Dell touch pad buttons

[Ed Fenwick]

Aloha, my Dell Latitude 620 has two sets of touch pad buttons. The upper ones get in the way when I type. Do y'all know how to disable them?

TKS Ed

 

[Bob McDonald]

I used to find that the pads of my hand were striking the touch-pad too firmly causing the touch-pad act like a hard touch (button click).



The only solution that works for me is to plug in a real mouse and then configure the mouse properties to disable the touch-pad when ever a mouse is detected.

 

[EddieS'04]

I had to pace 2 layers of soft teflon gasket material over mine. Including with a mouse.

My cursor jumped all over the place.

 

[Richard L]

I used a solution similar to Eddie's. I had a leather coaster that worked great to just throw over the touch-pad and that solved the problem. I had the touch-pad available whenever I needed to mouse around, and when I needed to type, I just put the leather coaster over the touch-pad to prevent the cursor from jumping around.



You don't have to use a leather coaster, but any piece of leather or vinyl should work. You can probably pick up as small 3" x 3" scrap at a fabric store or upholstery shop. Of course color does not matter.:grin:



...Rich

 

[Bill V]

Did you see if the touch pad settings in the control panel allow you to disable them? I think the customizability varies from model to model, so I can't say for sure that it will work for you, but I'd try that. My touchpad on my Dell Latitude E6400 at work is disabled through that method, for that exact reason.



Open Control Panel, then Device Manager. (I think the route to this can vary from OS to OS, so I won't provide details--but if you have trouble finding it, a search within the Control Panel probably will pull it up.) There will likely be something like "Mice and other pointing devices"--if you open that dropdown, I suspect you'll see a touchpad option. Double click it, and in the next window, go to "Change settings".

 

[Richard L]

Bill V,

Yes, Often there are touch pad settings that will allow you to change the sensitivity or disable the touch pad. That works fine if you use a conventional mouse and rarely use the touch pad. Otherwise you will constantly be switching the touch pad on and off.



If you use a mouse at home but the touch pad when traveling that can be a real pain if you are traveling and forgot to enable the touch pad before you unplugged the mouse? NOw you have to use the keyboard for cursor movements to get the touch pad enabled again:angry:



I think most people still want to use the touch pad under some conditions but get irritated when they accidentally touch the pad while typing and the cursor jumps somewhere and they are typing over what they already typed:angry:



Everyone who has experienced sensetive touch pad problems found my idea of covering the touch pad with a scrap of leather is the most convenient solution



...Rich

 

[Jackson Ellis]

My company is practically married to Dell for PC equipment, so I've had several models of their laptops over the years. There is a "smart button" to disable the touch pad usually. It'll be a combination where you push the "function" button and another button usually in the "F" keys row with a small blue outline picture of the touchpad.



However, in Ed's case, it sounds like he's wanting to disable the two (right and left) mouse buttons above his touchpad. That model has two buttons right below the pad and two more above it near the first row of letters with the exact same function. I've had that model before, but I never disabled the buttons, so I guess I'm no help.



[Broken External Image]:



You can always pop the plastic tabs off the buttons, and then remove the little plungers inside that depress and activate the function of the buttons. That works for all the other keys, but I've never tried it on mouse buttons.



Have you Googled it? Good luck.

 

[Ed Fenwick]

Aloha ncstatewolfpacker,

Yes I have googled this but still get only different ways to turn off the touch-pad. Taking the plunger out will work but I would rather find a way to disable them.

Thanks God bless Ed

 

[EddieS'04]

my dell xp inspiron 1525. Has no touch pad disable option....

 

[Richard L]

Eddie,

Dell Inspiron's don't have all the features available on the Lattitude models... I will say that the Lattitude 620 was a poor design and a crappy laptop. We had bought a bunch of them where I worked and they did not last long even with the Dell Extended warranty. As soon as the extended Gold Service contract ended we began to replace them when they failed and used any serviceable parts to keep the others limping along until we could replace them.



I would take a Dell Inspiron over a Dell Lattitude 620. I had a Dell Lattitude E6500...now that was a great laptop except it was a little on the big side.



...Rich