When your laptop touchpad quits working, it’s simple to enter into a panic. It’s tough to obtain a lot done on your computer system if you can not relocate your mouse cursor.

However do not worry. Opportunities are that when your laptop mouse touchpad is not functioning, the solution is relatively straightforward. We’ll stroll you via typical fixing actions to take care of a trackpad that’s not useful. A lot of these suggestions relate to Windows, however those on a Mac can make use of a few of them as well.

Is Your Whole Computer Frozen?

This seems a little bit ridiculous, however it’s worth double-checking. Your computer system can be absolutely secured up if your touchpad quits functioning as a one-off event. Because instance, neither the key-board neither the touchpad will certainly operate at all.

To examine this on Windows, struck the Windows trick to open up the Start Menu, after that attempt Ctrl + Alt + Delete to open up the Security display. On a Mac, attempt pushing Cmd + Space to open up Spotlight, which is a simple means to see if your computer system is receptive utilizing the key-board.

Offer your computer system a couple of minutes to refine whatever it’s doing if these do not have any type of outcome. After numerous mins, if it’s still iced up, you’ll require to push as well as hold the physical Power switch to power it down.

Check Touchpad Key

One of the most common causes of a laptop touchpad not working is that you’ve accidentally disabled it with a key combination. Most laptops have an Fn key that combines with the F1, F2, and other function keys to perform special operations.

Many of these, like changing the brightness or disabling wireless functionality, are useful. However, on many laptops, one of these key combinations will disable the laptop touchpad. Since this is easy to hit by mistake, you might think your touchpad is broken if you toggle this without realizing it.

The exact key depends on your laptop model (this will differ among Asus, HP, Lenovo, and other models), but it usually has a square trackpad-looking icon, sometimes with an X next to it. Some keyboards show a light on this key to let you know the mouse touchpad is turned off.

Remove Any External Mice

Moving on, another simple but important troubleshooting step for a laptop touchpad that’s not working is to try unplugging any USB mice you have connected to your laptop. You should also disconnect any Bluetooth mice in use.

The reason for this is that some laptops (plus Windows and macOS themselves) have a feature that automatically disables the touchpad when you connect an external mouse. This could be why your touchpad has stopped working. For best results when testing this, shut down your system, unplug all connected non-essential devices and accessories, then boot back up.

Check Mouse Settings in Windows

You should next review the mouse settings inside Windows, in case something got messed up there. Head to Settings > Devices > Touchpad first.

Here, make sure you have the Touchpad slider enabled. There’s also a box below this labeled Leave touchpad on when a mouse is connected, as mentioned above. While you’re here, take a look at the other touchpad options to make sure your mouse input behaves as you expect.

If you can’t resolve your problem from this menu, you might be able to access touchpad-specific settings in another location. Go to Settings > Devices > Mouse and click the Additional mouse options link on the right side. If you don’t see this, drag the Settings window horizontally until it appears.

In the resulting dialog box, you should see a tab on the right side labeled Device Settings, TouchPad, or something similar. You can enable or disable the touchpad here; you might find that it’s disabled if it wasn’t working before. Try re-enabling it and see if that gets your touchpad working again.

Dig Into the Device Manager

If your laptop mouse pad is still not working, you’ll have to jump into some deeper troubleshooting. Press Win + X (or right-click the Start button) to open the Power User menu, then select Device Manager.

Here, expand the Mice and other pointing devices category. You’ll see multiple entries here if you’ve connected a mouse other than your touchpad. Double-click on one and look at its Location (on the General tab) to figure out what it is. If this says On USB Input Device or similar, it’s not your touchpad.

Once you’ve found your mouse, try right-clicking and choosing Disable device, then Enable device again. Next, right-click the entry and select Update driver, then Search automatically for updated driver software. It’s unlikely this will actually find a new driver to fix the issue, but sometimes it comes through.

Finally, it’s worth visiting your laptop manufacturer’s website and downloading the latest driver. These often work better than the generic drivers Windows uses, and could thus clear up your issues.

Disable Tablet PC Services

Windows devices that have a touchscreen, such as 2-in-1 hybrids, have a special service called Tablet PC Input Service. This controls the touch functionality, which includes disabling your trackpad when you’re in tablet mode.

There’s a small chance this could interfere with your trackpad in normal use. It’s worth looking at if nothing else has helped to this point. To review it, type services into the Start Menu and launch the Services utility. Here, scroll to Tablet PC Input Service, right-click it, and choose Stop.

If your touchpad works after you do this, you’ve found your issue. To keep this service from loading every time you boot up, double-click it and set the Startup type to Manual to prevent it from running unnecessarily. Disabled will keep it from running at all, but this could cause erratic behavior when using your device in tablet mode.