My left touchpad key on my dell inspiron 1520

This seems to be a very common problem.

I had the basic 1-year guarantee from Dell, the left mouse button had been sketchy from about 6 months in, as the end of the year approached I decided to send it in to get the button fixed, didn't get around to doing it until about 355 days after buying [i.e. a few days before the guarantee expired], they collected it, took it away, and brought it back, the button did seemed to have improved slightly, but not much, and within a fortnight was as bad as ever... when I called them to complain they refused to speak to me without a product ID or whatever it was, the minute I told them my greater-than-one-year-old ID they immediately diverted me to some crappy line dedicated at selling me a couple of years' more cover, with no question of anything being done for free... this being the department for people with expired guarantees, it wasn't within their power...

It's a pain but I would say, when you're at a desk use a seperate mouse, the touchpad is useless anyway, and when you're on the go, double tap on the touchpad as a replacement for left quick, you get used to doing it quickly...

You can get replacements: http://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=4295

It is not easy to do though: http://repair4laptop.org/disassembly_dell.html

I don't know which mouse you have - the easy answer is yes- flip the mouse over and see if it has a plate that will twist off - remove the ball clean out the list or dust that is wrapped around the metal rods. But, save yourself heartburn and buy a laser mouse or an optical mouse that does not require that kind of maintanence. Go to a place like TJ Maxx. and the mouse will cost about $10.00