Area 51 m15x touchpad problem

Okay, I've searched the forums and found other problems with the touchpad but I'm not sure if it's the same problem I'm having. Sometimes, and it seems to be completely random, when I start up my laptop the touchpad doesn't work. The light around it is lit up and pressing FN + F12 turns the light on and off but the touchpad is unresponsive. Plugging in a mouse works but the touchpad light doesn't go off like it's supposed to.

I tried going to Command Center to see if I could change any settings there through the Touch option but when I go to Touch I get an error message and when I click ok it closes. The Synaptics icon isn't in my taskbar and when I go to the mouse settings through the control panel, there are no options under device settings. Any ideas what the problem is? I have no idea and it just keeps happening randomly. It's only been happening within the last few weeks or so and I've had the laptop for about 4 months now.

 

Try reinstalling the older touchpad drivers off the Alienware site. The newer ones disable the Fn+F12 function I think.

 

Hmm I only see the new driver on the alienware website... oh well, I'm not gonna worry about it too much anymore because I got Windows 7... so hopefully when I install that I don't have these problems anymore. But thanks for the suggestion!