Laptop Touchpad Not Working Problem [Fix]

July 16, 2020

Laptops are known as the perfect portable replacement for desktop computers. Even smartphones can’t compete with the sleek, thin and high performance notebooks that can be used as workstations. Laptops contain compact form of everything, the keyboard has less keys, more functions are assigned to a single key to increase compactness and portability. The regular mouse is replaced with a touchpad/trackpad also there is a reduced number of USB slots and so on.

Laptop Touchpad Not Working [Fix]

I have seen many people who face problems with their laptop, the most common one is Laptop Mouse (Touchpad) not working. Using your Computer without using mouse cursor is like chewing food without teeth. Don’t worry, I have I have provided a list of solutions that will help you restore the functionality of your Synaptics Touchpad or whatever it is on your laptop.

Update: If the touchpad still doesn’t work, you can enable Mouse Keys in Windows 10. This will allow you to navigate the cursor using Numeric keys (Numpad). Type ‘mouse keys’ in Start menu and turn if ON.

Table of Contents show

How to Fix Laptop Touchpad (Mouse) Not Working:

1. Check if you accidentally disabled Touchpad.

Every laptop keyboard has a built-in hotkey that lets you enable/disable the touchpad. Every Laptop manufacturer has different function key (fn) combination for this.

Laptop Touchpad Not Working
For Lenovo, Dell, HP, Toshiba, Acer and Asus Laptops, try using the following key combination.

Fn + F6
Fn + F9
Fn + F12
Fn + F5

It could be any function key from F1-F12, there is a small touchpad outlined on that function key so look closely. Once you find it, hold fn key, it is on the left bottom corner of keyboard and than press that Function key (F6, f7 etc.).

2. Enable Touchpad from Mouse Settings:

enable-disable-touchpad-windows

Open Start Menu and Type “Mouse” and open the first thing that comes up. Now locate Touchpad settings and make sure the Enable Touchpad option is checked. Also, check the taskbar for Touchpad icon (near volume control) and see if it is disabled.

3. Re-Install Touchpad Drivers

Download your Laptop’s touchpad drivers from your manufacturer’s website. Use the following query on Google to get quick result

Query: Laptop’s model no. + drivers + Operating system version

E.g. Dell Inspiron 15R drivers for Windows 8.1

5. Enable touchpad from BIOS configuration:

Start your Laptop, immediately press DEL, F2 or F10 to enter the BIOS Setup. Use your keyboard arrow keys and Enter key to navigate inside the BIOS utility.

Touch Pad Disabled in BIOS

Open the following:

System Properties > Keyboard/Mouse Features > Device Options

From there find the Internal Pointing Device or Touchpad, press Enter and use arrow keys to enable or disable it.

Note: The key to acessing the BIOS is different on every brand.

6. Reboot your Laptop/Notebook:

Shutdown your laptop, remove battery for about a minute. Re-attach the battery then Start the Computer.

7. Make sure Touchpad is securely connected (ADVANCED users only)

Disassemble the laptop, make sure the Touchpad is securely connected the mainboard. Sometimes hard bumps/hits cause touchpad to lose its connection. If this doesn’t work, it is time to replace the touchpad.

26 COMMENTS

Paulette Lewis August 17, 2015 At 12:44 pm

My touchpad stopped working with a critical Windows update a couple of weeks ago. I have tried everything (even a system restore) and it still won’t work. I have an HP Pavillion. HELP>
ช่างกุญแจชลบุรี August 26, 2015 At 1:57 am

Fantastic blog you have here but I was wondering
if you knew of any forums that cover the same topics talked about in this article?

I’d really like to be a part of online community where
I can get suggestions from other knowledgeable people
that share the same interest. If you have any suggestions,
please let me know. Thank you!
Rekha January 24, 2016 At 2:53 pm

You were of so much help for me . Thank god
Charles March 17, 2016 At 10:37 am

Thanks a lot for the fix. I have been facing this error for a few days now and was getting frustrated due to it. You saved my day. Thanks a million 🙂

Regards,
Charles
Ajay Sajeev April 3, 2016 At 9:25 pm

I thank you for helping me out with my trackpad issue in my laptop. Great regards.
Georgina April 16, 2016 At 1:30 pm

Thanks for your help. I did not know I disabled the touchpad when I removed a memory stick from the taskbar. My eyes are not what they used to be.
ahme May 24, 2016 At 3:56 pm

ooh thanku so much you helped me!
ahme May 24, 2016 At 3:58 pm

You made my day thank you very much!
rama June 15, 2016 At 12:17 am

Very helpful. Thanks a lot.
Harris June 18, 2016 At 8:44 am

Thank you! A simple fix after I pulled my hair out looking for a solution
April L. July 10, 2016 At 6:50 pm

Thanks. Touch pad driver is a problem. I used OSToto Driver Talent to download and install the driver instead of searching online and installing manually. My touch pad works now. Thank you again. 🙂
Shivang Zala August 9, 2016 At 11:11 pm

It started working !! Thanks a lot !!
Arica November 17, 2016 At 11:42 pm

thankyouuuu
Charlie the Whiteknight December 11, 2016 At 1:03 pm

Hey there, thanks a lot! I thought it was a hardware problem at first. This was very useful.
sheila January 18, 2017 At 10:51 pm

Comment Text*my lenovo flex 10 notebook is not working.The screen cannot allow me to sign in though it is not password protected.The touch is working but the touchpad seems not to be,I can still see the arrow though
Mardo May 5, 2017 At 6:33 am

Thank you this helped me a lot
hitesh May 7, 2017 At 7:42 am

thanks so much yrr….my problem solved…..
Tristan October 19, 2017 At 5:51 am

Thank you so much.. my loptop now is running to work… good job
scottpi January 20, 2018 At 2:11 pm

My Dell E6410 touchpad stopped working. Windows 10.
USB mouse was fine. Little button between the G and H keys worked too. No touchpad.
I uninstalled and reinstalled the driver, and the pad itself. Nothing.
No function keys would turn it on either.
Tried to Restore back a week, but my computer couldn’t find the file.
The real question I had was, software or hardware?
So I created a Linux boot DVD.
Very simple, took 10 minutes to download the Linux, a few more to burn the DVD, videos online explained how to do it.
I rebooted the computer in Linux.
Yeah! Touchpad worked. Not a hardware problem!
And when I rebooted in Windows 10, it still worked.
So, try this fix. At worse, it will tell you if your hardware is broken, or your software.
Anon March 27, 2018 At 12:42 pm

Hello!
Thank you SO MUCH for posting this, the first step fixed my laptop! I was having trouble with the touch pad, and now it works again! Again, this was so helpful! Thanks so much for posting, you really helped me out! c:
felix May 16, 2018 At 2:38 pm

thanks guys you have helped me much
is August 16, 2018 At 6:43 am

Thanks, I almost wanted to pay for a technician
Andrew Williams January 19, 2020 At 5:12 pm

Thankyou just reset my laptop with Fn F6. so simple.
Cheers
andyew57
Kirsten April 26, 2020 At 10:30 am

Please don’t laugh but my cat walked over the keyboard of my laptop and disabled somehow the touchpad. the bluetooth mouse is still working. I tried all Fn and Fn-number combos – nothing enabled the touchpad. Help please! Of course I don’t know the slightest thing about technical problems so please if you explain something please keep in mind that I’m a dummy.
Thank you.

Kinick
Kirsten April 26, 2020 At 10:54 am

Sorry, me again. I don’t know what I’ve done but in the end I turned the laptop off and restarted it and the touchpad is working again. There you can see what a dummy I am. So everything is okay again.

Sorry again for that.
Kinick
Justin Weber April 26, 2020 At 2:28 pm

@Kirsten

Hello,

Glad that your touchpad is fixed.

Thanks for visiting.