Dell Inspiron 1545 Touchpad not working

[Dre9872]

OK so I have tried deleting the touchpad in device manager and removing the driver, and reinstalling the device from scratch. When this didn't work I thought there must be a problem with the touchpad itself and so bought a new one and installed it. Problem is it still doesn't work.
If I go into device manager and look for it I have to show hidden devices and then it comes up with the yellow triangle next to it.
I show properties on it and it says its the Dell Touchpad, Manufacturer is Alps Electronics, and its plugged into the PS/2 mouse port.
In the Device Status box it says:
This device is not present, is not working properly, or does not have all its drivers installed. (Code 24)
The Driver date is 02/05/2010 and the version is 7.1107.115.102
I have also noticed that on the details tab under power data the current power state is D3, which I believe is off.
Something else I have noticed which may or may not be related is that the laptop doesn't enter sleep mode when the lid is closed, altho it is set to and will enter sleep if I select it in the shutdown options.
I am at a complete loss as to why the touchpad isn't working so any help would be appreciated.
If you need any more info please let me know.

 

[pebbly]

Hi Dre9872, Try the vista driver for it ,there is a possibility that the mobo may be failing

 

[Dre9872]

OK I just tried to install the Vista 64bit Driver version 7.200.202

Didn't work, I didn't even get the touchpad showing up in device manager.

Also I noticed when I installed it said I was installing an older version of the already installed driver. I thought this strange as there should't be a driver installed as I checked the delete driver box when I uninstalled the device.

 

[pebbly]

Hi Dre, thats very strange , did you try installing as administrator, is there any chance you accidently disabled the touchpad ? Have you tried a wired mouse if so did that work ?
have a look here http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/kcs/document?docid=277550 see if anything helps

 

[Dre9872]

I did install as admin
I cannot see any settings for the touchpad to see if its turned off or not.
I can use a USB mouse just fine.
The Dell support site wasn't helpfull.

 

[Dre9872]

No one else got any ideas?

I'm pretty sure its not a mobo problem as this laptop only had a new mobo 6mths ago.