Touchpad Repair

Answer 1

So the honeymoon is over, and your touchpad is no longer responding to your touch. Do you go to counseling? Before you call the professionals, you may want to try restoring responsiveness yourself.

Function keys

Try the easiest fixes first. Try pressing each of your function keys, F1-F12, trying the touchpad in between each function (F7 is the default for many). Depending on what kind of keyboard you have, you may need to hold down the function key (fn) in the bottom left of the keyboard as you try the function keys across the top, i.e., hold down fn and F7 at the same time, then try the pad.

External mouse

If you have a USB mouse sitting around, try to plug that in, and restart the computer. If the mouse works, then go to your settings, and see if you can turn on your touchpad. If the touchpad still does not work, at least you have a temporary fix. If you are savvy enough, you may also manually disable/enable the touchpad in BIOS (that script that appears as you boot up). You may tinker with that as you go back and forth between touchpad and external mouse as you try to get something to work.

Have you done anything different lately, such as installed a new hard drive? Sometimes things like this can scramble the settings. Grounding issues

Not that simple�go ahead and plug in the A/C adapter to the wall. Restart the computer and move your finger in circles on the pad as your system reboots. Unplug the A/C adapter, so you are using the battery. Does it work? Try plugging it in again. Does the touchpad fail again? This happens sometimes. Try placing at least three fingers of your other hand anywhere on the computer. Does it work again? If so, it is because the computer is not properly grounded, probably on the inside.

If none of these things work, then you are in for a trip to the computer repair shop or a visit from the geek squad. However, before you spend your bucks, make sure you give the simple free fixes a shot.