Trackpad constantly triggering volume down on Inspiron 2-in-1?

etherealfocus

Senior member
Jun 2, 2009
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I'm using an Inspiron P57G002. Recently upgraded the SSD but was very careful and didn't leave any loose doodads that could've caused a short as far as I can tell.

Regardless, a while after closing it back up I started having an issue where using the bottom right area of my trackpad would trigger the volume-down function continuously. Rebooting fixed it and I figured it was just a glitch, but it can back and rebooting no longer fixes it. As I write this I've got the volume display permanently in the upper left of my screen. Running my finger over the bottom right quadrant of the trackpad sometimes makes it flicker like it's refreshing so I think that's got something to do with it.

Increasing volume with the hardware rocker switch does nothing.

Disabling the trackpad in Settings does nothing.

Increasing the volume with the taskbar widget works, but it scrolls back down to zero. This happens over the space of a couple seconds with the slider gradually moving back toward zero, so something is basically holding down the volume-down key rather than mute.

Any ideas? It doesn't seem to create any other weird behavior, and given that disabling the trackpad doesn't think it, I don't think the trackpad itself is the problem.
 

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
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It does sound like some wires were crossed in the process. How far do you have to do on that laptop to replace a drive? I love the ones that are just a couple screws on the bottom, but many are getting to require keyboard removal, or at least moving it out of the way (so you can at leat leave the cable connected). Do you have a link you can provide to the method you used?
 

etherealfocus

Senior member
Jun 2, 2009
488
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This one is worse than the Probook in my sig (one screw to access everything was sweet) but not hugely so. Just remove 10 screws from the bottom and the whole bottom panel comes off with a plastic pry tool.

<rant>Gotta say... this thing has a nice 1080p touchscreen, precision trackpad, better speakers, nice 2-in-1 stuff... but honestly I still prefer the Probook. The screen and speakers are lame, but the Inspiron feels kind of cheap and flimsy, touchscreen is mostly useless and I hate fingerprints on my screen (and the passive stylus is more hassle than it's worth for everything I do except tweaking floor plans in MS Paint :p ), and I hate the clickpad. There's just no substitute for real buttons... and I've yet to find a compelling case for the 2-in-1 functionality. :/
 

Ketchup

Elite Member
Sep 1, 2002
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I am similar. I got an RCA tablet that came with a removable keyboard, but I found that I only use it for holding the screen. A friend of mine bought a Lenovo laptop with Win 8 a few years ago, and I was using it for some issues he was having. I am so used to the keyboard, using the I didn't even give the touch screen a thought.

I hope when you take it apart again you can find the problem. Also, was the drive replacement a clone or did you do a fresh install?
 

etherealfocus

Senior member
Jun 2, 2009
488
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It was a clone using Macrium. I wouldn't think that's the issue though? It transferred my drivers key, Windows activation, etc just fine.

I'll crack the case tomorrow and see if I can see what's up. Shouldn't be rocket science if it's just a crossed wire or something. I'll post pics if it's anything interesting. :)