Dell Inspiron 640M E1405 Touchpad Issue

OK, it's not THAT difficult to replace the mouse button. I didn't have the ambition to follow Frumper's suggestion of replacing the little rubber dome with a spring, but there are a number of these available on ebay for under $30. If you're lucky, you'll find the whole top plate with the touchpad and mouse buttons - that saves a little time. But the disassembly/reassembly isn't too bad - there's a pdf of the disassembly process out on the web somewhere; if a google doesn't find it I can send it along. Basically, there are a LOT of little steps, and of course, everything is tiny and fragile. But what it entails is removing all the screws from the bottom of the machine - except for the two under the battery, they're identical. Don't forget the ones under the modem and CPU covers. Remove the 4 screws holding down the heatsink to the cpu. Pop out the hard drive. On the top side, pry off the plate with the power button, GENTLY remove the LCD plug and the 2 backlight connections. Then you can remove the 4 screws that hold the LCD assembly in place - put it somewhere safe! The keyboard will pop right up - be careful with the keyboard connection, the connector hinges, whereas most of the others have a locking key. With the keyboard out of the way, there are a final 4 screws holding the palmrest in place. When they're removed, disconnect the ribbon wires and just pry gently around the edge - starting at the back - and the whole palmrest will come off. If you've got a new palmrest assembly, you're ready to reassemble. If you've just got the mouse buttons, you'll have to remove the (4?) screws holding the front subframe to the palmrest, and a couple more ribbon connectors. Be VERY gentle with all the ribbon wires, and it goes back together very simply. I've done this a few times now; the first one took about 2 hours as I tried real hard not to break anything. Now they go in well under an hour. Like Frumpy said, not for the faint of heart, but not exactly rocket science either. Good luck!

Hey, we just dealt with this on our E1405 - the mouse button uses a rubber dome like a keyboard to provide the spring action. What happened is the top of that dome separated from the rest of it and broke the "spring" action. So, you're left with no spring action and pushing the button shoves the broken piece into the membrane switch enough to make it trigger. It bugged me and the wife enough that I tore the whole thing apart to see if I could fix it. Well, let's just say that the touchpad button might be the single hardest thing to get to on the whole laptop - seriously. What I ended up doing after getting it all apart was replacing the rubber dome with a small spring I had from some past project and hotgluing a little nub in there to depress the membrane. The action is a little harder than the rubber dome, but it does spring back and the button still works. This is not for the faint of heart - there are a ton of screws and tiny little connectors to deal with. I think there is a replacement part available here: http://tinyurl.com/palmrest
It says it includes the touchpad and buttons, but it's $75 and that was a bit salty for me. So, my recommendation - if you're good with taking things apart and don't mind risking bricking your laptop, give it a shot fixing it or trying the replacement part, otherwise, learn to live with the no-spring button or get a nice mouse. You can also tap the trackpad as another solution.

I'm a laptop rebuilder and I specialize right now in refurb and reselling the Dell "e" series, 1405, 1505, and 1705s. The only 2 solutions I would cosign on are the full touchpad assembly replacement or the mod done with a spring. I'm fortunate enough (or NOT, LOL) to end up with spare rubber domes from encountering so many machines.

Here's the kicker for you first time folks on your disassembly. The e1405 has some of the trickier ribbon cable ZIF connectors I've seen. Be VERY careful to notice that the tiny gray U-shaped plastic "cable holder clips" are underneath the ribbon cables and cannot be seen properly even with a magnifying glass. Gently use a fine pair of tweezers on either side of the ribbon cable at the bottom of the the little ribbon cable plug housing to ease these clips out. Once you do one, you get the hang of it.

The first time I attempted this repair, I pulled the connector up halfway off the motherboard breaking some tiny circuits. I felt like a troglodyte. :)

Good Luck

OK Guys, I have an INSPIRON 1525

My right side touchpad button was deffected from the day I opened the danm box with my so-called new computer. Anyhow, today March 6, 2009 at about 2pm (CST) I finally went through a nervous break down due to this stupid bottom. Went on-line to get help from Dell, company I bought the computer from, but as usual, no help was provided. Anyhow, found this website and was encouraged to fix this myself. Took off all screws at the bottom of my laptop and had enough space to see the bottom of the touchpad and where the two buttons sit.

1) I grabed a screw driver and literally and gently, listed the thin metal plate where touchpad and the buttons sit.
2) You decide how much pressure you want to apply as I came to see, the more pressure, the higher the buttons came to stick out, which in my case, was awesome.
3) I did not have to replce any parts and or purchase anything.
4) Personally, I did not find this procedure hard at all. Just remove all screws, gently lift the cover that surrounds your touchpad so that enough space is available. Insert the crew driver or any other tool, and lisft the flat thin metal plate where your touchpad and your buttons sit.

Good Luck

Guillermo Fuentes