Comment 2 for bug 722241

Marcus,

You can solve this issue easily... (it's been affecting me since my Ubuntu 9.X .. and it seems it continue to affect other distros like Mint) :

1) modify grub file: nano /etc/default/grub;

2) edit the line and let it be like this:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash i8042.reset i8042.nomux i8042.nopnp i8042.noloop"

3) Update your grub with this command: update-grub

I hope it works 4 you... in my case, I'm using a Vostro 1510.

Cheers!