I recently purchased a laptop from Microsoft (2015 Dell XPS 13") that uses the Microsoft Precision Touchpad. There are a few issues I'm having with this touchpad that I've never noticed with other laptops and I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing these or if there are any fixes. There is a noticeable delay when trying to make slow light movements. My finger can move several millimeters before the cursor responds. It may not sound like much, but if you're trying to make subtle movements in photoshop, or select a specific character anywhere it's very noticeable and difficult to use. The majority of the time when I lift my finger the cursor will jump several pixels, often moving away from the object I'm trying to target. If you use any browser besides IE, two finger scrolling is very choppy and has a similar delay that's experienced in the first issue. There are a few other minor annoyances, like poor palm detection and using two hands (one to move the cursor and one to click with) but the issues above are the biggest annoyances, ordered by most annoying to least. If anyone has any ways to fix these issues or install different drivers, I'd love to hear about them. Thanks!

I agree with you that it likely won't, but Dell has to do their required diligence. If they conclude that it's a defect with the software that they licensed to use (from Microsoft), then they will open a case with Microsoft and get a dedicated engineer to research, fix it, and deploy it to Dell users (and maybe others). But it all requires a hard case to use as an example, so thank you for opening a ticket so this can get moving.

I admire the persistence of our moderator, however, he does not use a Precision Touchpad with Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, that we can be sure of. Any laptop running Windows 8.1 or 10 using precision touchpad has this issue. The replacement from Dell on the XPS-13 will have the same issue - I recommend not doing it. I sure hope the new Dell XPS-13, which should be arriving within a week or so, will not have a precision touchpad or at least some OEM drivers will be included - Dell would be crazy to stick with Precision Touchpad/no drivers solution. If you go into any store and play with the demo XPS-13's, you will see the issue on all of them. Hey, maybe it's Synaptics that is not meeting the Microsoft Specification for precision touchpads - I don't know - but it certainly is not "just Dell" as OEM, read on . . . Fortunately, we don't need to focus on Dell because the Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4, and (wait for it...) the new Surface Book ALL have the exact same problem! (yea). We can blame the OEM - oops - Microsoft is the OEM - I mean Microsoft for that one. Not sure who the underlying manufacturer is in Microsoft's products, but as we have learned here, it's still Microsoft's fault because they are the OEM of the Surface Pro 3/4 and Book. Some people don't notice it. This is the primary reason it is not fixed. Some people don't mind it. This is the secondary reason it is not fixed. Some people only notice when trying to two-finger scroll (see this Blog post from Windows Central on the Surface Book - http://www.windowscentral.com/how-fix-trackpad-lag-when-scrolling-surface-book It is easy to understand why some people perceive the lag when scrolling more than when just moving the cursor - a) scrolling tends to be initiated by small movements as you "inch your way" up and down reading a web page (as an example) whereas cursor movement tends to be *initiated* by large movements (helps you find the cursor on screen after all), and b) some browsers in particular already deal badly with scrolling (Chrome), so this lag just makes a software problem in Chrome appear worse (to see this scroll with scroll wheel on mouse in Chrome (bad), then use two-finger scroll on precision touchpad (horribly bad). But it's always there. All Precision Trackpads. All Microsoft Windows 10 (no driver). Same problem was in 8.1, so this has been around. But there is hope! PS: I am not sure what Acer model "ms142" is referring too - but thanks for chiming in; it was helpful! Here is a nice video showing the issue (sorry Shawn, it's a Dell in the video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkbSlfK1Bug And this one focusing on scrolling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FTbMGfGbR0 Every computer I have used with these devices (Precision Touchpads) behaves exactly like this. I'll post a video of the Surface Book next time I get to the store. Stay tuned! We are going to get this fixed yet! PS: I tried to open a Connect bug on the Windows 10 precision touchpad driver but was not successful. I have provided feedback all during the beta period of Windows 10. I was actually expecting Windows 10 to squish this little bug, but if you check the drivers for "I2C HID Device" (Microsoft Corp, 10.0.10240.16384, 6/21/2006) and "HID Compliant Touchpad" (Microsoft Corp, 10.0.10240.16384, 6/21/2006) you will notice that the driver versions are updated with the standard Windows 10 build RTM (ok, not called that anymore, but whatever) but they are the same drivers from 2006 used in Windows 8.1 and do not work properly. I think.

If you have the problem on Microsoft's hardware please open a support case at http://support.microsoft.com -- you can open it by chat or phone, either way please post back the ticket number if you please.

I believe we have some good news. Windows 10, November Update (1115?) build version 10.0.10586 which came out just yesterday (Nov 12) was just installed on my machine... Much improved! Not perfect, but the initial movement delay is down to 1-2mm of finger movement instead of 5-10mm. I checked the Device Manager and the I2C HID Device is still a driver from 2006 (no change), but it does have the new version number applied (10586). Same with the HID-compliant touchpad. I can no longer move my finger in little circles and stare at the non-moving cursor fixed on the screen (and not moving with my finger). I still get a small initial delay, but the improvement seems to have been enough to overcome the pain threshold I was experiencing with the old behavior. I believe it is possible for me to not notice the delay anymore with this build of Windows. Awesome. If anyone here experiences the same, please post. Also, if you see no improvement with this build of Windows, I suppose you could post that as well. PS: Last Saturday I tested all of the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 devices on display in the local Best Buy. I'll probably do that for the next three years :-) Just to make sure I am not going nuts.

Microsoft Precision Touchpad, not very precise

Anonymous

I recently purchased a laptop from Microsoft (2015 Dell XPS 13") that uses the Microsoft Precision Touchpad.

There are a few issues I'm having with this touchpad that I've never noticed with other laptops and I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing these or if there are any fixes.

There is a noticeable delay when trying to make slow light movements. My finger can move several millimeters before the cursor responds. It may not sound like much, but if you're trying to make subtle movements in photoshop, or select a specific character anywhere it's very noticeable and difficult to use.
The majority of the time when I lift my finger the cursor will jump several pixels, often moving away from the object I'm trying to target.
If you use any browser besides IE, two finger scrolling is very choppy and has a similar delay that's experienced in the first issue.

There are a few other minor annoyances, like poor palm detection and using two hands (one to move the cursor and one to click with) but the issues above are the biggest annoyances, ordered by most annoying to least.

If anyone has any ways to fix these issues or install different drivers, I'd love to hear about them.

Thanks!

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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@CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2015-11-03T16:53:25+00:00

I agree with you that it likely won't, but Dell has to do their required diligence. If they conclude that it's a defect with the software that they licensed to use (from Microsoft), then they will open a case with Microsoft and get a dedicated engineer to research, fix it, and deploy it to Dell users (and maybe others). But it all requires a hard case to use as an example, so thank you for opening a ticket so this can get moving.
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Anonymous

2015-11-04T00:47:48+00:00
I admire the persistence of our moderator, however, he does not use a Precision Touchpad with Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, that we can be sure of.

Any laptop running Windows 8.1 or 10 using precision touchpad has this issue. The replacement from Dell on the XPS-13 will have the same issue - I recommend not doing it. I sure hope the new Dell XPS-13, which should be arriving within a week or so, will not have a precision touchpad or at least some OEM drivers will be included - Dell would be crazy to stick with Precision Touchpad/no drivers solution. If you go into any store and play with the demo XPS-13's, you will see the issue on all of them. Hey, maybe it's Synaptics that is not meeting the Microsoft Specification for precision touchpads - I don't know - but it certainly is not "just Dell" as OEM, read on . . .

Fortunately, we don't need to focus on Dell because the Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4, and (wait for it...) the new Surface Book ALL have the exact same problem! (yea). We can blame the OEM - oops - Microsoft is the OEM - I mean Microsoft for that one. Not sure who the underlying manufacturer is in Microsoft's products, but as we have learned here, it's still Microsoft's fault because they are the OEM of the Surface Pro 3/4 and Book.
1. Some people don't notice it. This is the primary reason it is not fixed.
2. Some people don't mind it. This is the secondary reason it is not fixed.
3. Some people only notice when trying to two-finger scroll (see this Blog post from Windows Central on the Surface Book -
http://www.windowscentral.com/how-fix-trackpad-lag-when-scrolling-surface-book

It is easy to understand why some people perceive the lag when scrolling more than when just moving the cursor - a) scrolling tends to be initiated by small movements as you "inch your way" up and down reading a web page (as an example) whereas cursor movement tends to be *initiated* by large movements (helps you find the cursor on screen after all), and b) some browsers in particular already deal badly with scrolling (Chrome), so this lag just makes a software problem in Chrome appear worse (to see this
- scroll with scroll wheel on mouse in Chrome (bad), then use two-finger scroll on precision touchpad (horribly bad).
1. But it's always there. All Precision Trackpads. All Microsoft Windows 10 (no driver). Same problem was in 8.1, so this has been around. But there is hope!
PS: I am not sure what Acer model "ms142" is referring too - but thanks for chiming in; it was helpful!

Here is a nice video showing the issue (sorry Shawn, it's a Dell in the video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkbSlfK1Bug

And this one focusing on scrolling:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FTbMGfGbR0

Every computer I have used with these devices (Precision Touchpads) behaves exactly like this.

I'll post a video of the Surface Book next time I get to the store. Stay tuned! We are going to get this fixed yet!

PS: I tried to open a Connect bug on the Windows 10 precision touchpad driver but was not successful. I have provided feedback all during the beta period of Windows 10. I was actually expecting Windows 10 to squish this little bug, but if you check the drivers for "I2C HID Device" (Microsoft Corp, 10.0.10240.16384, 6/21/2006) and "HID Compliant Touchpad" (Microsoft Corp, 10.0.10240.16384, 6/21/2006) you will notice that the driver versions are updated with the standard Windows 10 build RTM (ok, not called that anymore, but whatever) but they are the same drivers from 2006 used in Windows 8.1 and do not work properly. I think.
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@CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2015-11-04T06:12:30+00:00

If you have the problem on Microsoft's hardware please open a support case at http://support.microsoft.com -- you can open it by chat or phone, either way please post back the ticket number if you please.
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Anonymous

2015-11-13T22:18:44+00:00

I believe we have some good news.

Windows 10, November Update (1115?) build version 10.0.10586 which came out just yesterday (Nov 12) was just installed on my machine...

Much improved! Not perfect, but the initial movement delay is down to 1-2mm of finger movement instead of 5-10mm.

I checked the Device Manager and the I2C HID Device is still a driver from 2006 (no change), but it does have the new version number applied (10586). Same with the HID-compliant touchpad.

I can no longer move my finger in little circles and stare at the non-moving cursor fixed on the screen (and not moving with my finger). I still get a small initial delay, but the improvement seems to have been enough to overcome the pain threshold I was experiencing with the old behavior. I believe it is possible for me to not notice the delay anymore with this build of Windows.

Awesome.

If anyone here experiences the same, please post. Also, if you see no improvement with this build of Windows, I suppose you could post that as well.

PS: Last Saturday I tested all of the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 devices on display in the local Best Buy. I'll probably do that for the next three years :-) Just to make sure I am not going nuts.
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