Computer unresponsive to mouse clicks, cannot bring up task manager, et al

[BC_Programmer]

I actually "stumbled" into it while I was looking for the way to boot in Safe mode. I shut the system down with the power button and then restarted it. It bootee normally. Should I proceed with patio's suggestion to install all available driver updates?

Oh I see, I misunderstood, I thought it was starting automatically. And Yes I agree with patio's suggestion.

[pkarsh]

As I diagnostic step, I set up a Remote Assistance session from another computer to the computer that is having the problem. Once I got it working, I saw that I was able to use the left mouse button from the other computer to operate the desktop, et al, of the computer that is having the problem. Does this point to a problem with the hardware on the problematic computer, or could it be the drivers on the problematic computer, or does this not help with diagnosing the problem?

I have not yet done the driver update. When I tried to do the driver update for the Touchpad driver on the affected computer, it seemed to make things worse. Somehow the system came back to being only as bad as it had been before, though I don't know how. Once it "fixed itself", I was again able to use the right mouse button relatively reliably, and the touch screen more or less worked. These things were working only sporadically after I attempted to update the driver. I also noticed that, in the Device Manager, an earlier-dated version of the driver was back in place.  When I activated the Update driver button, I got a message that the driver was up to date. Any thoughts on how to proceed at this point? Thanks again for your help.

[pkarsh]

I did update drivers that the Dell support site said were appropriate to update for this computer. I eventually concluded that I couldn't do anything more to fix it myself, so I took it to an electronics store (Fry's) to see what they could do. I was demonstrating the problem to a technician, who plugged in an external mouse to see what would happen. As it happened, the left mouse button for the external mouse worked. I don't know if the computer getting jostled around a bit (not seriously) while taking it to the store affected the hardware or if the left mouse button on an external mouse was working all along if I pressed it hard enough. (I had tried only one external mouse, not several). The left button on the touchpad still does not work. These behaviors point strongly to a hardware problem in my mind. I will be taking it back at some point to get the touchpad left button problem fixed.