SOLVED! Dell Inspiron Touchpad Not Working

If you notice your Dell Inspiron touchpad not working, there is a good chance that you have disabled it by mistake and you could re-enable it via fn + function keys. Additionally, you could update the touchpad driver, run SFC and DISM scan, etc. In the case that the issue persists, you have no choice but contact customer support for assistance. Read to the end to bring the touchpad of your laptop back to normal.

Table of Contents

The Root Of The Problem

Once it comes to the Dell Inspiron touchpad not working, you should assume that you have disabled the touchpad by yourself in the first place. Besides that, if you neglect updates for the touchpad driver, the touchpad is going to act up eventually. You should also take corrupted system files into account as corruption would mess up the performance of many things including the touchpad. Last but not least, if the touchpad is experiencing issues, there is no way it could work as expected.

What You Could Do

Function Keys

Most of the laptops nowadays allow people to execute a number of commands by pressing fn + function keys. In the case of Dell Inspiron, you could press fn + f3 to disable/enable touchpad in times of need. Regarding Dell Inspiron touchpad not working, it’s a good idea to press fn + f3 once then see how things turn out. If your touchpad is disabled, it would be enabled after you finish pressing fn + f3.

Note: It’s possible to re-enable a disabled touchpad using Control Panel.

Step 1: Go to Search bar, type control panel and press Enter.
Step 2: In Control Panel, select Hardware and Sound then choose Mouse and Touchpad.
Step 3: In Mouse Properties, hit Additional mouse options, determine whether your touchpad is enabled and apply changes if necessary.

Alternatively,

Step 1: Go to Search bar, type main.cpl and press Enter to open Mouse Properties window.
Step 2: Head to Dell Touchpad then hit Change Dell TouchPad Settings. Next, in the specialized Dell Touchpad area, turn the Touchpad toggle from Off to On then press the Save button.
Step 3: Restart your computer.

Update TouchPad Driver

Step 1: Go to Search bar, type devmgmt.msc and press Enter.
Step 2: In Device Manager, expand Human Interface Devices, right-click Touchpad and pick Update driver.
Step 3: Hit Search automatically for updated driver software then let the process run from start to finish. Restart your computer the moment the update completes.

Note: Your touchpad driver is recently updated? In that case, the new driver may be the one responsible for Dell Inspiron touchpad not working. For the touchpad to resume working, you must roll back the driver to the previous version.

Step 1: Go to Search bar, type devmgmt.msc and press Enter.
Step 2: In Device Manager, expand Human Interface Devices, right-click Touchpad and pick Properties.
Step 3: Go to Driver tab, hit Roll Back Driver and follow the onscreen instructions. As soon as the process wraps up, restart your computer.

Run SFC And DISM Scan

Step 1: Go to Search bar, type cmd and hit Run as administrator.
Step 2: In Command Prompt (Admin), run the command sfc /scannow to perform SFC scan.
Step 3: When the SFC scan completes, run each of these commands to initiate the DISM scan.
- DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
- DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
- DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
Step 4: Once the DISM scan completes, type exit and press Enter to close Command Prompt.
Step 5: Restart your computer.

Dell Inspiron Touchpad Not Working

How Does The Touchpad Work?

The touchpad in essence enables laptop users to navigate their devices effectively and efficiently in the absence of mouses. The touchpad could sense fingers on the touch surface and move the pointer accordingly. Moreover, the two buttons underneath the touchpad work like the mouse’s right and left buttons.

SOLVED! Dell Inspiron Touchpad Not Working

The Root Of The Problem