Synaptics touchpad suddenly stopped working

Question

grahambanes 0 Newbie Poster

19 Years Ago

I have a new Acer Aspire 1670 laptop which has worked fine for the past few weeks. However, I turned it on this morning (it worked fine last night) to find that my touchpad no longer works.

I don't feel this is a hardware issue in the sense that the touchpad has become unplugged from the internal PS/2 port, because the touchpad works for about 3-4 seconds after I log onto Windows/when the desktop loads up. That's the only time it works, it doesn't even work at the welcome/logon screen.

After those 3-4 seconds, something obviously happens that's preventing it from working.

I thought it might be my Wacom Graphire II graphics tablet, which is plugged in via USB 2. However, my touchpad and tablet have worked fine together for the past few weeks and have never caused any problems.

I unplugged the tablet, and uninstalled the tablet and touchpad drivers. I then rebooted, and - navigating around with the keyboard - reinstalled the touchpad drivers and rebooted. It still won't work.

Any ideas?

pc-peripheral

Edited 10 Years Ago by pritaeas because: Closed.

87 Contributors
91 Replies
1K Views
8 Years Discussion Span
Latest Post 10 Years Ago Latest Post by pritaeas

belama 6 Posting Shark

19 Years Ago

Maybe something disables it.. try to enable it by pressing the "Fn" key and "F7".

kes166 commented: nice! +1

lisaapierce commented: you are the greatest poster EVARRRRR! +0

belama 6 Posting Shark

17 Years Ago

Thanks for the posts. I'm glad to hear that my old post is helping so many of you.

belama 6 Posting Shark

15 Years Ago

hey i found this and tried the fn+f7, but apparently when i pressed the key, my computer just dims, and still my touchpad is not working... can anyone help me?
im getting frustrated...thank you
btw im using presario on vista

My solution was meant for most Acer laptops. I'm not sure about Compaq laptops but there might be a shortcut for this laptop too. Maybe you should flip through your manual and see you can find anything. Or maybe go to Device Manager (Can't find it? click here) and try to find the touch pad in the list, right-click it, select properties and see if you can find any setting that enables/disables the pad.

Be a part of the DaniWeb community

We're a friendly, industry-focused community of developers, IT pros, digital marketers, and technology enthusiasts meeting, networking, learning, and sharing knowledge.

Danny 0 Junior Poster · Answer 1 · 2006-11-13T01:34:45+00:00

Maybe something disables it.. try to enable it by pressing the "Fn" key and "F7".

Thank you! I had a similar problem and this solved it! You kick ass. :mrgreen:

pythiumpo123 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 2 · 2006-12-22T04:51:16+00:00

Thank you guys,..
I also had a similar problem and did a lot of re-installing of drivers b4 I came across this solution....
I "registered" in this site just to thank you guys for the post!!!!!
Merry Christmas and a Happy new year to everyone.....

kuskens 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 3 · 2006-12-23T17:30:31+00:00

Just the answear I was looking for.

Thanks :)

grlfromdetroit 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 4 · 2007-04-09T14:07:02+00:00

Maybe something disables it.. try to enable it by pressing the "Fn" key and "F7".

GEEZE. It did not say disabled in the control panel for the touchpad. It said enables. I even tried to disable and re-enable it. tried different versions of drivers. The only way I knew it WAS softare was when I was reinstalling the driver for the seconds that it just completed putting the driver on the pad would work. Then freeze again.
Without finding this post I would have never known about that fn+f7 command.
and again, it said enabled in the Synaptics software.
THANKS

tais 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 5 · 2007-04-15T08:17:20+00:00

Maybe something disables it.. try to enable it by pressing the "Fn" key and "F7".

(I felt compelled enough to regesture to this site to leave a comment)

OMG, THANKS a million!!! THANK YOU THANK YOU. i was sooo dreading having to send my laptop back for repairs. i rolled back drivers, uninstalled reinstalled (with and w/o usb mouse in use) and even eventually reformatted my computer (partly b/c of that and linux problems) and i was about 2 minuts away from opening my computer when i saw FN F7.. THANKS!!!!

ninz1ph 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 6 · 2007-06-12T23:34:38+00:00

Thanks a lot Belama dude! I was about to send my laptop 1st thing in the morning for repair when i got the chance to browse on your bright suggestion! I tried every possible way as well to get the touchpad up and running like reformatting the system drive, reinstalling & updating the driver, changing the synaptics setting, disabling and enabling it on the device manager menu, etc... but nothing worked until i tried your "Fn + F7" idea! It saved me some bucks dude! Thanks a million!

mooseman99 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 7 · 2007-08-28T00:13:33+00:00

THANK YOU SO MUCH BELAMA! I was going to send in my laptop for repairs

WenJen 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 8 · 2007-08-31T07:07:49+00:00

Hey I just registered to say thank you so much. Fn + f7. Doh! Why is it next to the mute button :-/

AV99 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 9 · 2007-09-16T17:50:05+00:00

Well, on my Acer Aspire 3003LMi both the touchpad and the keybourd stopped working a few days ago and now I can only access my computer if I use external USB mouse and keyboard.

I have tried to reinstall everything but problem remains. When starting in safe mode touchpad and mouse works though (and for about 1 second after logging into windows xp (home edition).

DrWert 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 10 · 2007-11-20T21:02:50+00:00

This was driving me so bonkers. I ended up formating and reinstalling windows, then when that failed I pulled my laptop to pieces, when that didn't work I put the laptop back together again and took a look at this forum.

:)

And OMG "Fn + F7"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Belama and also grahambanes for listing.

Gez 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 11 · 2007-11-28T04:40:57+00:00

Just registered to say thank you, thank you and thank you!!!
I thought my touch pad was broken and have not been using it for a year. Now it came back alive!!! Fn + F7, what a simple solution!

365drills 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 12 · 2007-12-20T04:09:20+00:00

THanks so much!

I joined just to say thanks for this. I own an Acer Aspire 5610Z and it seems the fault is with this Acer. I thought F7 was a screen change not the touchpad.

What a nightmare before I found this forum.

Thank you so much. Richard of website http://www.365drills.com

peb 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 13 · 2009-01-26T20:43:20+00:00

Super! My touchpad stopped working too. Frustrated with this Acer Aspire 3672, I decided to google my problem and Voila! there you are with a suggestion. I tried the Fn F7 and it worked.

I also have a problem with my screen on this computer where I have to tap it and press the front side or back side to get it to show viisble.

I was told it would cost 400.00 to have this fixed. I won't pay for this. I'll keep adjusting it this way.

However, if anyone has advice on this or how I can go into the screen of my laptop and check the cables, etc.

Thank you! I had a similar problem and this solved it! You kick ass. :mrgreen:

ardnasacilegn 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 14 · 2009-01-27T15:23:42+00:00

hey i found this and tried the fn+f7, but apparently when i pressed the key, my computer just dims, and still my touchpad is not working... can anyone help me?

im getting frustrated...thank you

btw im using presario on vista

yesh 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 15 · 2009-04-05T22:34:23+00:00

I have a new Acer Aspire 1670 laptop which has worked fine for the past few weeks. However, I turned it on this morning (it worked fine last night) to find that my touchpad no longer works.
I don't feel this is a hardware issue in the sense that the touchpad has become unplugged from the internal PS/2 port, because the touchpad works for about 3-4 seconds after I log onto Windows/when the desktop loads up. That's the only time it works, it doesn't even work at the welcome/logon screen.
After those 3-4 seconds, something obviously happens that's preventing it from working.
I thought it might be my Wacom Graphire II graphics tablet, which is plugged in via USB 2. However, my touchpad and tablet have worked fine together for the past few weeks and have never caused any problems.
I unplugged the tablet, and uninstalled the tablet and touchpad drivers. I then rebooted, and - navigating around with the keyboard - reinstalled the touchpad drivers and rebooted. It still won't work.
Any ideas?

THanks a million belama!!!!!!was jsut gonnas end it fr service....thx a lot....u amde my day...

martlark 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 16 · 2009-04-14T16:14:05+00:00

hmm, is that what the icon with the finger pointing at a square is for? Thanks for getting my mouse pad back!

Jackoz 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 17 · 2009-05-01T20:47:22+00:00

I have a Toshiba Satelite A200 running vista Home.P.which had same problem with synaptics touchpad not working problem, was Fn + F9.
In this case if you hold down the Fn key Fn function icon shadows drop down at top of screen.
thanks to these threads got me on the right path.
Great site thanks people.

smcg720 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 18 · 2009-05-22T20:10:58+00:00

thanks all. Know this is a later update to this thread, but still pops up recently in google. The tipped worked, but for my computer (toshiba) it was fn +f9. Same issue, stopped working and this redid it. Thanks for the tip.

Uncle Bernie 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 19 · 2009-06-09T05:50:01+00:00

Hi there! Can anyone help me? I have a Acer Aspire 3680. Where my touch pad is there is a directional key (4 way) that is not working. Does anyone know what I am talking about?

Uncle Bernie 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 20 · 2009-06-09T05:52:08+00:00

Underneath my touchpad there is a square button with directional features as the arrow keys. It stopped working. Does anyone know how to fix that? Please!

asp0713 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 21 · 2009-07-03T08:00:18+00:00

Maybe something disables it.. try to enable it by pressing the "Fn" key and "F7".

As with the others, I also felt compelled to join this forum after I found your recommendation simply to thank you. Thank you for the solution.

inferno_sin 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 22 · 2009-08-25T11:59:13+00:00

THANK YOU SO MUCH

My old HP laptop broke down not too long ago and the first thing to go was the touchpad, it just died randomly one day and it was also made by synaptic.

When it stopped working it literally scared the living shit out of me and I am so glad that such an easy solution was available for this. Its odd since i didn't disable it in the control panel or anything, I suppose acer's custom things are a bit different than the third party software.

Anyways thank you for everything

grimface 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 23 · 2009-09-11T22:57:29+00:00

i registered just to say thank you. i was about to have my laptop repaired. hahaha. you saved me a lot of money! yay!

Kimberlee104 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 24 · 2009-10-15T21:25:36+00:00

I am having this problem with my HP. Although I tried the Fn + f7 and all it did was dim my screen. This is probably the 3rd time this has happened. I am wondering if I should return the computer. Last time I got it to work by restarting the computer. This is really a pain.
Thanks for any advice!

KingMedabe 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 25 · 2009-10-16T08:06:44+00:00

I had this same problem, then I pushed Fn and F7, and it solved it. I have a really laggy comp and sometimes I type keys cuz I get pretty angry, I must have somehow pushed them at the sametime, thanks.

jhonrangel1 0 Newbie Poster · Answer 26 · 2009-10-28T00:03:30+00:00

SIN TANTA HABLADERA, PRESIONA FCN+F7

POR LO MENOS ENVÍAME UN MENSAJE PARA AGRADECERME A: jhonrangel1@hotmail.com

GRACIAS