Dell laptop keeps treating left-clicks as right-clicks

I am increasingly frustrated by the behaviour of my Dell laptop, which is two years old. It's a 5559 and the touchpad has *always* been flaky despite several installations of the "latest and greatest" touchpad drivers. It's gotten especially bad in the last few weeks and in almost every case, treats a normal left click as a right click. As a result, I am constantly closing context menus that I didn't want so that I can do what I actually want to do. Sometimes, it takes 3 or 4 tries before it actually treats a left-click as a left-click and not a right-click.

I've looked at my hands and they are not on the right hand side of the touchpad when I click yet the touchpad continues to behave as if I am on the bottom right corner rather than the bottom left corner.

I haven't tried a driver refresh lately because none of my previous driver updates actually accomplished anything very dramatic. Do I need to try that yet again, despite previous failures to solve the problems? How long does it usually *take* before the touchpad drivers on a laptop actually work properly? Mine have been hyper-sensitive from the start and frequently behave as if I've touched the touchpad when my hands are hovering well above it. I've gotten used to this over the past two years but this goofiness with mistaking left-clicks for right-clicks may be the straw that broke the camel's back.

I can't afford a new computer right now so I'm hoping someone here can suggest some way of getting this touchpad to work better than it is currently behaving.

Is that Dell a Latitude or an Inspiron?

A couple of things, in Control Panel or Settings look for Mouse, might be in devices. The buttons can be reversed left for right, etc. Have you tried a USB or USB Wireless mouse? If that works there is a key or key combination of Fn + another or just the other that will disable the touchpad, that's a hardware setting.

Berton said:

Is that Dell a Latitude or an Inspiron?

A couple of things, in Control Panel or Settings look for Mouse, might be in devices. The buttons can be reversed left for right, etc. Have you tried a USB or USB Wireless mouse? If that works there is a key or key combination of Fn + another or just the other that will disable the touchpad, that's a hardware setting.

My Dell is an Inspiron. Here are the specs:
Dell Inspiron 5559 Specs - CNET

I have not tried a mouse recently and do not want to use a mouse if I can avoid it; I've become accustomed to the touchpad and feel clumsy with a mouse. I have at least one wireless mouse in a box but I've recently moved and it's still in a box and I don't know which of the many boxes it is. It would be a major pain to have to go through all of the boxes to find the mouse.

What I really want is for the touchpad to work properly the way the touchpads on previous laptops have worked. If you can suggest a way to accomplish that, I'm eager to hear it.

In the left lower corner search type: mouse > open settings for the mouse > click on mouse and touchpad to modify the settings to your preferences. If you are unable to modify these settings please report that into the thread.

Sometimes strange things can happen when the operating system has corruption. So check the os and the drive file system with these administrative command prompt commands:
1) sfc /scannow
2) dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
3) chkdsk /scan
4) When these have completed > right click on the top bar or title bar of the administrative command prompt box > left click on edit then select all > right click on the top bar again > left click on edit then copy > paste into the thread

5) If there is no in the above then place the computer in safe mode with networking and see if things return to normal or whether the problems persist in safe mode:
Boot into Safe Mode on Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials

6) Run the dell diagnostics:
Resolve Hardware Issues With Built-in and Online Diagnostics (ePSA or PSA Error Codes) | Dell US

Post an image of the results into the thread:
Take Screenshot in Windows 10 General Tips Tutorials

zbook said:

In the left lower corner search type: mouse > open settings for the mouse > click on mouse and touchpad to modify the settings to your preferences. If you are unable to modify these settings please report that into the thread.

Sometimes strange things can happen when the operating system has corruption. So check the os and the drive file system with these administrative command prompt commands:
1) sfc /scannow
2) dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
3) chkdsk /scan
4) When these have completed > right click on the top bar or title bar of the administrative command prompt box > left click on edit then select all > right click on the top bar again > left click on edit then copy > paste into the thread

5) If there is no in the above then place the computer in safe mode with networking and see if things return to normal or whether the problems persist in safe mode:
Boot into Safe Mode on Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials

6) Run the dell diagnostics:
Resolve Hardware Issues With Built-in and Online Diagnostics (ePSA or PSA Error Codes) | Dell US

Post an image of the results into the thread:
Take Screenshot in Windows 10 General Tips Tutorials

I appreciate your suggestions, zbook, but I'm dealing with a more serious problem at the moment and won't be able to try the various things you've suggested for a bit longer. If all goes well, I might get back to them tomorrow or the day after.