Question : Problem: Synaptics touchpad clicks on its own.

Whenever I am using the USB mouse that came with my new Dell Inspiron 5100 everything is fine and the notebook only registers a mouse click when I click a mouse button. However, when I use the touchpad, it's different. While navigating the pointer on the screen using the touchpad without clicking on a button the notebook still registers left mouse clicks at sporadic intervals and acts as if I have clicked the left mouse button below the touchpad. This leads to mayhem sometimes in programs closing and opening beyond my will, and lots of buttons and options being pressed unintentionally (when the pointer goes over them). It is moderately annoying as it happens about once (one click) every 2 - 3 minutes (maybe more because most of the time the pointer is not on a clickable object - or at least I try to keep it after this). It registers only left mouse button clicks (which is worse) and only happens when I am moving the pointer. The synaptics driver that came with the touchpad is installed correctly. If someone can help me stop this, it will be greatly appreciated.

Answer : Problem: Synaptics touchpad clicks on its own.

A feature of the newer Synaptics touchpad is what is called "tapping".  This means that you can tap the touchpad with your finger and have it be interpreted as a left-mouse click.  This is very useful for situations when you are trying to be quiet or erginomic.  You can drag your finger to move, then lift it off and tap the touchpad to click.

Unfortunately, this can be triggered by accidently losing contact with the touchpad while you move the mouse around, or if you accidentally tap the touchpad while you are typing.  To compensate for this, if you have the Synaptics driver loaded properly, you should have settings in your Mouse control panel (Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Mouse) to control the sensitivity and/or disable this feature.  You may also have a seperate Synaptics control panel.

Let me know if that sounds like what is going on or if you need some more details.

Good luck!

--CptnSbaitso