Dell touchpad tab gone from mouse settings. tried installing driver with no luck. Also tried uninstalling and reinstalling driver.

Hi, I think you need it go to >click on start, >control panel, mouse, >click on the touchpad and check if the touchpad is enabled. The best thing to do would be to uninstall and reinstall the touchpad drivers.> Click on start, right click on my computer,> click on properties, >click on device manager,> click on the + symbol next to pointing devices, >right click on Dell Touchpad and click on uninstall, click ok to confirm. Once its removed do not restart your computer,> click on the below link to download and install the touchpad driver, and then restart your computer. http://www.dell.com/.../DriverFileFormats

If the issue is with the touchpad, I recommend you to uninstall and reinstall touchpad drivers to resolve the issue
Visit the below link for more information
http://notebook-solutions.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-to-uninstall-and-reinstall-touchpad.html

Hi!
Try uninstall the Touchpad driver, the reinstall using THIS ONE.
It says Vista/XP/2k support, but it worked for me on several M1330 machines, on Windows 7 as well...

Good luck,
Pelu.

its the software that is conflicting with your hardware, uninstall the new installed software, and if possible reinstall the fresh copy of OS.

Install the latest touchpad driver from support.dell.com

There is a setting in the touchpad tab of the mouse driver. Either Enable PalmCheck or Disable touchpad when typing (Depends on Synaptics or Alps drive I believe)

With palmcheck enabled, the touchpad is disabled when typing

1. Go to the "Control Panel" and double click on the "Mouse" item.
2. Go through the tabs in the "Mouse Properties" window & find the tab where you can set up your touchpad. This differs from laptop to another since it is based on the touchpad's drivers.
3. On that tab, check & make sure that your touchpad is enabled. If it is not, then change the setting to enabled.
4. Click "Apply" to apply the changes, then close the "Mouse Properties" window.

If you cannot find a tab to set up your touchpad, then your touchpad drivers might not be installed. In this case, you will need to install them first.

try connecting an external mouse. if no problems using external mouse then uninstall reinstall the touchpad driver. you can get the drivers from the dell support site under drivers and downloads.

if problem persist even using an external mouse then try to (update anti virus and run full system scan, uninstall any previously installed windows updates or do a system restore) update the BIOS as well.

I had the same problem after purchasing an HP laptop with a Synaptics TouchPad. After using a wireless mouse for awhile, the TouchPad stopped working. The TouchPad light was white, indicating it was enabled. No TouchPad devices was listed anymore in the Mouse Properties in the Control Panel. I tried reloading the driver but nothing changed.

After shutting down the laptop and removing the battery (according to owner’s manual) it worked again. After turning on the laptop, make sure the TouchPad works. Then go to Control Panel, Mouse, Device Settings tab, and make sure a Synaptics TouchPad is listed in the Devices list and that the Enable button is grayed out.

Hello, my best solution would be to check ebay and order one there. If you are familiar with removing the power button bezel, do so and remove the keyboard as well. Then check the connection for the mouse. Its a small little ribbon cable coming from the mouse area.
Here is a direct link you can get these parts from:
http://computers.search.ebay.com/Dell-Inspiron-6400-touchpad_For-Laptops-Notebooks_W0QQcatrefZC6QQcoactionZcompareQQcoentrypageZsearchQQcopagenumZ1QQdfspZ32QQfromZR2QQftrtZ1QQftrvZ1QQsabfmtsZ1QQsacatZ158885QQssPageNameZRC0022QQ_trksidZp1638Q2em120

I hope you have a great day, Please rate my solution.

Try to reinstall the touchpad driver.
Get it from this link.