Dell latitude e5500 touchpad problem

Hi

I've a brand new Dell Latitude E5500. The touchpad is dodgy - works for bit and then freezes, starts working again, freezes again.
I've tried changing the sensitivity setting, but didn't make any difference.
And external mouse works fine.
It doesn't do the life-of-its-own drifting thing which other people mention.

Various threads on here suggest downloading the driver and stuff. Should i bother trying to do this? I'm going to ring Dell obviously, but just wondering if the driver thing might a quicker fix?

Given that it's brand new, i expect Dell will take it back, but if it's something simple which I can fix myself that might be easier?
Thanks