Touchpad not working

muppet_man

Hi all,

Hopefully someone here can help.
My brother has a problem with his new laptop and because I work for a certain semi-conductor manufactor has asked me to fix :rolleyes:
The kids where using the laptop to watch a DVD when we think they clicked or pressed some combination of keys the result of which the mouse no longer works. The arrow just stays in middle of screen.
Using the keys I was able to get into control panel and have a look at the mouse. It said mouse was working fine and I couldn't see an option which said enable/disable mouse. Any ideas what it could be.
Its running Win 7 if that helps.

Thanks in advance

dilallio

What make of laptop is it?
You could reinstall the touchpad driver and this should solve the issue. You can plug in a USB mouse to allow you to do this easier.

The driver will either be on a CD or you can download from the manufacturers website.

muppet_man

It's a Dell Inspiron (think it's a 1500 not sure though)
Am I right in thinking, reinstalling drivers is some where in the control panel?

JonathanAnon

You could download Ubuntu, run the "boot from CD to try it out" version and see if it works in that.. If it doesnt then it could be a hardware fault...

Did you spill anything on the keyboard?

muppet_man

JonathanAnon wrote: »

Did THEY spill anything on the keyboard?

Brother was in same room and didn't mention they spilt anything, so no

dilallio

Dont think an Inspiron 1500 is a valid model but if you go onto the Dell drivers url : http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=ie&cs=iedhs1&l=en&s=dhs

Click on Service Tag (if u have a spare mouse to plug in), and enter the service tag which is located underneath the laptop.

Select the version of Windows from the drop-down list (Windows 7 / Vista / XP).

Then click on Input Device Drivers, and download the Dell Driver for the Touchpad.

Run it and it will replace your current driver.

muppet_man

Thanks for that dilallio .
The spanner forgot to give me the charger :rolleyes: so will have to wait till tomorrow to try your suggestion

hearny

Sounds like they just disabled the trackpad.

Sometimes laptops have a key combination for this.

Its usually hold Fn (bottom left hand corner in blue) and one of the F keys at the top.

Look at the keys for a shape that looks like a trackpad usually big square with 2 rectangles underneath.

May not be on the laptop but its worth a look.

hearny

Forgot to say the icons on the F key are blue

muppet_man

hearny wrote: »

Sounds like they just disabled the trackpad.

Sometimes laptops have a key combination for this.

Its usually hold Fn (bottom left hand corner in blue) and one of the F keys at the top.

Look at the keys for a shape that looks like a trackpad usually big square with 2 rectangles underneath.

May not be on the laptop but its worth a look.

Thanks hearny that was exactly the problem
Beside the control keys for watching the DVD there was a touchpad enable/disable key. They must of hit off that :rolleyes:
So mystery solved, thanks all for your helpful replies.