The touchpad technology has long since replaced old stick pointing on old laptops as an alternative to the classic mouse.
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Yet, despite this technology is widely tested, does not fail to create problems – punctually, these occur while you are traveling or when you do not have a spare mouse in hand.
In these cases, for the emergency, you can use the keyboard to perform the most basic actions… but this can not of course suffice!
Six ways to solve the problems of the touchpad
Usually, the problems that locked the touchpad of a laptop, are due to different types of triggering factor.
In this article, we will discuss six methods that are likely to solve the specific case that afflicts your laptop.
Is the trackpad disabled in the BIOS?
There is a possibility that, for unknown reasons, the laptop touchpad is disabled in the BIOS of the laptop motherboard (this could happen after a firmware update, for example).
To check if something like this has happened, press ESC or F2 repeatedly to enter the BIOS.
The BIOS screen is not the same for all laptops – focus your attention on the Internal Pointing Device and check that it is activated.
Once you have activated it, select the Save changes and exit option.
Re-enable your touchpad using the Fn key
If your touchpad no longer works, maybe you pressed the wrong key on your keyboard and inadvertently deactivated it.
To check for this possibility, hold down the Fn key and try to press each function button at the same time (the F keys followed by the numbers). In this sense, a lot depends on the model of laptop.
Note – remember that you could deactivate the screen in this way – just press the same key combination again to reactivate it.
Remove other mouse drivers
Have you used different types of mouse on your laptop, installing different drivers without ever removing them? If so, there is an even too remote possibility that drivers will interfere with your touchpad.
Go to Device Manager, click the arrow next to Mouse and other pointing devices, then right-click and uninstall the mouse one by one until the touchpad resumes operation.
Keep in mind that some mouse drivers even disable the touchpad automatically!
Update or reset the touchpad driver
While in Device Manager, right-click on your touchpad in the list (it might be called Dell TouchPad, Lenovo TouchPad, Synaptics or other names depending on the brand of your PC) and make sure it’s enabled.
If so, try clicking Update Driver to check for updates that may help.
Problems with Windows 10
According to many users, the touchpads of some laptops stop working properly after obtaining Windows 10, which means that the operating system’s drivers conflict with those of the laptop.
In Device Manager, right-click the touchpad, and then click Properties and Restore Driver to see if an earlier version of the driver can solve the problem.
Enable the touchpad in “Mouse Properties.”
In many cases, the handset can not better manage the activation and deactivation of the touchpad. If the touchpad is deactivated in any way, you need to access the Windows Mouse Properties to turn it back on.
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 any other tab located at the right end of the window.
Find your touchpad in the list, select it, then click on Enable.
Disable the Tablet / Laptop input service
If your Windows 10 laptop is a hybrid and has a touchscreen, the tablet PC input service may interfere with the touchpad. If you do not use this feature, it may be a good idea to disable it.
Eventually, you might be forced to turn this service on and off each 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 to find TabletInputService or Tablet PC Input Service. Right-click, and then deactivate it.
Every brand and every model has a story in itself
Each type of laptop leans on different software for managing the touchpad, so these instructions may vary slightly, but for the most part, should still point you in the right direction.
