Inspiron 1521 TouchPad Issues

I purchased an Inspiron 1521 for my wife and received it last week. We're pretty pleased with the laptop so far but are having issues with the TouchPad. Whenever I highlight text with the TouchPad and then press the Delete or Backspace, nothing happens. If I try to copy the highlighted text, when I go to paste it back nothing happens. This happens in Notepad and in Internet Explorer 7. If I use the Shift and arrow keys to highlight text, then try these same actions, it works.

We have Windows Vista Home Basic. Here is what I have tried so far:

(1) Booting in Safe mode and trying the same things. TouchPad works as expected in Safe mode.

(2) Installed the TouchPad driver from Dell's site, as suggested by customer support. Did not work.

(3) Installed the Windows Vista TouchPad driver from Synaptic. Driver was newer than the Dell driver but did not work.

Customer services is wanting me to re-install Vista but I have a feeling it's just a setting somewhere. This is our first Vista machine so not familiar with its quirks.

Any suggestions are HIGHLY appreciated.

Thanks!

 

I think you would be happier overall with a fresh install of Vista. Dell's default install is garbage.

 

Figured it out. I had the "drag lock" setting on the TouchPad. When I would let go of the touchpad, it still thought I was dragging so no keys worked. User error.