Laptop dying? Issues with touchpad

[mosesbotbol]

I had an issue on my Dell laptop that the curser would go to the bottom or left of screen and could not be moved. I think it was an IRQ error, but hardware related and ended up disabling the device and just used a mouse... Kind of shitty solution, but if it's hardware related, not much you can do; either replace hardware or disable device.

[SeanGAR]

I've replaced a few touchpads over the year on Dells but the other things going on make me think that something else is awry with your computer. Have you done thorough antivirus and spyware scans?

One way to discount hardware is to boot a live CD from one of the Linux distributions ... Ubuntu is a good one to try. If you run a live cd, you don't have to install it so you can run linux from the cd itself. If the live cd runs fine and you dont have any errors when using the trackpad under linux, it is likely a software driver/virus/spyware issue rather than a hardware issue.

Also you may be able to disable the trackpad in the BIOS and use an external mouse.

[RGD.]

Originally Posted by SeanGAR

. . .
Also you may be able to disable the trackpad in the BIOS and use an external mouse.

On my daughters HP - simply plugging in a USB mouse disables the touchpad.

Ron

Originally Posted by SeanGAR

I've replaced a few touchpads over the year on Dells but the other things going on make me think that something else is awry with your computer. Have you done thorough antivirus and spyware scans?

One way to discount hardware is to boot a live CD from one of the Linux distributions ... Ubuntu is a good one to try. If you run a live cd, you don't have to install it so you can run linux from the cd itself. If the live cd runs fine and you dont have any errors when using the trackpad under linux, it is likely a software driver/virus/spyware issue rather than a hardware issue.

Also you may be able to disable the trackpad in the BIOS and use an external mouse.

AWESOME suggestion!!!

[floydp]

Originally Posted by SeanGAR

I've replaced a few touchpads over the year on Dells but the other things going on make me think that something else is awry with your computer. Have you done thorough antivirus and spyware scans?

One way to discount hardware is to boot a live CD from one of the Linux distributions ... Ubuntu is a good one to try. If you run a live cd, you don't have to install it so you can run linux from the cd itself. If the live cd runs fine and you dont have any errors when using the trackpad under linux, it is likely a software driver/virus/spyware issue rather than a hardware issue.

Also you may be able to disable the trackpad in the BIOS and use an external mouse.

I have a Dell 8600 as well, while not having your specific issues. I was getting the blue screen of death within minutes of booting. Reformatted a couple times to no avail . Almost chit canned it but like Sean suggested I installed PC Linux OS(Linux distro) and its been fine ever since. Grandson uses it just about everyday. Ubuntu is an excellent choice.