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    1501: Annoying touchpad scrolling

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by Serville, Jul 31, 2007.

  1. Serville

    Serville Notebook Consultant

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    I have an annoying touchpad scrolling problem. Sometimes, when I use the touchpad to scroll vertically when browsing, it only shows the tiny scrollbar icon but it doesn't scroll at all like it is stuck there. I have to press the left button once on the screen to get the scrolling back. I have tried any setting from the Touchpad control panel, but none seems to help. It happens at random times. Is this a driver bug or something I don't know about ? Clicking the left button once always seems to reset the scrolling though. Does any Dell user (1501, 1505, etc) experience the same problem ?
     
    Serville, Jul 31, 2007
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  2. Rodster

    Rodster Merica

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    I have a 1501, something you can try is take a damp cloth with lukewarm water and clean the touchpad or you can try a dab of alcohol. Sometimes those areas get oil buildup and causes the touchpad to get squirley. The other thing to try is to perform a "restore default" in the "Synaptics" mouse utility.
     
    Rodster, Jul 31, 2007
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  3. odin243

    odin243 Notebook Prophet

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    Is it possible that you're trying to scroll in a page or frame that's inactive? If so. left-clicking would activate that area and enable scrolling for it.
     
    odin243, Jul 31, 2007
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  4. devsk

    devsk Notebook Evangelist

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    This is most likely what's happening. If you need to make the area under mouse active by default without having to click the left mouse button, change that option under accessibility (Easy Access). Then, it will scroll whatever is under mouse. I don't know why this is not the default behavior because it sounds logical (and most unix systems come with this default). Does anybody else find it really annoying that when you are trying to scroll the files section of the Explorer window, it actually scrolls folders section.
     
    devsk, Jul 31, 2007
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  5. Serville

    Serville Notebook Consultant

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    Just experimenting. Now I can see the pattern.
    It happens whenever I click on a link in IE and do "Open in New Window".
    Problem is, the active IE window is still the original page, but this cause the touchpad to lose focus for scrolling although it is still on the same page. It looks like it is confused or something. I always "open in new window" when browsing because I want the link page to be ready while I'm still reading on the original source page. It is really annying.

    Devsk is right. I also find touchpad scrolling is annoying with Explorer. Same complaint. Scrolling files makes scrolling directories, or vice versa. It's confusing because I hardly notice which frame is active.
     
    Serville, Jul 31, 2007
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