How to Fix My Laptop’s Touchpad When It’s Not Working

Perhaps you’re one of those folks who overlook the touchpad on your laptop in favor of a mouse. However, if you rely heavily on your touchpad and discover that it is not functioning properly, this is terrible news — you may be completely shut out of operating your Mac or Windows computer.

There are a few common causes for your touchpad to stop working, so try each of these troubleshooting methods in order until your laptop restarts.

8 ways to troubleshoot if your laptop touchpad is not working

Is it more than just the touchpad that’s frozen?

To begin, there are several considerations. When you notice that the touchpad is not working, your initial reaction may be to panic and enter a troubleshooting mode dedicated to the touchpad, but before you go too far, check to ensure that the entire computer is not locked up. It is conceivable that the computer has crashed or stopped to the point that nothing, including the keyboard and touchpad, works.

In such situation, it’s most likely an extremely rare one-off computer malfunction. Restart your computer (often by hitting and holding the power button until the screen resets), and the touchpad should return to normal.