Laptop Touchpad Not Working – Here’s How to Fix It
Is your touchpad not working? No worries! This is the problem faced by almost all laptop owners.
The touchpad is not the most convenient input device for a laptop, but when you don’t have a normal mouse or surface to place it on, the touchpad is a tolerable alternative. In some cases, however, the touchpad may not work properly or may stop working altogether. What should you do?
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Touchpad Not Working – Possible Causes
Before we get to the actual solutions, let’s have a look at a small list of possible causes:
- the touchpad is turned off;
- the surface of the touchpad is dirty;
- problems with the touchpad driver;
- physical malfunction of the touchpad surface.
Let’s now see what you can do about this not so pleasant problem.
How to Get Your Touchpad Working
Solution #1 Turn On The Touchpad
The most likely reason why your touchpad stopped working is because of a disconnect through accidental key combination on the keyboard. On every laptop, there are many key combinations that can be used to activate and deactivate a particular function. In each of these combinations, usually the Fn key is involved.
Take a good look at your laptop keyboard and look for the touchpad icon. For example, this icon may be located on the F9 key if you have a laptop from ASUS or on the F7 key if you have a laptop from Acer. Once you find the key you need, press the key combination Fn+[touchpad key] and check if the touchpad has been enabled on your laptop.
Note: if you own an HP laptop, you don’t need to press the key combination, but rather double click on the touchpad key which is located directly on the surface of the touchpad itself, in the upper left corner.
Solution #2 Clean the Surface
Have you cleaned the surface of your touchpad lately? Yeah, it’s a pretty weird question, but it’s quite possible that the touchpad may have stopped responding to presses from you simply because there’s a thick layer of dirt on the surface area. Carefully examine the touchpad and wipe it thoroughly with some wet wipes (or something similar), then check if it’s been fixed.
Solution #3 Activate the Touchpad Through BIOS/UEFI
In some cases the touchpad may be turned off in the motherboard BIOS itself for some reason. You need to go to the BIOS and check if the option called “Internal Pointing Device” is activated there. To go to the laptop’s BIOS, you have to reboot and then press a specific key that will be indicated on the screen. Basically the same as on a normal desktop PC. Normally, the “Internal Pointing Device” option is under “Advanced” (advanced settings). If it was deactivated, turn it on by setting it to “Enabled” and save the changes. But if this option was enabled, then move to the next step.
Solution #4 Reinstall the Drivers for The Touchpad
Let’s move on to the next step. The touchpad might have stopped working due to a driver that started working incorrectly or stopped working altogether. This situation sometimes occurs after installing a new OS on your laptop. If the cause is really a bad driver, then you need to reinstall it. A recent driver can be found on the disc that comes with the laptop, or on the official website of the laptop manufacturer.
Solution #5 The Touchpad is Broken
Unfortunately, if none of the above tips and fixes have helped you to get your touchpad to a working state, then it’s definitely broken. It could be an issue with the touchpad itself or with its connection to the motherboard. In the second case, you can try opening your laptop and checking if the touchpad’s cable is connected correctly to the board. In the first case… you’re going straight to the service center.
