Studio - Jammed Touch Sensitive Eject Button

Thanks!  I updated the firmware and everything seems to work perfectly!  I did have to pay close attention to the last step =) : NOTE: Please make sure to remove A/C power and battery once firmware update completed.

Where did you get it from?  How come dell is hiding this from us???

ok so i hav applied the flash update

My BIOS version now is A07.....i really dont remember what the version was before, might be A08 :S

Anyways...I rebooted the system and found that none of the touch butons were working....which freaked me out D=    but i missed the part where it said u need to remove the battery after the update....so i did and things are back to normal, the touch buttons are functional.

I have tried a couple of reboots and sleeps...every thing seems to be working normal now....i`ll report agian after a weeks time..until then:

krypebud RULZ!!!

Hello.

krypebud simply Rulz!

the problem is fixed.

bios verion : A07

nfc5382:

Thanks, where did you get this?  I can't find the solution or the file on any Dell support site?

I explained it in a couple of earlier posts- I finally got through dell's structure enough to submit a bug report and this file+instructions are compliments of Dell Research and Design.

I hope they do put this on the support website because I'd rather not be using up my own server's bandwidth forever.

Thanks for the cinfirmations that this is working- Please post again in a week or so to let me know if it's still working for you.

non-vtec:

judging by the discription is sounds like a solution to the problem. my question is why is this fix not listed in the software downloads for the studio?

also what is the BIOS version number after this is applied?

That was my first reaction as well- this seems like a well-targeted solution instead of the other non-solutions dell has provided thus far.

This flash process does not affect your BIOS from what I am told by dell- it is specific to the firmware for whichever hardware device is handling inputs from the hinge panel.

Just another quick update people-

I am trying to contact the Dell representative who supplied this fix in order to have it placed on the dell support site (and for him to provide a direct download link which I may use to replace the one I posted above).  Until now he has been fairly responsive, but I did not receive a response to the last 2-3 emails I had sent him.

Worst case scenario, I suggest that everyone repost this file/instructions wherever else you have seen forum/community postings about this eject button issue for the studios.  Please download the file I provided and repost it as a new attachment or post it to your own web servers if you have them.  Judging by the quickness of their response to this issue (11 months), the file and instructions may never see the light of day on Dell's site, so we may have to continue with this "grassroots" support style.

Please post here immediately if the problem reappears for anyone.

i applied the flash you posted....from what i can tell it's NOT a BIOS update. but a firmware update for the touch pannel.

one thing i noticed after i applied the flash.......on system power up the touch pannel buttons do not light up/cycle anymore. but the pannel IS still functional.

looks like a positive solution so far i will have to test it for a few days to saye for sure.
thanks for the info.

I applied the new firmware too. The buttons light up ot startup as usual, but the cd-button-stuck and the crazy ejects are gone!

I will post here again, if the problem comes back!

krypebud, THANKS MAN !!!

Can this really be a solution? After all this time, and having pretty much given up on Dell, a potential fix surfaces from out of nowhere...

Well... So far, so good :)

I updated from version x0B to x0D, temporarily removed the battery, and everything is working at the moment. Only time will tell whether or not it's a full fix, but the early signs are good.

Thanks for posting this!

I'm going to give this a go in a week or so (once school is over and a catastrophic computer failure won't be such a big deal), but I'd like to know: for those of you that have tried it and it worked, have any of you previously had your panel replaced?

I ask because I have had my panel replaced and it fixed most of the problems, but my eject button still comes on once in a while. I'm interested to hear, from you guys that are trying this fix, whether your eject button still EVER comes on when it shouldn't.

I was a little sceptical but I did the fix and everything works flawlessly for the past 3 days.  When Vista fired up for the first time after it immediately installed a driver for the disk drive. (version 6.0.6002.18005)  I found this info in Reliability Monitor.  My hinge cover has never been replaced and I have a Studio 1535.  I do not think the hinge cover has firmware in it.  I think that the motherboard has a controller in it that has firmware in it.  I had no problems doing the the fix.  I download the file and burn the .iso image to a disk.  Restarted the computer and everything went fine.   It's really painless.  Thanks to everyone involved.

So far so good here, too.  Seems to have been working.  It most definitely is a chip on the motherboard that controls the behavior of the touch panel.

It's odd that no programs I've tried can see inside this ISO image... I was hoping to reverse it a bit and see the innards...oh well!

Now the real question is, "Why did it take months, and ALL of these people, to get to the right person who could make a simple code change and fix this problem?"

Horrible. ha.

Hi krypebud,

Thanks for posting the real solution to this problem.  Have you had any luck getting Dell to post this fix on their website?  I'll forward your post to my company's Dell Reps and ask them for help.

Now if Dell will start addressing the bugs with the Latitude E series everything will be swell.  I guess the lesson here is don't buy a Dell product until after it has been out for at least a year.