Search for “Device Manager” on the lower left side of your screen.You will need to uninstall your external mouse driver to fix this problem:

If that doesn’t work, the mouse likely downloaded a driver that is disabling your touchpad. There are a couple of different ways you can fix this problem.įirstly, you can try turning off your computer:

If you’ve recently plugged in a new external mouse, it could very well be that that mouse is disabling your touchpad. Some external mice automatically disable your touchpad when plugged in.

Make sure this setting is set to “enabled.” If it is disabled, it means your touchpad has been turned off.

The name might also be a little different, such as “Pointing Device Internal.” It can be under your advanced settings options if you have those.

Find the “Internal Pointing Device” setting.

Of course, you could always Google it as well.) You can usually find out what button you need to press on the reboot screen or by checking the manual that came with your laptop. (Other laptops may use a different key to get into BIOS.

While it’s rebooting, press either “Delete” or “F2”.

To turn it back on, you’ll need to get into your motherboard settings. If your touchpad isn’t working, there is a chance it was disabled through your motherboard. Your touchpad can become disabled through your motherboard BIOS during firmware updates or even because of a virus. Not all laptops have these, but they are becoming more common. If your touchpad has a small logo/icon in the top corner, try double-tapping it to see if your touchpad kicks back on.

If you tap this icon, you’ll turn off your touchpad. This can often be found on the top corner of the touchpad-and it’s usually indiciated by a logo/icon. Some touchpads come with a built-in disable button. If you can’t find those, try going through each Fn key and see if one of them turns your touchpad back on. You can try the F9 key, or look for the Fn key that has a square next to a square with a line through it. (A lot of laptops use the F9 key, though.) Of course, this variation varies from computer to computer, so we can’t tell you precisely what buttons to push. If this is the case for your computer, it is possible you accidentally disabled your touchpad by pressing this combination on your computer. Some laptops have an Fn key function that disables the touchpad.

Dell laptop mouse pad locked