Slow / long lag with Dell ALPS scroll stick scroll culprit found

[caveatrob]

For a while now, only with my Alps scroll stick on my E6410 (Dell), I've had the scroll "hang" like it's buffering scrolls and playing them all in sequence until it's done. Process Explorer shows up to 20% CPU while hung in this scroll "playback."

I finally went back to a default configuration and the problem largely went away.

Seems like the Consolas font is a hell of a lot more laggy with a scroll stick than something like Courier. Lucida Console is a little better, but courier is the best.

Also - it seems limited to UltraEdit. EditPlus shows absolutely zero lag with the same font (Consolas).

I have an NVIDIA board, and disabled all fancy stuff for UE. Don't really know what else to do.

The culprit seems UltraEdit (latest version) + Alps stick (latest version) + Consolas (or other msoft fonts of this nature).

Not sure how to begin to solve this, since this is the only app that it happens in.

And please don't make suggestions outside of the scope of my using my existing hardware (stick) with UltraEdit, and outside of telling me to use Courier. Or disabling ClearType. Because it works just fine elsewhere.

[Mofi]

I'm using an Dell Latitude E6400 ATG. I don't use the scrolling capability of the stick. For testing I enabled the stick scrolling capability in the settings, but did not have success to get in scrolling mode using the stick.

Could you explain for me how to get in scrolling mode with the stick?

I'm using Windows XP SP3 with Dell Touchpad / Pointing Stick driver A14 7.1002.101.102. The BIOS, firmwares and all other drivers of my E6400 are up-to-date, except the Dell Touchpad / Pointing Stick driver. I have just opened the support page for my E6400 and could see a new version of this driver: A15 7.1207.101.108. The list of fixes and enhancements of the driver version A15 in comparison to version A14 is:

1. Changed the PointStick scroll behavior (the scroll direction is changed when releasing the finger from PointStick.)
2. Used the same version numbers for both 32-bit and 64-bit drivers.

Which OS do you use? Is the BIOS up-to-date? Have you also updated all other drivers?

Hint: For the WLAN component it is better not to install bloating WiFi software from Intel. It is better to uninstall entire WiFi software, reboot the computer and then install just the drivers, nothing else. That is quite simple. After executing the Intel WiFi R??????.exe, cancel the installation. In the directory with the extracted files there is a directory drivers. In this directory are the driver files and DPInst32.exe. Double click on this EXE and the drivers are installed and WLAN is working fine, much better than with full WiFi software. I'm not sure, but I think, Intel has modified there WiFi installer and offers now also the option to install just the drivers. But even this option installs nevertheless a little bit more than really needed for WLAN usage.

[caveatrob]

Argh. I take it back. It's still doing it, and it seems limited to UltraEdit. I have it set to "Stick Scroll" in the Dell Alps settings. Basically it means if you hold down the middle button and move the stick up and down, it scrolls.

Is there an alternative scrolling setting in UltraEdit? It seems like this Alps stick is the culprit, although it works fine in any other app.

[Mofi]

Thanks for telling me how to scroll with the stick. I could try that now too.

The display refresh rate depends on Windows theme (Classic (fastest), XP, Aero) as well as on the features enabled in UltraEdit like syntax highlighting, code folding, line change indicator, drawing of graphical lines, etc.

There are just 3 configuration settings regarding mouse, but no setting for controlling the scrolling in any way.

I prefer using the keys for scrolling because I need the keyboard to enter the text. So why should I move my ten fingers from the keyboard and and scroll with middle mouse button and the stick if using the keys is faster and can be better controlled. Available keys for scrolling respectively moving cursor (caret) amoung the standard keys PgUp, PgDn, Right, Left, Up, Down, Ctrl+Right, Ctrl+Left, Home, End, Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End are:

• Ctrl+Up ... ScrollUpLine ... Scroll display up one line
• Ctrl+Down ... ScrollDownLine ... Scroll display down one line
• Alt+Add ... MoveLineToBottomofView ... Position active line at bottom of Window
• Alt+Clear or Alt+Multiply ... MoveLineToCenterofView ... Position active line at center of Window
• Alt+Subtract ... MoveLineToTopofView ... Position active line at top of Window
• Alt+PgDn ... CursorToBottomOfWindow ... Position cursor at bottom of Window
• Alt+PgUp ... CursorToTopOfWindow ... Position cursor at top of Window
• Alt+Left ... CursorToPreviousParagraph ... Position cursor at previous paragraph start
• Alt+Right ... CursorToNextParagraph ... Position cursor at next paragraph start
• Ctrl+Numeric pad 1 ... CursorToEndofPreviousWord ... Goto End of Previous Word
• Ctrl+Numeric pad 2 ... CursorToEndofNextWord ... Goto End of Next Word

The hotkeys for these commands can be customized in key mapping configuration dialog which should be done when often needed and numerical keypad is not available or hard to use as on Dell Latitude E6410.

Another method for scrolling by mouse/touchpad/stick is built-in in UltraEdit as in many other applications. Press shortly the middle button (or the wheel on a 2 button mouse with a wheel). The mouse cursor changes to a dot with 4 arrows. Now move the mouse/touchpad/stick and UltraEdit scrolls the display in the appropriate direction. To stop scrolling press again shortly the middle button. That scrolling mode works even if stick scrolling feature is disabled and is much easier to use because the middle button must not be hold all the time while moving the stick. Perhaps this method is better to use.


BTW: I looked now on all mouse settings available. There is a general Wheel tab where it is possible to specify how many lines to move the display. The standard is 3 which is in my point of view too small. A number about 10 seems to be more practical.

And if clicking on general Hardware tab after selecting pointing device Dell Touchpad on button Properties, the hardware options of the device opens. There is the tab Advanced Settings and there the sample rate can be adjusted. It should not be too small and not too high. The default value is 100 which means every 10 ms the pointing device is polled for position information which is already higher than typical display refresh rate which is usually 60 Hz (16.66 ms). I changed now Wheel Detection for Dell Touchpad device to Detection Disabled because there is definitely no wheel.