Laptop Touchpad is locked, disabled, gets stuck or scroll not working

A laptop’s touchpad not working could be a difficult situation. You would simply lose control of your system since no modern computer can function properly without a pointing device. The issue could be with both the hardware and the software of the Windows 10 device. However, the problem is pretty common, yet it is rare that the touchpad’s hardware could have gone bad. Rather, for most users, simply switching ON the touchpad resolved the problem.

Laptop Touchpad is locked, disabled, gets stuck,scroll not working

The most common causes for the touchpad getting stuck or not working are as follows:

1. The touchpad’s switch on the keyboard might be switched OFF.
2. The touchpad’s drivers might be obsolete.
3. The settings of the touchpad might have changed.

Please connect an external mouse to your system to use as a pointer while your touchpad is non-functional. Then try the following solutions sequentially to resolve the problem:

1. Check the physical switch for the touchpad
2. Run the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter
3. Update the touchpad drivers
4. Check the touchpad settings
5. Check BIOS settings
6. Disable Tablet PC Input Service

1] Check the physical switch for the touchpad

Most laptop keyboards have a physical toggle key to turn the touchpad ON/OFF. I am using a Sony Vaio system, and the function key associated with the touchpad is F1.

Press the Fn key and the function key associated with the touchpad once to switch it ON.

TIP: Windows 10 stuck in Tablet Mode?

2] Run the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter

The Hardware and Devices Troubleshooter helps in checking common problems preventing hardware components from functioning properly. It would be wise to run it before proceeding with other solutions.

Click on the Start button and go to Settings > Updates and Security > Troubleshoot.

Select the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter from the list and run it.

Restart the system.

Read: Mouse pointer or cursor disappears on Windows 10.

3] Update the touchpad drivers

The touchpad drivers help in the communication between the touchpad hardware and software. If the drivers are not updated for a long time, they might cease to work as desired. In such a situation, update them as follows:

Press Win+R to open the Run window and type the command devmgmt.msc. Press Enter to open the Device Manager.

In the Device Manager, expand Mice and other pointing devices. Right-click on the touchpad driver and select Update driver.

You could also consider downloading the drivers from the manufacturer’s website and installing them.

4] Check the touchpad settings

Laptops of different brands have different settings for the touchpad. In my system (Sony Vaio), there is no option to disable the touchpad. However, its sensitivity could be changed.

Click on the Start button and go to Settings > Devices > Touchpad.

Change the Touchpad sensitivity to Medium sensitivity from the drop-down menu. Restart the system.

More tips: TouchPad not working on Windows 10.

5] Check BIOS settings

At times, the internal pointing device (in this case the touchpad) could be disabled from the BiOS itself. In such a case, restart your system in BiOS mode and modify the settings accordingly.

Entering the BIOS mode is a different procedure for different systems. Usually, you would need to press the F8, F12, DEL, ESC, etc button as soon as the system reboots.

In the BIOS menu, navigate to the Advanced tab. verify that the status of the Internal Pointing Device should be [Enabled].

If not, change the status to [Enabled].

Read: Touchpad getting disabled automatically.

6] Disable Tablet PC Input Service (for Windows 7)

While Tablet PC Input doesn’t come as a service for later versions of Windows, if you are using Windows 7, you could disable the service as follows:

In the Windows 7 Search bar, type services.msc and press Enter.

In the list of services that are arranged alphabetically, scroll down to Tablet PC Input Service. Right-click on it and select Properties.

Change the Startup type to Disabled. Click on Apply and then on OK to save the settings.

Restart the system and check if it fixes the problem with the touchpad.

Posts that may help you:

1. How to Reset Touchpad settings to default in Windows 10
2. How to disable Laptop Touchpad.