You all helped me! I went to the site that Genes told me to go "fixya.com". Scroll through the posters with a similar problem as I had. This one worked... I now have a Dell Touchpad icon on my system tray by downloading the suggested download. My touch pad is disable...thank you, thank you, thank you....I really appreciate your advice. I am typing like mad and love it. Thanks again. Here is the information in case anyone else has the problem with Dell Inspirion.... "I had the same problem, contacted Dell and they had me download the following driver: http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R176423&SystemID=INS_PNT_PM_1525&servicetag=6Z6GNF1&os=WLH&osl=en&deviceid=14029&devlib=0amp;typecnt=0amp;vercnt=2&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=1&libid=17&fileid=239968 I then had the touch pad icon on the right hand side of the task bar, clicked on it, selected touch pad, and unclicked the click options. Worked grea ,so far."

Hi Seattlemike, I looked at the specs for your printer and it appears to connect via USB or parellel to your desktop as a standard setup. It does have an optional network adapter/print server. Does the printer have this optional feature (does it have a port for the ethernet cable?). Are you currently having issues with the desktop staying online? I'm trying to ascertain why the tech wants you to go wireless when you have the router a few inches from the desktop. Ideally, you would connect the modem to the router, then the desktop to the router via ethernet cable, the laptop connects to the router via wireless and then there's the printer. If it has only USB or parellel connection, you will have to connect it to the desktop, then share it on the network to enable printing from the laptop (the desktop must be online and active for this to work). If it has the optional ethernet port/print server then it also can be connected to the router and given a static (assigned) IP address. In every case, you will need to connect the printer directly to the laptop in order to install the driver, then disconnect from the laptop and place the printer in it's permanent position. After all of the physical connections are made, you'll need to syncronize the network. This entails powering off everything (usually requires electrical power to be disconnected, some items do have on/off switches) and bringing them online in a specific order. Starting with the modem, plug it into power and watch the lights until the 'online' light becomes stable. Next will be the router, plug it into electrical power and wait 2 minutes for the router to obtain it's IP address from the modem. Now turn on the printer and computers, order is not important here. Everything should be online at this point. Please make sure that you utilize wireless security on the router to protect your network especially since you will have to enable file and printer sharing on the desktop in order to allow printing from the laptop, leaving your desktop wide open to intrusion. The router has several options, WEP, WPA, WPA2 and WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK. You will need to see which of those options that your laptop's wireless adapter utilizes. I'm sure that I've missed something, please ask. Other helpers will also add pertinent details that I may have overlooked. Pam

If this laptop were a patient in the hospital, there would be a discrete little sign up saying DNR (Do Not Resuscitate). Ha ha, I love it. I agree, spending money on either is a total waste. However if you wish to play around that is different. Look at both machines to see if the 25 digit COA is readable. If so you can use any XP CD to reinstall Windows but DO NOT use the COA that comes with the CD, use the one on the computer itself because that is tied to the motherboard. This is totally legal. Obviously you could use the COA from the CD but that would be a waste of a licence, or it might be dedicated to another computer already. Before doing this I strongly suggest you get the drivers from Dell for the motherboard, LAN, sound etcetera

One of my toshiba laptops, you pressed the Fn key plus one of the F# keys to enable/disable the wifi. Another toshiba had a slide switch. The Lenovo I'm on right now has both... Fn+F5, and a slide switch that you absolutely cant see unless lots of lighting. I have to use a flashlight to switch it on/off - its tiny on the front edge here, & has a tiny led hole next to it. there's a switch on that Dell model number Might want to read the User Manual, looks like Dell might have had some special features with that switch. Here is a link that might be useful: http://book-lab.ru/pdf/DELL-INSPIRON/service_manual_for_DELL_Inspiron_1525.pdf