Little blue thing on my keyboard

[ehrenfest]

Hello, I have a Dell D620 laptop and recently I have been having trouble with the input the tells the cursor where to go. I have the standard finger-pad that I use to move the cursor but there is also a little blue rubber thing between the "h" and the "g" on my keyboard that can also move the cursor. Recently, while I have been typing, when I press the keys close to the blue thing, it actually gives it enough vibration so the blue thing thinks I touched it and it moves the cursor away from where I am typing. This is really annoying because then the text starts showing up in the new location. Does that make sense?


Does anyone know how to turn the little blue thing off or make it less sensitive?

 

[Dale]

I also have a D620. Go to the control panel and open up the mouse dialog box. There should be a tab for "Device Select". Select that tab and find the section called "Pointing Stick" and click on "Disable device"

 

[ehrenfest]

I also have a D620. Go to the control panel and open up the mouse dialog box. There should be a tab for "Device Select". Select that tab and find the section called "Pointing Stick" and click on "Disable device"

I found "Mouse" in the control panel but when I clicked on it the only tabs were "Buttons", "Pointers", "Pointer Options","Wheel", and "Hardware". The third and fifth of those looked promising but I played around with them and I couldn't find anything called "Device Select" or make any other progress. :(

 

[Moonbear]

I found "Mouse" in the control panel but when I clicked on it the only tabs were "Buttons", "Pointers", "Pointer Options","Wheel", and "Hardware". The third and fifth of those looked promising but I played around with them and I couldn't find anything called "Device Select" or make any other progress. :(

Do you see the first tab that says Dell Touchpad Settings? It doesn't look like there's much to do on that tab, but if you click on the giant picture of a touchpad, you get another menu with a "device select" option (yes, it's about the least intuitive place to put that control).

 

[robphy]

If you are missing those tabs, you might have to reinstall the
ALPS driver [under Input Device drivers]:
http://support.dell.com/support/dow...en&s=gen&SystemID=LATITUDE D620&os=WW1&osl=EN
(I did this recently for my D620.)

 

[ehrenfest]

If you are missing those tabs, you might have to reinstall the
ALPS driver [under Input Device drivers]:
http://support.dell.com/support/dow...en&s=gen&SystemID=LATITUDE D620&os=WW1&osl=EN
(I did this recently for my D620.)

Yup, that was the solution. I wonder how I managed to delete that though? When I installed it said I already had the latest version on my computer...weird. But thanks so much it is so nice being able to type a complete line now without having to reposition the cursor!

 

[Moonbear]

Yup, that was the solution. I wonder how I managed to delete that though? When I installed it said I already had the latest version on my computer...weird. But thanks so much it is so nice being able to type a complete line now without having to reposition the cursor!

You may not have deleted it, it may have been corrupted when something else got installed. I have a lot of problems getting drivers to stay put on my Dell (different model) when I install new software (I've just gotten in the habit of not installing anything new unless I have the driver CDs with me). I don't know if it is because it's a Dell or because it's Windows.

 

[ehrenfest]

You may not have deleted it, it may have been corrupted when something else got installed. I have a lot of problems getting drivers to stay put on my Dell (different model) when I install new software (I've just gotten in the habit of not installing anything new unless I have the driver CDs with me). I don't know if it is because it's a Dell or because it's Windows.

Sorry for my ignorance, but what exactly does a "driver" mean in this computer science context? I know what a "drive" is, but this is apparently different.

 

[robphy]

Sorry for my ignorance, but what exactly does a "driver" mean in this computer science context? I know what a "drive" is, but this is apparently different.

"device driver"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_driver

 

[ehrenfest]

"device driver"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_driver

A device driver, or software driver, is a computer program allowing higher-level computer programs to interact with a device.

Aha!