Toshiba satellite 1805 windows xp touchpad does not respond to one or two clicks although it does move the arrow around

Press the "Fn" and "F9" keys simultaneously.
Test your touchpad. If it works, it was simply disabled. Press the same key combination any time you want to toggle your touchpad on or off.
Plug an external mouse into a USB port on your laptop if the key combination didn't work. Follow onscreen prompts to install the mouse driver--if necessary. You can also move the cursor using the "Tab" key and the arrow keys, as well as click by pressing "Enter" until the mouse is operational.
Click the link in the Resources section if you are using a Toshiba Satellite with Windows Vista. Follow the onscreen prompts to download and re-install the driver.
Open a web browser and navigate to Synaptics.com if you have a different Toshiba model or operating system. Synaptics brand touchpads are used in all Toshiba laptops, and this site provides a generic driver.Hover your mouse over "Support" on the top menu, then select "Drivers" from the drop-down menu.
Select your operating system from the list provided and download the generic driver
Follow the onscreen prompts to install your new driver, and then test the touchpad again. If it still does not work, take your laptop to a licensed repair technician.

Try this:
Windows 7
http://www.drivertoshiba.com/satellite-drivers/toshiba-satellite-l500-windows-7-drivers.html

Windows XP
http://www.drivertoshiba.com/satellite-drivers/toshiba-satellite-l500-windows-xp-drivers.html

After choosing your Operating System Windows 7 or XP click on the link and download the "Chipset drivers"

Good luck!

there is a utility called ( alps touchpad) you can enter it from the tray by clicking on the icon ,,,, if not access it from the control panel ,,, this program controls tapping and clicking .... enable buttons clicking that should do it ,,,

You will find that Win7 will not work on the laptop, it is too old. You may get away with Win2000 or maybe XP, bearing in mind most of the drivers now are no longer available.
It will work with Win98.
I have browsed the net and cannot find any upgrades apart from Ubuntu
Win7 need an awful lot of RAM to work properly, Vista also but XP considerably less for XP home.

Lol. This happened to me about 6 months ago, Toshiba has a program called 'TouchPad' Utillity. Which basically enables you to turn ON/OFF the mouse pad, It's shipped with the operating system, Unfortunately if you do turn it off, The mouse pad won't respond and there is no way you can turn it back on, It took my 12 hours to figure this out,It was frustrating, You will need a mouse, Preferably a USB one, plug this in and go to your icon bar in the bottom right hand corner of your desktop screen and there should be an icon saying 'TOUCHPAD', Right click it, Go up and turn it back on, Then you will be back in business:)

You need to check the Toshiba web site under drivers and make sure all of the drivers listed are for XP. If even one is missing or not listed as made for XP, then forget it. Get a new Laptop.

Hello Ewuare,
Here is a link to Toshiba's Satellite Support Downloads page: http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su/su_sc_modSel.jsp. I couldn't locate the model number you posted above there, so you may want to double check it. You can find updated Graphics card drivers for your machine there.
Good luck.

what's on the machine now?

Have you looked at the Device Manager to see if there's a problem with the touchpad?

Start -> Control Panel -> System -> click on Hardware tab -> click on Device Manager button. Do you see anything that indicates a problem with the touchpad?

Also, you might want to check the BIOS to see that the touchpad is still enabled. I doubt that this setting would have changed, but it's worth checking. When you boot the computer you should see a message that says something like: "To enter setup press XXX" where XXX is the delete key or some other key. Once you're in the BIOS poke around to see if you can find the settings for the Touchpad. Different manufacturers use different BIOS' so I cannot tell you exactly where to look.

Good luck.

Open My computer, then My network places. Then open View network connections. Your connection should say "Local area connection". Right click it and make sure it's set to "Enabled". Then Right click it then select repair.