Dell XPS L502X Touchpad Malfunctions Randomly

Hey all,

My touchpad is acting weird. When I first boot my system the cursor moves around fine using the control of my touchpad. But about three minutes in, it starts skipping and sometimes freezing altogether. Then it will randomly start working again, and then go back to malfunctioning.

All help is greatly appreciated!

 

Have you downloaded the most recent driver from the Welcome to Dell Technical Support site?

 

Yes I do atbnet,

It might be a driver conflict because I installed a different synaptics driver and then I realized it was not the official dell one, so I installed that driver on top of it. Also, putting my computer to sleep and then waking it up again fixes the problem for about 5 minutes, then it starts acting weird again. I doubt it is a hardware issue. I think I am going to try uninstalling my touchpad drivers then reinstalling only the one I need.

Does that make sense?

Thanks for the help!

 

I have had exactly the same problem prity much from new, Ive had the laptop for a few months now and today the touchpad completely froze from starting up from sleep for the first time. Had to put it into sleep and wake it up to fix the problem. I haven't installed any drivers for the touchpad atall, its as new. Im starting to wonder if this a recurring hardware issue..
Have you had any luck with the dell drivers?

 

I do not believe it is a hardware issue because simply putting the computer to sleep then waking it up again should not fix it. I currently uninstalled all my touchpad drivers, though it still works but with limited functionality (no two finger scrolling, etc.) So far it has been working, I plan on testing it this way a few more days, and if it is all good, I will reinstall the dell synaptics driver for the L502X available here:
Drivers and Downloads

 

I've had this problem too, usually on waking from hibernation. It's like there's a stray current that builds up, or something. If you disable the trackpad (Fn+F3) for a little bit (less than a minute usually) it seems to allow whatever it is to pass and restore normal function.

 

I fixed the issue by going into the device manager and right clicking on all touchpad drivers and just simply uninstalled them. I also went into Add/Remove programs and uninstalled any Synaptics drivers still there. I then redownloaded the L502X Synaptics driver available here:
Drivers and Downloads

Rebooted, and everything now works perfectly.

I believe my problem was that I had more than one touchpad driver. I used Driver Pack Solution to install my touchpad driver originally, but it is different than the one Dell offered on their driver site. I believe that is where the issue is rooted.

Also, does anyone know why, even after I uninstalled all touchpad drivers, my touchpad still functioned. I was still able to navigate the mouse, two finger scrolling didn't work, and other fancy features, but it still was usable. Is this a really low level BIOS function that ensures the touchpad at least always has some functionality?

Very curious to know about this.

 

Touchpad drivers only provide advanced functionality. The touchpad without a driver acts like a mouse, which you also don't need drivers for--it just transmits deltaX and deltaY values to the cursor, plus clicks. The driver allows it to use the extra information.

 

Good to know, thank you very much.

Also, a feature I discovered for myself just recently was that you can disable the two finger scrolling (this has worked poorly on my machine) and enable the single finger scrolling with circular scrolling enabled. Run one finger down the right edge of the touchpad to enable scrolling, then, to continue scrolling, just move your finger in a clockwise circular fashion anywhere on the touchpad. It works amazingly well, and there is no need to have to move your fingers back to the top of the touchpad to continue scrolling.

It is amazing!

 

Hell again,

The problem has come back. I know I only have the official dell driver installed, and even when when I uninstall that and use no driver at all, just the basic functionality, it still starts acting weird. If I disable the touch pad for a little bit, then re-enable it, it works, but only for a little longer.

Can anyone shed some light on the issue?

Thank you very much.

 

I had this issue for a number of months. Problem occured regardless of driver and trackpad also sometimes failed in the Dell testing diagnostics which are run from outside of Windows (so not a driver issue). Dell replaced the trackpad on two occasions, which fixed the problem for about 5 months. The issue has just returned. There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason to the problem. Trackpad wil be workign fine and then suddenly the cursor will jump all over the place, freeze temporarily and then freeze permanantly. When this happens the trackpad options dissappear from the quicklaunch menu - as if the trackpad was no longer there. Sometimes the Fn + F3 clears it, but more often a reboot is required. If it carries on I'll gave to phone Dell again.

If anyone else has found a solution (or even a cause) I would be most grateful to hear from you as this is such an annoying problem. Last time I spoke to Dell they claimed that no one else had ever had this problem!

Thanks