Whatever you frequently use, the day it stops working can ruin your schedule and life. It could confuse and frustrate you, especially when you don’t know how to troubleshoot it.
Similarly, your Samsung laptop touchpad problem could be devastating because you won’t be able to navigate freely on your laptop. Your worries increase when it dawns on you that your laptop might have developed a fault.
We understand your trouble or concern, as most users have reported this same problem. But don’t panic! This problem is not unusual, and you can fix it without stress.
If you want the best troubleshooting guides to fix your “Samsung laptop touchpad not working” problem fast, sit back, relax, get your laptop close and read along.
Samsung Laptop Touchpad Not Working: Possible Causes
A fast way to restore your laptop touchpad functionality is to troubleshoot it with some procedures. But first, you need to understand the origin of the problem. Your Samsung Laptop touchpad might not be working because of the following reasons:
- Locked touchpad
- Hardware fault
- Outdated drivers
- A war between external devices
- Conflicting software programs
Samsung Laptop Touchpad Not Working: How To Fix
Now, let’s fix your Samsung laptop touchpad. Follow the processes we’ve established. The steps are simplified, and you don’t need to understand technical jargon to follow them. However, note that you’ll need to get your hands on an external mouse, except if you have a touchscreen.
1. Unlock The Touchpad
There’s a good chance your Samsung laptop is not working because it is locked or disabled.
But I didn’t lock it. How did that happen?
That’s because your laptop has functions or key combinations that can disable the touchpad. You might have inadvertently pressed these combinations while operating your computer. Furthermore, there’s usually a touchpad disabled zone. It’s a dot on the top left corner of the touchpad. If you double-tap it, your touchpad will get locked.
You can unlock your touchpad by pressing these key combinations or using the dot on the touchpad. Firstly, check if the dot is displaying red or orange. Suppose it is, double tap it to unlock your touchpad. You’ll know it works when the color light is turned off.
If that doesn’t work, search your keyboard for the Fn and F5 keys. Press both simultaneously to unlock the keyboard.
Alternatively, you can disable the touchpad from the Settings tab as follows:
- Press Windows + X key simultaneously.
- Select Settings from the popup menu
- Select Devices and click on Mouse and Touchpad
- From the option, select Additional Mouse and click on the Touchpad tab( it could be the Device settings tab or Hardware tab in some cases)
- Ensure the touchpad is enabled
- Restart your laptop and check your Touchpad.
You can also try to reset your touchpad settings. The steps might be a bit different depending on the operating system you’re running on your laptop.
If you run Windows 10, follow the above steps. When you get to the Touchpad settings menu, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on Reset. For Windows 11 users:
- Click on Touchpad again. The prompt will start a dropdown menu
- Select Reset. You will find it beside the Reset touchpad settings and gestures to defaults.
- Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the process
- If the option is grayed out, you’ve never changed the touchpad’s settings.
Some external mice can cause conflict and slow down the touchpad. Moreover, some external mice automatically turn off the touchpad when you connect them. The solution is simple, Unplug any external devices you connect to your laptop. Such external devices include a USB mouse, dongle, or hard drive.
2. Restart Your Laptop
This is a default troubleshooting method for most technological problems. Restarting your computer refreshes it and corrects some minor glitches or errors that might be causing malfunctions. It also gives the laptop a clean state and session. Therefore, after unplugging all external devices, restart your computer. For the best result, you can unplug your laptop battery(if applicable) and only plug it back after a few minutes. Retry your touchpad and check if it’s now working.
3. Update Your Laptop Drivers
Outdated or corrupted drivers may affect the touchpad. If the problem isn’t from hardware components, it’s related to incorrect laptop drivers, i.e., outdated or corrupted drivers. You should check for windows updates and driver updates to exclude this possibility. It’s also a great idea to get some other device drivers or essential updates.
Driver updates such as touchpad drivers should be a major driver to install immediately. Drivers are usually available on manufacturers’ websites for download. You should visit the Samsung support system or use Samsung Update to download the latest driver for your laptop.
If you don’t want to install the drivers manually to avoid the risk of downloading the wrong ones, you can explore third-party apps to install the drivers.
For easy diagnosis, follow the simple steps below to update your system drivers through system update:
- Go to your Pc and select Start
- Click on Settings and choose Update & Security or Windows Update
- Now select the Check for updates option
- Windows will automatically scan for updates. If it finds, the updates will download and install automatically.
Some drivers might be considered optional updates. We recommend you install all to boost the chances of solving your touchpad problem. After the installation, restart your laptop before trying the touchpad again.
4. Troubleshoot Hardware Problems
If the problem persists, you can try to use the troubleshooting utility in Windows. This tool will robotically resolve any hardware issue detected. You can follow these steps to try the method:
- Go to Settings, click Home and search for Control Panel
- In the Control panel home, click on troubleshooting
- Select Hardware and Sound option
- Then, click on Hardware and tools option
- Select next and wait for the troubleshooting process to run
- Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the troubleshooting
- Reboot your laptop and try the connection again.
5. Factory Reset Your Laptop
If there’s still a problem with the touchpad, perhaps you should factory reset your PC to confirm that the problem is not from any software installed on the laptop. If there’s Samsung Recovery on your PC, we recommend you use it to reset your computer.
Alternatively, you can search for Reset in the search bar of your PC and follow the on-screen prompts to reset your PC. It’s imperative to state that a factory reset will completely delete all your system files, data, and settings. Therefore ensure you have backed up all your data before running the process.
6. Request Service
If the problem is not resolved after the reset, you should contact the Samsung Support center to request services.