What To Do If The Touchpad Isn’t Working On Your Laptop – SlashGear

When it comes to Windows laptop touchpads, the name of the game is drivers. Assuming your laptop hasn’t suffered some kind of critical hardware failure — an issue that would probably be swiftly apparent — then the problem is probably the mouse and pointer drivers. To repair drivers, there are two options to try.

First, try a driver update. If there is a problem with the pointer drivers, an update may remedy it. Note that this process is identical for both Windows 10 and Windows 11:

1. Type “Device Manager” into your Start menu search bar.

2. Open the Device Manager.

3. Expand the “Human Interface Devices” tab. Alternatively, expand the “Mice and other pointing devices” tab.

4. Find your trackpad on the list.

5. Right-click on your trackpad and click “Update driver.”

The update wizard will automatically check for driver updates and, if available, will install them.

If the problem is more ingrained, you may need to perform a fresh installation of drivers.

1. Type “Device Manager” into your Start menu search bar.

2. Open the Device Manager.

3. Expand the “Human Interface Devices” or “Mice and other pointing devices” tab.

4. Find your trackpad on the list.

5. Right-click on your trackpad and click “Uninstall device.”

6. Confirm the uninstall.

7. Restart your PC.

When you restart, Windows will automatically detect the missing driver and reinstall it, hopefully solving any touchpad problem in the process.