Synaptics Touchpad Not Working? Try these fixes!

Touchpad issues can come from the hardware or drivers that are powering it in windows, several users reported that their Synaptics touchpad stopped working.

To diagnose this we will do some easy steps, before we get into it, we recommend you to restart your laptop because it may fix your Synaptics touchpad stopped working issue.

There are multiple causes for this issue to occur, we have listed some common causes below:-

• Outdated drivers- The outdated drivers might be a cause of this issue to occur because outdated drivers make your device slow, unresponsive, and sometimes the device may stop working.
• Touchpad disabled- If you don’t know you can disable your touchpad with the shortcut key, a lot of users reported in forums that they disabled their touchpad by pressing the shortcut key without realizing it.
• Hardware issue- Your touchpad hardware components might be damaged from the inside, it can be a cause of this issue to occur.
• Dusted touchpad- There might be dust around your touchpad, clean it with a cotton swab or dry cloth.

We know the causes let’s straight jump into solutions.

Install Generic Drivers

Installing the generic drivers may fix your issue because sometimes we have the latest drivers but we still get errors, for that we recommend you to install generic drivers via device manager, to install follow the steps below.

1. Right-click on the Windows icon on the bottom left, then click on the device manager.
2. After that, look for your touchpad driver then right-click on the driver.
3. Select the update driver option, you should see the options screen where you have to select Browse my computer to select the drivers.

   

4. Click on the let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer then select HID-compliant mouse.
5. Select Next and follow the instruction to install it.

Check Synaptics Control Panel

Your Synaptics touchpad might be disabled from the Control Panel, if it’s disabled then you are no longer to use your touchpad until it is enabled, to check your synaptic touchpad.

1. Press Windows +R to open the Run window and type main.CPL then press ok.
2. This should bring up the mouse settings, select the Device settings.
3. Click on the Synaptics TouchPad and see it is enabled or disabled if it’s disabled proceed to enable the option.

   

Check Touchpad Settings

Sometimes we disable the touchpad by pressing the shortcut key, if you don’t know about your shortcut key, you can check on your laptop manufacturer’s website, to enable the touchpad from settings.

1. Go to settings by pressing the Windows + I, then click on the Devices option.
2. Select the Touchpad option on the left sidebar.
3. You should see a toggle button to enable and disable the Synaptics touchpad.

   

Update Your Drivers

As I told you before that old drivers might be the cause of your touchpad not working, If you haven’t updated your drivers in a long time then we recommend you update your drivers to the latest version via device manager, to update the drivers.

1. Go to device manager by pressing Windows + X and then select device manager.
2. Look for your Synaptics driver then right-click on the driver choose Update driver.

   

3. If you are getting this message “The best drivers for your device are already installed”, in that case, go to the manufacturer’s website then download the latest drivers.

   

Update Your Windows

Users were getting this issue in the Windows 1909 update, if you have the 1909 or older version of Windows 10, then we highly recommend you to update your Windows to the latest version, to update Windows.

1. Go to settings then click on Update & security.
2. Go for Check for Updates, this will download all the currently available Windows updates.

Modify Your Registry

If your settings keep resetting, in that case, the problem might be related to the registry, however, you can easily fix this by following me.

Press Windows + R keys to open the Run Window.

1. Type Regedit and press enter.
2. In the left sidebar, navigate to the following path

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARESynapticsSynTPInstall

3. In the right sidebar, double click the DeleteUserSettingOnUpgrade DWORD and change its value to 0.
4. If DeleteUserSettingOnUpgrade DWORD is not showing on your screen, then create a new one by right-clicking on the empty space, select New then again select DWORD(32-bit) and change its value to 0.
5. After modifying the registry, restart your laptop and check if the issue is gone.

Rollback to the older Drivers

As I said before you may get errors even you have the latest drivers, the issue may fix after the rollback of drivers to the older version, to roll back the drivers.

1. Right-click on the start-menu select Device manager.
2. Look for your touchpad driver, right-click on the driver.
3. Select the Properties option.

   

4. choose the Rollback driver option, If the rollback option is disabled for you or if the rollback driver is the default driver that Windows provide us, for that case, download the old driver from your laptop manufacturer’s website once it’s done check the improvement.

Run Hardware and Device Troubleshooter

You can run the hardware troubleshooting to fix this, using this utility you can fix all your hardware issues, If you want to see more about troubleshooting then we have a full guide on Hardware Troubleshooting, to do this.

1. Click on the start menu button on the bottom left then type Command Prompt in the search box.
2. Right-click on the command prompt then click on the Run as Administrator.
3. Type the below command and press enter.

   msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic

4. A short window will pop up click next and follow the instruction.
5. Once it is finished click on Apply this fix.

   

6. After that, Restart your laptop and check the improvement.

Uninstall the other Mouser Drivers

Your external mouse and touchpad drivers can conflict with each other. In order to fix this, you may temporarily uninstall the mouse drivers, to uninstall via Device manager.

1. Right-click on the start menu on the bottom left, select Device Manager.
2. Look for your mouse driver, right-click on the driver.
3. Select Uninstall device option.

   

4. After that, restart your laptop and your system will automatically download the mouse drivers, then check if your touchpad is working.

Change the Sensitivity of Your Touchpad

Most of the time, changing the sensitivity of the touchpad resolve this issue, to change the sensitivity of your touchpad,

1. Go to settings then choose devices then select the touchpad.
2. You should see the sensitivity dropdown of your touchpad in the middle of the screen.

   

3. Change the sensitivity according to your preference.

Note- If all the given methods did not work for you, then we recommend you to take your laptop to the repair shop.

We hope, you have successfully solved this issue by the given methods, if you have any doubts or problems related to this, we would like to hear in the comments.