I have a Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop with both a track stick (nipple) and also a touchpad.
Does anyone know how I can shut off the touchpad? I don’t know even where to look in the control panel or wherever I need to look to accomplish this feat.
Is it even possible?? I thought I saw a thread with someone touching on this topic. But it may have been in another context… I don’t remember.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I don’t have my laptop with me right now, but I can tell you this much, Go to Control panel, click on the icon saying Touchpad or similar. Search around and you should have the option to turn it off. Additionally, I think just plugging in the mouse will turn it off automatically. I am not sure of any of this because I don’t have my laptop with me right now, so thats the best I can help you with at present:)
On this Inspiron 5150, the touchpad is on come hades or high water. YMMV.
I have my 8200 sitting in front of me. Go into the BIOS and on page 4 you should be able to choose between the trackpad and the stick. Otherwise (as long as you have the Dell mouse Driver software installed) go to Start --> Control Panel --> and I think it is under either Buttons or (Pointer) Options from there you will see a little diagram of your keyboard where you can enable or disable the two different mice.
It is doable. PM if you need more help. My problem is that I have a 3rd party mouse installed and that installs itself over the Dell mouse driver ;-(
Isn’t that because you don’t have a stick?
I have an Inspiron 5100 and I can turn off my touchpad if I choose to. Control Panel -> Mouse -> Click Disable on your touchpad in the list of mice. I’d assume it is the same for all Dell Inspirons. Although many CD users have Dells, this would be a much better source for this question. Hope I helped ya a bit… :]
Assumption is the mother of all evil!!
re: - not a option on my computer… yet… read on!
Ok, so the bios change was a joke, it let me turn on or off both the trackstick and touchpad, but not independently. 
Apparently, there was a patch from Dell (a 3rd party software?) that can control the track stick and touchpad independently, and the mouse buttons on the laptop itself.
Now I have a system tray icon that is a shortcut right to the changer for this. Yay!
What a pain in the butt that was.
Congractulations:p
I have a method for disabling trackpads.
I call it ‘giving it the screwdriver’.
I promise it will ‘disable’ any trackpad from any major vendor in 3 easy steps.
Take screwdriver (#2 flathead for best results)
Place point of screwdriver over trackpad
Thrust screwdriver with great force into trackpad. A hammer may be used as an aid, but is optional.
Also works on buggy RAID controllers.
-Andy A.