Solved Dell touchpad set to click after every tap, hard to type with it there

[DustSailor]

Hello everyone. Apologies if the title wasn't clear.

I bought a dell inspiron laptop recently and was having some trouble when I type. My hands tend to rest at times on the touchpad and every time i do, the single click tap takes me to where ever the mouse is located. Usually its in another section of the document that I am writing in, so that I start to type in the middle of a paragraph that I had already written.

In addition, I have installed asenother mou <-- see??? it did it again!

"In addition, I have installed another mouse driver for a mouse to use with the laptop, so I haven't been able to access any mouse settings other than the additional mouse settings. However, the touchpad still functions."

Is there a way to either disable the touchpad when a mouse is connected, or to change its settings while another mouse is connected?

I am afraid that if I uninstall the mouse driver and see about changing the touchpad settings (if possible), that installing the new mouse again would just take away any of those settings that I would change.

All suggestions welcome. If nothing is forthcoming I will attempt to uninstall the mouse driver and change the touchpad settings. I would prefer not to have to manually disable the touchpad

Thanks in advance!

 

[Qdos]

If you're sure your touchpad options don't include a 'disable when typing for X seconds' then a simple utility like this one should help out...

 

[MWRed]

Not sure what the controller is for your touchpad is.
Mine is Synaptics.

I had the same problem as you. A touchpad on a laptop is not my friend at all. My hand rests on one half of it when typing usually.

I use a Logitech USB wireless mouse, and have this option in the mouse properties. I would imagine you may have something along the lines of this somewhere.

EDIT: I did notice that, on my moms netbook, there is no option to disable the touchpad. She also uses a wireless mouse, and it's a Synaptics touchpad, but it doesn't have an option to disable it when an external pointing device is detected.

This is mine

 

[seavixen32]

Disable the touchpad and use a wireless mouse instead.

Disabling or Enabling the Touchpad Using the Hot Key | Dell

 

[MWRed]

Which model is your Dell?

Also, if your Dell has an F key that has this on it, it toggles the touchpad on and off. It may be F6,F3, or right next to the F12 key.

 

[DustSailor]

Which model is your Dell?

It is an M5040 Inspiron

Disable the touchpad and use a wireless mouse instead.

Disabling or Enabling the Touchpad Using the Hot Key | Dell

Andrew, that would be awesome, and I have the key, but it isn't working and I'm not sure why. Dell had all drivers preinstalled, and there are no drivers for this laptop model on their website. I could check the CD and see about that driver. But there are no markings to indicate that the driver isn't installed. I would imagine there to be 2 mouse drivers (touchpad and normal). It lists them both in device manager, and attempting to update the touchpad online brings up nothing. The key didn't even work before I installed the new mouse driver. But interestingly, the volume keys work... I may have to fiddle around and see whats up here.

I have a microsoft wireless mobile 3500 mouse and this is what the intrface looks like:

 

[DustSailor]

If you're sure your touchpad options don't include a 'disable when typing for X seconds' then a simple utility like this one should help out...

Qdos, I would prefer not to install anything more, but for sure I will use something like that provided everything else falls through.

Thank you everyone for your replies so far

 

[MWRed]

Guessing Fn+F3 does nothing either,eh?
Hmmm..this is odd...it's almost as if the real deiver isn't installed, but then you would think it wouldn't work at all.

 

[TVeblen]

If your touchpad is Synaptics there will be a Synaptics icon in your tray.

Right click on that and uncheck: "Tap to click".

 

[DustSailor]

Guessing Fn+F3 does nothing either,eh?

No, it doesn't. Perhaps it will when they start updating the laptop's drivers on the dell website. I think it is a newer laptop model.

TVeblen, this is what my driver looks like:


Additionally, I found this:


It wouldn't let me turn it "on", but it still works. I am almost sure that my own tampering in Ccleaner was the cause of this. The dell CD is confusing, but I'll see if I can't reinstall the driver from it, as Dell has yet to list the drivers on its website.

I did use Ccleaner in an attempt to get rid of all the extra Dell bloatware

 

[TVeblen]

Do you have these settings?:

How do I change my Dell Touchpad settings and preferences? :: Online Tech Support Help :: Ask Dave Taylor!®

Tap to click is down there near the bottom.

 

[DustSailor]

Hey TVeblen, I don't have those settings. I will try to reinstall the driver when I get home and I'll let you know what changes. This is all that I have (notice in the second picture that I can only change settings for the external mouse):

 

[DustSailor]

Good news. After reinstalling the driver, so far the Fn+F3 buttons let me disable the touchpad. I also have the dell touchpad mouse properties. o.0

 

[TVeblen]

The Bad Driver Install gremlin strikes again!

Glad you got it sorted, Congrats!

 

[Qdos]

I had the same problem on an EEE PC until they eventually updated the touchpad drivers to cater for users who might have a mouse connected, or were brushing the pad as they typed.

Used a 3rd party utility until the touchpad maker brought out better drivers