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• hardware issues
  • Power adapter requires a 3-prong outlet.
  • The touchpad arrangement makes it difficult to locate the touchpad buttons by touch (this is a solved problem on Thinkpad computers).
  • There are no dedicated "browse forward/browse back" keys (though you can define shortcuts for these purposes)
• software issues
  • cannot perform a "drag" operation using the touchpoint with the "pointing stick buttons" (essentially the same thing as the IBM Trackpoint buttons)
    • In other words, you can use the left button below the touchpad and drag to resize, scroll, or move a window or highlight text using the touchpad, but this doesn't work if you instead hold down the left button above the touchpad.
    • As described at http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19243900.aspx (for the E4300)
    • Dell claims this is working as designed per Alps, but earlier versions of the Alps driver (e.g. 5.x.y.z) support this functionality
  • Dell ControlPoint power manager does not integrate well with Windows power manager
    • Power schemes defined to Windows (from "power options" on control panel) do not display and are not available to be selected by Dell ControlPoint power manager
    • If you select a power scheme created through the Windows power manager, Dell ControlPoint power manager will show one of the Dell power schemes as active, even though it evidently isn't
  • Some of the Dell ControlPoint screens behave in non-standard ways.
    • For instance, a mouse-over of certain "buttons" will activate them rather than only activate when the button is clicked on.
  • On other Dell ControlPoint screens, if the Dell ControlPoint panel is already active and you take an action to open that panel, it should bring that panel to the front. Instead, it does nothing.
  • Entries in the "Help and Support Center" indicate to select "Bluetooth Devices" from the control panel, but there is no Bluetooth entry in the control panel.
  • due to its slow responsiveness, virtual scrolling (i.e. using the touchpad to scroll) is too frustrating to use
    • just disable it so you're not tempted to bother
  • The touchpad has a peculiar behavior that seems to come and go:
    • If one is moving the pointer to the left or down, and reaches the edge of the touchpad and leaves the finger positioned there, the pointer will continue to move, albeit at a slow speed.
    • Opening the "touchpad properties" window, or closing it, or opening the "touchpad settings" window, may cause this behavior to occur or to stop occurring.
    • Then again, opening or closing these windows may have absolutely nothing to do with it.

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Revision r1.2 - 26 Apr 2009 - 03:40 by EliMantel  Privacy Policy

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