Acadia, I know the issue.. The touchpads on the Inspiron's only last a few years before they become faulty. The membrane is moving your cursor and there is on "fix" for it. The fix I would recommend (cheap) go into your BIOS (press F2 when your machine powers up) and turn off the Touchpad. Buy a good quality laser mouse (Microsoft or Logitech or better yet, you may want to switch to a Wacom Stylus and mouse system) and go from there!