healer

I hope you guys can help because one more day of this and this laptop's going out the window.

I have a Dell latitude (model: PP01L, C600/C500). It was a hand-me-down from the boss. I don't like using the touchpad so I have a USB mouse attached. The problem is that if I were to accidentally just hit the body or the part next to the touchpad too hard, the mouse arrow runs off into one of the corners of the screen and can't be controlled. It's become so bad that I can't rest my wrists on the laptop when I type for fear that I'll send the mouse off on a friggin mission. I can't hit enter (or any other key for that matter) too hard either or else I get the same result.

I've found that tapping it lightly here and there sometimes gets it stationary but I'm getting tired of this shit. Is there any way I can disable the touchpad completely? Or crack this baby open and take something outta here that'll put the touchpad out of commission?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Yours in frustration
healer

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bendsley

Have you tried installing/reinstalling the software from Dell that controls the touchpad (assuming there is software released)? You might try that first just to see if its a hardware or software issue.

You might check in the Hardware Devices area and disable the touchpad. I don't know if on that model if there is an actual hardware driver that you can disable though. ( Rt. click My Computer, Click on Properties, Click on Hardware Tab, Click on Device Manager, expand Mice and Other Pointing Devices.)

You might also check the Mouse control panel ( Start --> Settings --> Control Panel) and see if there is something you can set in there.

You can also call Dell's Parts and Upgrades line (800-357-3355) and see how much a replacement touchpad would be. Cannot be too much I would imagine.

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"You hear the one about the fella who died, went to the pearly gates? St. Peter let him in. Sees a guy in a suit making a closing argument. Says, "Who's that?" St. Peter says, "Oh, that's God. Thinks he's Denny Crane."

healer

I've tried all of the above, to no avail. There is no hardware driver that controls the touchpad (that I can find), and no software released to control/configure it. It looks like it's just a piece of dumb hardware attached to this friggin laptop (mind you, it is a rather old model).

Getting it replaced isn't really an option as it belongs to the company and my efforts at getting it fixed/changed out through the proper channels have been all but fruitful.

Thanks though.

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MikeSty

If I had a guess I'd say it's a synaptics touchpad, because the dell latitudes I work on all the time are all synaptics. You should see an option for them in the Control Panel, but I suppose in your case their might not be, so what you ought to to is head into the BIOS (turn on comp, tap .... umm on dells I think it's F2 key every half second) and look around for touchpad settings. If it's not there, consult the manual or give me detailed model specs

pig

healer

It's your lucky day. I had this exact same problem. You don't use the touch pad? Fantastic. Go into the control panel, and disable it - the touch pad, that is. You'll be able to type again, and you'll have mouse through the USB. That's exactly what I do, and it works great.

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Charlatan

I had this same problem with my old computer... it had both a track stick and touchpad.

I sent it back to the depot and they replaced everything and it fixed it.

Pigglet's soloution should solve your problem.

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healer

Found the touchpad settings in the BIOS. You just have to "lie" to the BIOS telling it that you're using a PS/2 mouse and it disables the touchpad completely. *hits enter key hard as hell*

Thanks Mike

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MikeSty

No problemo

catback

Dunno how well that works for USB, It disables the touchpad only when it detects a PS/2 mouse...I've used it with a ps/2 mouse, haven't yet tried with a usb mouse