Touchpad is not working in Windows 10

All laptops on the market are equipped with touchpads. It’s understandable; you cannot always carry around a full-fledged mouse for your computer, and keep connecting it to your laptop. And let’s not forget that laptops are produced for mobile people who need a full-fledged computer always and everywhere. Touchpad is a convenient alternative to a mouse, but only when it works. Unfortunately, quite often users have to face a problem when touchpad does not work. Sometimes this problem occurs on its own, for example, after updating the computer to the next version of Windows 10. In the framework of this article, we will tell you in details what has to be done if touchpad does not work on the laptop.

Table of contents:
1. Touchpad is disabled by the user
2. Enabling/disabling touchpad in the "Control Panel"
3. How to download and install touchpad drivers 
4. Checking drivers in the "Device Manager"
5. Other reasons for the touchpad not to work

Touchpad is disabled by the user

Before proceeding to software problems that may lead to the fact that the touchpad does not work on the laptop, it should be recalled that each stationary computer has a separate key (or a combination of keys) for disabling the touchpad. A touchpad is shown schematically on this key.

Try first to enable the touchpad with this button (most often, it needs to be pressed simultaneously with FN). If this does not work, proceed to the recommendations below.

Enabling/disabling touchpad in the “control panel”

If the touchpad does not work on the laptop, you need to check if the drivers are installed for it. By default all laptops must have such drivers bundled with the basic set of drivers for installation. However, after one of the Windows 10 updates they may “fly off”.

Go to the “Control Panel”, and then go to the “Mouse”. See if there are any options for enabling/disabling the touchpad.

If nothing related to the touchpad settings is found in the “Mouse” section, or all the necessary settings are enabled, you should also check mouse and touchpad settings in Windows 10. To do this you will need to press Win + I keys on the keyboard, then go to the “Devices” section and select “Mouse and touch pad” on the left side. See if the touchpad settings are activated. If not, it means that the drivers are not installed.

How to download and install touchpad drivers

The most common reason, why the touchpad does not work, is the lack of installed drivers, or their failure. It is quite easy to install drivers and you can do it by yourself, without having to look for disks that came bundled with a laptop – all the necessary drivers should be downloaded from the official website of your computer’s manufacturer. Go to the “Support” section on this website and enter (or select) your laptop model.

Download the necessary drivers for your touchpad. They can be there either separately (most often, under the Pointing Device abbreviation), or bundled with other drivers.

Important: If you have Windows 10 and the website is offering you only drivers for Windows 7 for your laptop, you can use them as well.

If after downloading the necessary touchpad drivers and installing them, the situation has not changed it is also recommended to download the driver for the chipset from the official website of the laptop manufacturer: Intel Management Engine Interface, ACPI, ATK and others. You may also need to install separate drivers for USB, if they are listed in the software for a laptop on the website of the computer manufacturer.

Checking drivers in the “device manager”

After you have downloaded and installed all the necessary drivers that may affect the operation of your touchpad, you should make sure in the “Device Manager” whether there are any unknown or disconnected devices among the connected controllers or no. HID

To go to the “Device Manager”, right-click on the start and select the corresponding item in the menu. Further study the sections called “Mice and other pointing devices” and “HID devices”. If there are disconnected devices among those indicated in these sections, right-click on them and turn them on. If there are unknown or non-working devices among them, try downloading drivers for them as well.

Other reasons for the touchpad not to work

If you have completed all steps described above, but still have not figured out the reason for the touchpad malfunction, there may be several reasons for this:

• There are viruses on your computer that are blocking the touchpad normal operation. Try running antivirus software on your computer;
• Option responsible for the touchpad operation is disabled in BIOS (or UEFI). Most often, this option is called “Touchpad” or “Pointing Device”, and it is located in the “Peripherals” or “Advanced” sections. Try to find such a setting and activate it if it is disabled;
• The touchpad itself is defective. Like any other mechanical device, the touchpad may simply fail. In this case, you will need to contact the service center for its repair or replacement.