13 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Did you have the "disable internal pointing device when usb mouse is attached" option enabled?
     
  4. Saduras

    Saduras Newbie

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    Where can I find this option? I'm pretty sure I did not enable this option...and if it is enabled it should work again if I unplug the external mouse, right? It doesn't.
    It also works at the beginning after booting even if a usb mouse is plugged in...

    If no one can help me here I'll call the tech support. But I would like to avoid it since they already send me an engineer a few weeks again because the fan was broken. It does not increase my trust in Dell/Alienware if two components break in the first month... :-(
     
  5. Super Octet

    Super Octet Notebook Geek

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    Said option can be found in the Alienware Commande Center I believe.
     
  6. Saduras

    Saduras Newbie

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    Thanks so far.

    I found the option and it was disabled by default. I tried some stuff today, changed option and had no problems for hours. Then I found out that the problem always appears after awake it from Sleep.
    Then the Synaptics tray icon and the synaptics panel in [control panel] -> [mouse] disappeared.

    Does it mean its more like a hardware issue (power problem) or a software problem like driver crushes while waking up?

    I'll contact Dell Support tomorrow.

    Edit: I contacted the Dell support and tomorrow will come a engineer to replace the touchpad. This hopefully fix the issue (and no further issue appear in the next time)