Touchpad technology has long since replaced the old pointing sticks found on older laptops: for those who have never seen them, they were tiny buttons in the center of the keyboard which, behaving like an analog stick, made it possible not to use the classics. mouse.
Yet, despite this technology being widely tested, it does not fail to create problems: regularly, these occur while you are traveling or when you do not have a spare mouse at hand.
In these cases, for an emergency, it is possible to use the keyboard to carry out the most basic actions … but of course, this cannot be enough!
How to Fix Your Laptop’s Touchpad When It’s Not Working |Guide
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6 ways to fix touchpad problems
Usually, the problems that blocked the touchpad of a laptop, are due to some particular factors.
In this article, we will cover 6 methods that will, in all likelihood, fix your laptop touchpad problems.
Is the trackpad disabled in the BIOS?
There is a possibility that, for unknown reasons, the laptop’s touchpad is disabled in the laptop’s motherboard BIOS. The main suspect, in these cases, is a firmware update that was installed by Windows Update under the counter.
To check if something like this has happened, press Del or F2 repeatedly at boot time to enter the BIOS.
At this point focus your attention on the Internal Pointing Device item and check that it is activated: the BIOS screen is not the same for all laptops so your PC may use a different nomenclature. Some frequent alternatives are input devices and input devices.
After activating it if necessary, select the option Save changes and exit. At this point, once your PC has restarted, the trackpad will start working again: if this is not the case, continue to follow this guide.
Wake up your touchpad using the Fn key
If your touchpad no longer works, perhaps you pressed the wrong key on the keyboard and inadvertently disabled it.
To check for this, hold down the Fn key while trying to press each function button at the same time (the F keys followed by numbers). In this sense, a lot depends on the laptop model: however, most of the models help us as there are small drawings on each Fn key. The trackpad symbol will be recognizable as it is a rectangle with a very small vertical line in the middle of the lower base: in my Asus Zenbook, for example, it is located on the F6 key, before the keyboard backlight.
Please note: remember that you could turn off the screen this way: if so, just press the same key combination again to turn it back on. Alternatively, you can use the combination Win + P.
Remove other mouse drivers
Have you used different types of mice on your laptop, installing their drivers and never removing them? If so, there’s a not too remote possibility that the drivers are interfering with your touchpad.
Go to Device Manager, click the arrow next to Mice and other pointing devices, then right-click and uninstall the mice one by one until the touchpad starts working again.
Keep in mind that some mouse drivers even go as far as turning off the touchpad automatically!
Update or reset the touchpad driver
While in Device Manager, right-click your touchpad in the list (it may be called Dell TouchPad, Lenovo TouchPad, Synaptics, or other names depending on your PC brand) and make sure it’s enabled.
If so, try clicking Update Driver to check for any updates that might help you.
Problems with Windows 10
According to reports by many users, some laptops’ touchpads stop working properly after getting Windows 10, which means that the operating system drivers conflict with those of the laptop.
In Device Manager, right-click the touchpad, then click Properties and Roll Back Driver to see if an older version of the driver can fix the problem.
Enable the touchpad in “Mouse Properties”
In many cases, the laptop fails to better handle the activation and deactivation of the touchpad. If the touchpad is disabled in any way, to turn it back on, you need to go to Windows Mouse Properties to re-enable it.
Type Mouse in the Windows search bar and go to Mouse Settings. Here, click on More Mouse Options, then in the new window go to Device Settings, and choose Touchpad or whatever other tab is at the far right of the window.
Find your touchpad in the list, select it, then click Enable.
Disable the Tablet / Laptop input service
If your Windows 10 notebook is a hybrid and has a touchscreen, the Tablet PC input service may be interfering with the touchpad. If you are not using this feature, it may be a good idea to disable it.
Eventually, you may be forced to turn this service on and off every time you want to use the touchpad.
To disable the tablet input service, press Win + R, then type services.MSC in the text field. In the list of services, scroll down until you find TabletInputService or Tablet PC Input Service. Right-click, then turn it off.
Conclusion
Each type of laptop relies on different software for handling the touchpad, so these instructions may vary slightly, but for the most part, they should point you in the right direction anyway.
If you have not been able to troubleshoot your touchpad you are left with two options. The first is to format your Windows 10 PC, in order to have a clean version of the operating system from Microsoft. The second option, however, is to contact official assistance, especially if your computer is still under warranty: if it is not in my view, it is better to opt for one of the many mice on sale on Amazon!
