ANNOYING ghost click when using the computer

Alright, so good news, the issue is finally solved.

I have worked with Dell to troubleshoot the issue. For future reference and to help other troubleshoot similar issues, here is what we did, some of it resembles what Zaki suggested.

Step 1: Boot in Safe Mode with Networking and determine if issue is present. In my case, it wasn't.

Step 2: Run "msconfig" and disable all non-microsoft services, reboot and determine if issue is still present. In my case, it was, so re-enable all services and reboot.

Step 3: Run "task manager" and disable all startup items. Determine if issue is present. In my case, it wasn't so the culprit is a startup item.

Step 4: Run "task manager" and disable startup items 5 at a time and determine if issue persists. Once you get to a group of items that triggers the issue, restart and disable one by one until you have pinpointed the specific item.

In my case, the culprit was "Dell QuickSet" which, as mentionned by Robert, is related to the "Ambient keyboard light sensor". I have brought this info to Dell and the current driver, version A04, has this issue with some systems and the engineers are working on an updated version, A07. In the mean time, i have disabled that item in startup and will keep checking the Dell website for a release of the driver.

So I am happy with all the great support I got from both Microsoft and Dell. Thank you guys for this!

Hi Patrick,

1. Which windows updates were installed?

2. What is the KB article number of the installed update?

Provide the kb number of the update which was installed on the computer.

Refer to the link:

How will I know what updates have been installed? Refer: (To view your update history)

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-in/windows-8/windows-update-faq

Try booting the computer in safemode with networking and check if the issue persists.

Method 1: Safe mode is a troubleshooting option for Windows that starts your computer in a limited state. Only the basic files and drivers necessary to run Windows are started.

Follow the link below to learn how to do so.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/windows-startup-settings-including-safe-mode

Method 2: If the issue doesn’t occur in Safe Mode with networking, then perform Clean Boot to determine if a third-party program is causing the issue.

To help troubleshoot error messages and other issues, you can start Windows by using a minimal set of drivers and startup programs. This kind of startup is known as a Clean Boot. A Clean Boot helps eliminate software conflicts**.** Here is the link for your reference to perform Clean Boot:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135

Note: Please refer to the section: How to reset the computer to start as usual after troubleshooting with Clean Boot of the KB article to boot the computer in normal startup after fixing the issue.

Method 3

Run the Microsoft safety scanner.

The Microsoft Safety Scanner is a free downloadable security tool that provides on-demand scanning and helps remove viruses, spyware, and other malicious software. It works with your existing antivirus software.

**http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx**

Note: The Microsoft Safety Scanner expires 10 days after being downloaded. To rerun a scan with the latest anti-malware definitions, download and run the Microsoft Safety Scanner again.

Note: Any data files that are infected may only be cleaned by deleting the file entirely, which means there is a potential for data loss.

Hope this information helps. For any further Windows related assistance, feel free to contact us and we will be happy to help.

      @Robert: Yes, i have ruled out the touchpad drivers. I uninstalled and disabled it with no success. They were never enabled anyways because i use a mouse.

Ok.  I wasn't sure about your hardware.   What about Touch?  Do you have Multitouch?  Your symptom could also be attributed to spurious interrupts from a Touch screen, especially with keyboard focus following pointer focus, following touch focus.  (I'm not sure how much control we have over each of those associations.)  In that case for a test you would try disabling your Multitouch driver.  If you were lucky that would not necessarily mean that you would lose all support for your Touch screen.  For example, when I do that (on my tx2) I can still use my pen but not my finger and it definitely did stop keyboard focus from being lost so frequently.   Unfortunately, I don't have a very easy method of toggling that support; I need to use Device Manager to do it (though I suspect that I might be able to work out a wmic.exe command which I could implement via a keyboard shortcut if necessary.)

      I will try the above suggestions and take it up with Dell and see what they think. All i was able to figure out by myself is that until i update my computer, the issue is non-existant

Try focusing on updates which are hardware related?  ; )

Good luck

Robert

a quick update

i'm almost done with a very extensive troubleshooting session that's been going on for 2 days. I'm so glad that i bought my XPS in the business section because it comes with Pro-Support and the Dell techs are very savvy and know exactly how to help me. I've narrowed the culprit to one of the components that boot at start-up, because my issue is so inconsistent, i have to take a few hours to test each component separately. I'm almost done, and once I am, i'll write a detailed post of the troubleshooting steps.

P.S. Robert, my XPS does not have multi-touch, at least not on the screen because its not a touchscreen PC.

This issue has been plaguing me for about a month on a brand new Dell XPS 13.

I have read of many Dell users having problem symptoms with typing that seems to be caused for various reasons by their Touchpad.  In one thread many users were convinced there was a design flaw which meant that there was too much flex between the keyboard and the touchpad and that could result in spurious interrupts from the touchpad, especially when Tap to click is enabled. 

Have you considered disabling your Touchpad when you are going to be doing extensive typing?  Or getting a separate mouse and disabling your touchpad even more.

Here is a thread from the Dell forums which describes the problem and makes some suggestions.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19382354.aspx

(BING search for

    dell xps touchpad typing problem site:dell.com

)

Heh.   I saw TouchFreeze mentioned in another thread about this symptom yesterday on Answers too.

One impressive thing I see from many examples that and similar searches bring up is occasional involvement from Dell personnel.  That must be reassuring for its users.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19448765.aspx?pi239031352=6

BTW thanks for starting your own thread, Patrick.   ; )

HTH

Robert Aldwinckle