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Disabling the touchpad

post #1 of 9
11/18/05 at 2:38pm
Thread Starter 
So device manager doesnt have a "disable this device" option for the Alps touchpad, what gives? Is there anyway to disable it besides unplugging it? I'm usually plugged in and using my USB logitech mouse, and sometimes in games you can scrape the touchpad or press a corner of it and it FUBAR's your aim. Still, I'd like to have it in case I go unplugged somewhere. Thanks guys.
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post #2 of 9
11/18/05 at 2:50pm
Try going to control panel, and getting to your tochpad and just disable it, and then if you need it then go up to with your mouse and enable it. Besides how are you hitting it? don't you just use the WASD keys? I never touch my touchpad when gaming and I play intense games like COD 2, BF2, and FEAR. No problems here.
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post #3 of 9
11/18/05 at 5:48pm
BIOS Setup has several options including disable when external mouse is connected.

ALPS Driver from Dell does not have disable unless there is also a 'stick' but you can turn tapping off and hide pointer when typing.

Synaptics driver will kill an ALPS as well.
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post #4 of 9
11/18/05 at 8:33pm
Thread Starter 
Yah, but synaptics doesnt enable the full functionality, unless I've been misinformed. I have big hands, so yes, my thumb/hand hits the touchpad when using WASD keys. Dont remember seeing that option in the BIOS, but then I have BIOS A03, might have to flash to A04. I'll keep looking around, control panel has the same options as device manager. Thanks guys.
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post #5 of 9
11/18/05 at 8:50pm
Synaptics driver doesn't give scroll feature, tapping still works though. Even A05 BIOS don't have ability to turn off touchpad, so only option is synaptics driver.
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post #6 of 9
12/20/05 at 2:39pm
Hi, thought i'd post on this thread rather than start a new one. I also have the very annoying problem of hitting the touchpad with my thumb when playing any fps/wasd games. It's really starting to get on my nerves now.

Is there any definitive way of turning the touchpad off? I use a Razor Copperhead mouse for pretty much everything, but i don't want to unplug the touchpad because I use it when i'm mobile.

Any help would be appreciated,

Will
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post #7 of 9
12/20/05 at 2:54pm
Can't you just uninstall the driver for the touchpad in the device manager. It will make the touchpad inoperable until you restart your computer. Then it will reinstall automatically when it boots up and that should solve it right?
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post #8 of 9
12/20/05 at 3:13pm
Can't find it in device manager anywhere...
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post #9 of 9
12/20/05 at 4:43pm
If you Uninstall the driver for the touchpad, Windows asks you if you want to reboot to complete the uninstallation. If you say, "No", it acts as if nothing has changed. The touchpad will continue to work. If you reboot, it doesn't even have to "re-instal" the software.

I had to uninstall the Synaptics software just to get the Razer software to function correctly. The touchpad shows in Device Mgr under Mice & Other Pointing Devices as a PS/2 Compatible Mouse (at least in my case it did, without the Synaptics software.)

After rebooting, the touchpad shows up as an Alps Touchpad in Device Manager and again kills the Razer software. My main notebook (the one I'm using now) is an old Compaq. If that company could have figured out years ago that the touchpad should be disabled while docked, that it should co-exist with external mice and that it should have a button to make it active or in-active, what the hell is wrong with Dell?

The Alps is listed as a Critical Device in Dev Mgr. Maybe that's why Windows won't let you disable it. I smell a Registry hack brewing. At least the Razer will now function without being reliant on its driver software. I wouldn't be surprised if the Touchpad cable also fed the front panel media buttons. I used to repair these things for Dell, but can't remember.
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