Need Help with Inspiron 8100

I have a Dell Inspiron 8100 (like 8 years old, I know time to upgrade) and was having issues with the monitor going in and out with a green, almost plaid arrangement of colors at times, unless I applied pressure to parts of the laptop for it to go away. Thinking I could come to the source of the problem myself, and taking a few parts of the laptop apart, and then returning everything to its proper place, I have found I fixed whatever what was wrong with the monitor (for the time being) but no longer have the functions of my touch pad. When booting back up for the first time, my start up screen was complete black saying it needed to be setup by pressing a certain key (do not recall exact screen details), so followed this and everything works, including keyboard but the touch pad. I re-installed drivers, and the says the touch pad should be working properly... Does anyone have any ideas as to what I could have done, or any connection I could have altered, or even any ideas, I am stumped! Thanks!!!

 

You probably just forgot to reconnect the touchpad. Were you following the service manual or just winging it?

 

Just winging it of course, haha. I was curious if that may be the issue, but I didn't really get to far into into the machine besides removing a few plastic pieces and somewhat looking around for loose items...The main thing I saw was a connector with a small orange ribbon connecting to what I am thinking was the motherboard that looked loose which is visable inside of the front cd-rom drive opening, so i tried to push that down, and then called it quits so something of this nature would not happen, haha. I will try to find a service manual here, any thoughts other then that?

 

The service manual is on Dell's site. Go to their support section and look up your laptop. If you lift off the keyboard, there should be a little connector with a loop near the back of the touchpad. This connects the touchpad assembly to the motherboard. Make sure that's secure and/or reconnect it a few times.

If that doesn't work, it's not looking good...