I'm afraid I don't know which kernels you have available as I'm running Debian Sid on my machines. My kernel version is given as:If you are running a kernel 4 build (you can find out by running the uname command as above) then that's probably not the problem. If, however, you are running an older kernel then just updating to the most recent available on your system may help. I thought that kernel versions were updated as part of the upgrade process and if that is the case you'll probably on the latest available kernel for your system if you keep it up to date (which you should).

The ubuntu machine is on 3 13 I think and the Mint one is on 3 16 I seem to recall, so anyway, we'll go for a the version of 4 you recommend. It can only improve things. Thank you very much for the help. I will keep you posted, have to do some proper work now. Thanks again.

will list installed kernel images in terminal on apt based systems.

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Good call. I would also mention that it doesn't matter which version you install for this purpose -- just install the highest version number available in the repositories.
You should find that at least the most recent version 3 version you have installed is retained also so you can choose to boot it from GRUB should version 4 cause problems -- though I very much doubt it will.
If needs be it is even possible, and not difficult, to build and install the latest kernel straight from https://www.kernel.org/. But I wouldn't bother doing anything like that if upgrading to a 4 series doesn't help at all.

Many thanks again guys, for all your efforts on my behalf, it really is much appreciated. However, we're now on kernel 4 and still no touchpad. The other machine is fine except that the pad is very bad tempered, anticipates what you want, and does things you didn't ask for, so I'm thinking to kill them both and use finger ring trackballs instead. Will keep y'all appraised. And really, thanks again.

a quick search reveals that this model does not (yet) play well with linux.
it seems a rolling release would be best for you, try some arch-based distros.

relevant-looking search results (most of them talk about ubuntu being pre-installed):
http://askubuntu.com/questions/59292...nsive-touchpad
http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/commen...inspiron_3000/
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=199126

You could COPY the kernel from ubuntu's install to mint and that might work for you. You basically need the relevant /boot/ bits and the /lib/modules/ bits. And maybe some firmware. Update the bootloader and perhaps success. I ran debian armel with raspbians kernel this way for a bit of time on my pi B via debootstrap.

Or you could compile a custom kernel natively (kernel-package). Probably with patches and such. I run debian jessie on my hp stream 11, but I have to do a 3.19+ kernel for the touchpad. And the wifi works better on the newer kernels too.

I've successfully used the kernel copying trick many times when a new version of Fedora or Ubuntu would fail to work properly on my old Acer Aspire One ZG5 netbook. On the other hand, upgrading an old Ubuntu to a new Linux Mint (sans kernel and Xorg) on my desktop PC never seems to work quite right.

hmmm.
i have the same model (god bless! i hate touchscreens) and have been using the linux-lts kernel with it and haven't ever had a glitch. i'm using archlinux, but afaiu the linux-lts kernel is not archlinux' invention, it's maintained by whoever maintains the "normal" kernel. meaning, it should be in ubuntu's/mint's/debian's repos as well.
it's on version 3.14.45-1-lts atm.

Thanks for all the help guys, I going to work through the suggestions, I did try to download Arch Linux but it didn't function, so I'll try that again. Will come back. Bit busy this weekend with the 14th july celebrations, so later in the week. Thanks once again for your help.

OK guys, the celebrations of Bastille Day R over, hangover almost gone, back to speaking English so I had another go. To recap: I put on the closest kernel available to the Ubuntu one, and got touchpad but limited graphics, upgraded to the latest kernel, graphics but no touchpad, but today tanks to Ondoho I tried again and yyyyeeeeeesssssssss, wweehhhey Touchpad. A bit lumpy, but a useable touchpad nontheless. the link I followed was:
relevant-looking search results (most of them talk about ubuntu being pre-installed):
http://askubuntu.com/questions/59292...nsive-touchpad

Thank you all once again for the help, you all deserve a pat on the back, thank you.

touchpad? or clickpad? I need a 3.19+ kernel for my hp stream 11 for the clickpad. But only left button clicking as it only has one button hardware wise. But it has multi-touch so you can scroll web pages with two fingers swiping vertically.

Seems like that link should be:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/59292...nsive-touchpad

Touchpad? Clickpad? Trackpad? Big black rectangular thing below the keyboard, whatever it is called, enabling it has brought my machine to its knees!! I can even type faster than it can think now and so it leaves out half the letters I typed and I keep ending up with gazhooganblatz!!! I undid the setup for it and the machine worked fine again using a keysonic remote usb keyboard and thingy pad. Don't get it! Also the inbuilt wotsit pad shoots the cursor randomly to either top right or bottom left because it feels like it, if one moves the cursor too quickly it looses the plot and freezes for several seconds before continuing to where it wanted to go anyway, typing is not only slow but the machine now frequently and randomly repeats letters up to a dozen times, just to be awkward, and the Ubuntu machine has exactly the same problems but the lad just thought it was him not being used to it, can't wait for the finger mice to get here. Any suggestions gratefully accepted, otherwise I might have to apply the marteau informatique! Now c'mon you have to smile.

Just a stab in the dark

and look around for the trackpad,touchpad,clickpad,wotsitpad

readouts I guess. Sounds like a wonky driver.

Good luck with it.

Sounds like my clickpad before having a 3.19+ kernel. 3.18 was the most recent kernel when I got the device. Before 3.19 clicking the device would put X in a strange state. Requiring one to reboot or restart X to resume normal operations. And of course normal usb mice work just fine. The xinput program lets you fiddle with udev settings a bit. It might help or not. It's something that I have to use to enable emulte3button on my trackball since using xorg.conf for anything these days pretty much doesn't work anymore.