The laptop touchpad is a standardized alternative to mouse control on any laptop. Touchpads play a central role as they perform various functions on laptops. Because of the touchpad, it is very convenient to perform different tasks just by rapid finger movements that are required to move the cursor around the screen.
A laptop’s touchpad, also known as a trackpad, does the same job as the mouse on a desktop. The cursor is used to point, choose, or activate certain items on the screen.
People use laptops for various business chores whether you are riding a train, hanging out in a coffee shop between appointments, or carrying a laptop for doing simple work, it serves better than computers because you don’t have to carry a mouse or keyboard everywhere.
But imagine what will happen when you realize your touchpad got frozen and not working properly while you were doing an important task. It gets irritating when your touchpad gets stuck during any processing step or at the time of opening a certain file.
If it occurs mostly, then it is better to marshal your natural troubleshooting skills and find the best solution for how to unfreeze your laptop touchpad to thaw out the frozen cursor on your laptop. There can be various reasons for it like moist, sweaty, greasy, or calloused fingers that can disrupt the sensor signals and get the touchpad stuck in reaction.
Plausible Reasons Laptop Touchpad is Not Working
A laptop touchpad can malfunction for several genuine reasons. Whenever the trackpad is having trouble, It responds inconsistently and erratically. Sometimes it gets frozen and doesn’t respond at all. You may encounter this problem because of specific reasons:
- The operating system of your laptop may have got frozen.
- The hardware of your device may be defective.
- Maybe, you disabled the touchpad settings on your laptop by mistake.
- You have outdated or corrupted drivers and window registries on your laptops.
- There can be a technical issue like battery, connectivity, or a loose cord.
- Your device may have corrupted files or software.
- Dirt and dust accumulated on your touchpad.
If you are looking for how to unfreeze your laptop touchpad, you must examine the sort of freezing laptop touchpad first.
Different Ways of Freezing Laptop Touchpad
You must acknowledge the freezing type of laptop touchpad before finding a solution for the sake of clarity. Here are some forms of cursor freeze:
- The cursor gets stuck and refuses to budge
- Suddenly freezes while you are typing
- Freezing intermittently
- Stops working and then disappears
- Cursor dances around the screen on its own
If you notice that your laptop cursor is facing trouble given above and not moving on the screen, there are a few steps you can take to unfreeze your laptop touchpad, before taking your laptop to a service or expert technician.
Steps To Unfreeze The Touchpad Of Your Laptop
Let’s jump to the steps right away.
1. Check the Touchpad Setting
First, check if your touchpad has gotten disabled in settings. To check that in Windows go to Start or press the Windows key and type “Touchpad”. Then go to touchpad settings and check if the touchpad is activated. If you didn’t turn it on, press Shift + Tab to navigate through the options.
Press the spacebar to turn the touchpad feature On by swiping the button to the right, then test the touchpad to see if it works. If the touchpad is enabled but still behaving strangely, explore other options on this page to make sure the touchpad isn’t misconfigured. You can turn on the laptop easily from its setting.
2. Restart Your System
The other step you can take for fixing your frozen laptop touchpad is to turn off your computer. Restarting the laptop can fix a lot of issues including a laptop touchpad or stuck cursor that’s not working. Turn off your laptop by pressing Shift Start and Power buttons. Check after turning on the laptop if the issue is resolved or not.
3. Reinstall & Update touchpad drivers
The touchpad may get frozen when you use the wrong or outdated touchpad drivers. For fixing this issue, you must update your laptop touchpad drivers. If you don’t have enough time or skills to update the drivers manually, you can do it automatically with Driver Easy which is a reliable driver installer.
Driver Easy can recognize your system automatically and finds suitable drivers for your laptop itself. It is quite easy to install and you don’t have to worry about facing any errors during installation because Driver Easy handles it all.
You can use its Free or the Pro version according to your budget. To see if it fixes your problem. Run Driver Easy after installation and click the Scan Now button. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect if there’s any problem with drivers.
4. Check the Operating System Of the Laptop
The operating system is capable of managing the hardware and software of the laptop. If the touchpad gets frozen and does not respond to commands. Then check for this issue by pressing the Windows key and see if the Start Menu opens.
Turn off your laptop when the operating system is unresponsive or frozen because other hardware on your laptop can stop working as well. Restart your laptop to see if that fixes the issue.
5. Check the Hardware & Software Of the Laptop
If you are looking for how to unfreeze your laptop touchpad, then it’s time to do a hardware and software check. For checking hardware, check the keypad settings, whether you have pressed keys that made the touchpad freeze or your system is set up to turn off the touchpad while typing.
First, press the window key to check the software of the laptop and search for All Apps. The window that opens has a full list of programs installed on the laptop. Check the touchpad version whether it is updated. If not, update it first and check if the touchpad unfroze.
6. Check Laptops Version
Another way to unfreeze your laptop touchpad is to check whether the laptop version is outdated or the latest. If you didn’t update, then install the latest version by following some quick steps.
- First, go to the start button.
- Then, search for the Software Center application.
- And click on the Updates tab.
- Install the updates using the Install All button.
- You can click on each one individually and install them separately.
7. Check Corrupted Files & Drivers
If you are looking for how to unfreeze your laptop touchpad, you can pick another way to fix your problem. You should check for corrupted files and drivers. To update touchpad drivers:
- Go to the search bar and Type and then open Device Manager.
- To find touchpad devices, select Human Interface Devices.
- Then right-click on the device you’d like to update.
- Select and Reinstall touchpad drivers.
- To reinstall the driver, first, select Uninstall device and then restart your PC.
- If reinstalling the driver doesn’t help, then you can contact your PC’s manufacturer for help.
8. Check Function Keys
It is quite easy to disable the touchpad unknowingly by pressing the Function (Fn) keys. But you can enable the keys back in settings.
Many laptops include a function key combination (Fn key plus F-key) that toggles the touchpad on and off. The touchpad can be easily disabled when you are trying to access a nearby function key combination.
Check the Function keys row atop the keyboard for a touchpad control. And try toggling it back on by pressing Function + that key. You may need to press the Windows key instead of the Function key on some laptops.
9. Disconnect Bluetooth Devices
If your laptop touchpad isn’t working as it should, then a paired device on your laptop can be a cause of touchpad freezing. If you have any other accessory connected to your laptop, like a mouse or external touchpad, it can automatically disable your built-in touchpad. Unplug the accessories that are affecting your touchpad.
There are some wireless accessories like Bluetooth that can also cause touchpads to freeze. If you are seeking a guide on how to unfreeze your laptop touchpad, then disconnect your Bluetooth mouse, gamepad, or any external device connected via USB and restart your laptop.
To disconnect, click Start and then click Settings, then click Bluetooth & Devices and turn off Bluetooth by swiping the button to the left.
10. Vacuum Your Touchpad
Sometimes oils and dirt from your fingers while eating food and other substances can accumulate on your touchpad and raise issues. Remove this grime, dirt, and dust periodically with a can of compressed air, a microfiber cloth, isopropyl alcohol, and a small amount of distilled water.
Wrapping Note !!!
There could be several reasons your touchpad froze. The hardware failure, outdated software, or driver misconfiguration. Function keys, and Bluetooth devices, can also result in accidentally changing the configuration of your touchpad. Check for any misconfiguration of your device, or laptop versions, reinstalling certain software, and review the settings of your touchpad in the settings panel.
Other reasons for the continuous touchpad freeze can be improper, corrupt, or outdated drivers, malware detections, technical issues like low batteries, connectivity issues like damaged or loose cord, or corrupt Windows registry. If examining all these configurations can’t help and the situation persists, then hire a manufacturer or some laptop technician or expert to fix your problem.