These devices are generally quite reliable so I would be looking for the possibililty of a damaged software driver.
If the touchpad is completely dead, use the tab and arrow keys to access the Control Panel. Open the Mouse folder, go to the Hardware tab, locate the touchpad entry (it is likely shown as a mouse), highlight it and delete the entry.
Exit the open windows, reboot your computer.
If the touch pad is functional at all, Windows should show a dialog box stating 'Found new hardware' and it may also say that it is installing the software for it. It may however, ask you to insert a disk with the software on it and that would be on any recovery disk that came with your notebook. If it does not see the touchpad because it is defective, then it is a failure of the touchpad.
Good luck-