Touchpad/Trackpoint weirdness 15.3.16.1 [ Edited ]

[calkenneth]

I have a Lenovo T420s.  I bought it in May 2011 so it came with the Touchpad/Trackpoint driver version 15.2.14.0 (6hgx35ww.zip), which is the one also known for its massive memory leak.

In any case, with that driver I am able to use the Trackpoint to navigate somewhere on the screen and immediately use the Touchpad if necessary. I do that a lot - I use the Trackpoint to quickly get somewhere on the screen, and then switch to the Touchpad for finer navigation (e.g. to look for something in Explorer, click on a link somewhere, etc).

Every version since that verison has not worked the same.  I am now using 15.3.16.1 which doesn't have any memory leaks.  As soon as I touch the Trackpoint, the Touchpad becomes unresponsive to touch for about 1.5 seconds. 

Try it.  Put your left pointer finger on the Trackpoint and move the mouse around.  Right as you lift your finger, use your right pointer finger on the Touchpad and see if it responds. It doesn't - you have to lift your finger and put it down again for it to register your touch.  Previously it would register your finger touch on the Touchpad right away.

I'm almost tempted to switch back and deal with the memory leaks!  It makes such a difference with speed of navigation.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

[calkenneth]

By the way, I know that JameZ has posted a few times related to the UltraNav drivers so I am hoping he will step into this thread and see if he's able to duplicate my finding

[calkenneth]

Hey!

Did some more testing and this is what I found:

Uninstalled the Thinkpad UltraNav driver and the Thinkpad UltraNav utility.  Rebooted as requested.  The touchpad and trackpoint now works as it should, albeit without the powerful UltraNav features.

So clearly the aspect of the driver responsible for the touchpad is "falling asleep" when the trackpoint is activated, and needs a second or two to wake up when the user is back on the touchpad.

[calkenneth]

Okay, more testing = more information to share.

If you take the palm check setting and set it all the way to the left, (i.e. minimize palm check), the mouse behaves as it should.  If you even have palm check on the first notch, touching the trackpoint causes the touchpoint not to respond until about 1,5 seconds later.

[ColonelONeill]

The issue does indeed lie in PalmCheck and has been known for a long while.

Good to hear you've discovered the solution independently.

[calkenneth]

Yeah, I am glad about finding a temporary fix too, but I'm not sure how much of a solution it really is... and why didn't it cause a problem with the older version of the driver

I can really tell a difference with the palm check turned off. It's causing my mouse to move around a lot more while I type.  The worst is when it accidentally selects a portion of text and erases it (when I type the next character).  Happened 3 times while writing this post!

(You mentioned that this was really well known.  I searched and searched for this problem - do you have any links that describe it?)

[JameZ]

Issue replicated.

Am escalating this to engineering.

Thanks calkenneth for reporting this.

//JameZ

[ColonelONeill]

For some reason, the threads are next to impossible to find. There's a Knowledge Base article somewhere.

I've had to re-type a lot of replies instead of linking back to a previous post because I just can't seem to find the thing.

[calkenneth]

Great news - thanks.  I can't remember how fast Engineering turned around a solution to the other UltraNav-related issues, but I suppose this is a pretty easy-to-duplicate problem...

[JameZ]

@ColonelONeill,

Hmm ... Is it this one?

http://forum.lenovo.com/t5/T61-and-prior-T-series-ThinkPad/Touchpad-response-delay-solved/ta-p/39387...

//JameZ