Dell Inspiron 1525 Touchpad Problems?

My mother recently got a new Dell Inspiron 1525 and only a couple of days with it the touchpad just shutoff, for no reason what so ever. I doubt its a hardware problem, we do have a warrenty on it but I dont think we can survive 6 weeks of bordem. At the bottom right off the screen in the task tray or what ever you call it, there used to be a little icon telling you if your touching it or using the scroll and stuff but now its not there any more, and I cant seem to find the program to start it up again, but I see the program it in the uninstall menu in control panel though. Is there a soulution to this problem beside getting ourselfs a new one or doing a long process on startup and all that stuff cause we dont wanna screw up our PC. Thanks a Lot!!!