I have an HP Pavilion, which overall is just fine for my needs. But the keyboard and touchscreen have been a PITA from day one. You have to hit the keys really hard for them to work, which tires out my hands, and the space bar often simply ignores me.
The mousepad (what’s the right word for that? The kind that doesn’t even have buttons?) is alternately too sensitive and too insensitive, and makes a lot of noise when you hit the “mouse buttons” which are basically just corners of the smooth pad which can be pressed in.
A ridiculous amount of time has to be spent going back to add spaces to my typing, and re-doing mouse instructions that read improperly or not at all. For games that require fast clicking, the mouse can’t begin to keep up with the speed of my Hannon-trained clicks.
Usually, I use it sitting in an armchair, so a separate keyboard would be impossible to juggle. Even an optical mouse would have no where to be run except the chair arm.
I should emphasize that this has been a problem from day one. It’s not just a matter of cleaning out crumbs, although I’m sure there are some.
It seems as though it should be possible to just upgrade the existing keyboard and mousepad. Is it? And if so, what metrics or standards would I need to know to ascertain whether swapping in a given part would work?
No, the keyboard and trackpad (the mouse simulator thing) are pretty much built in. If they were broken, you could possibly replace them with identical components, but that wouldn’t do anything for the problems you describe.
That’s the big drawback of laptops, (most) smartphones, all-in-one units, and other non-modular hardware: you’re stuck with every single design choice, quirk, flaw, and annoyance of that device (excepting software-related stuff which is easily changed).
Dell seems to be on single-minded mission to defeat any effort to bypass the touchpad. Eacdh new version of Dell is more aggressive at obstructing any software designed to do what it is impossible to do with Dell machines.
I have the lid of a tin can scotch taped over the touchpad, otherwise the slightest brush with my hand makes the cursor jump up and down the screen in a text entry field. I use external mouse, which does not disable touchpad.
It is ridiculous that my laptop can only be used with a tin can lid taped onto it, but that is what Dell makes me do. I tried a piece of cardboard, but it is so sensitive, it can read motion right through it.
Can you specify what model of Dell laptop you have, and what version of Windows? I’ve always found it possible to disable the touch pad somehow. Don’t these Dell recipes work?
To the OP: there are some Bluetooth keyboards that work for Windows as well as iOS and Android. Logitech makes them in various sizes; maybe one of them can sit on top of your laptop keyboard and be more pleasant to type on. Their “Wireless Touch Keyboard K400 Plus” even has a touch pad on the right side (…which probably makes it too wide).
Latitude E5500, Windows 10. “Possible to disable the touch pad somehow” does not exactly equate to user option. Several versions ago, it was possible to toggle it on and off with an F button. Bad idea, nobody wants that, fix it.