windows 8 touchpad stops working if I'm holding in a key?

[William The Righteous]

It's a dell inspiron. If I'm holding down any key other than ctrl, alt, or shift, the cursor on my screen cannot be moved until I let go of the key again.

Obviously this makes a lot of games completely unplayable. I've done a lot of googling about this and even when the question was officially solved, what they said still didn't work for me.

My computer does not have a 'synaptics' touchpad option in my control panel -> hardware and sound menu, and it also doesn't have any option anywhere using the term 'touch check' (nowhere I can find it anyway.
this is what I'm getting in my hardware and sound menu. I don't see a mouse 'icon'. should I just use the 'mouse' thing up at the top in the 'devices and printers' part? http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p135/...60df7f.jpg
http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p135/...4b0310.jpg
ok this is what comes up when I go into 'device settings' and click on 'settings'. the thing that came up is on the left. there doesn't appear to be much to actually DO on that window.