How to Install a Touchpad on a Lenovo Ideapad Laptop

The touch panel successfully replaces a conventional computer mouse, so if it does not work, then users immediately begin to look for how to turn on the touchpad on a laptop. You can do this in several ways: using hot keys, in the BIOS, or by reinstalling drivers.

Laptop reboot

Sometimes troubleshooting a touchpad can be done by simply restarting the laptop. After restarting the system, the TouchPad starts functioning without failures again, so that the user does not have to resort to other methods for restoring the health described below. To perform a reboot, you can connect a regular computer mouse to the laptop. If there is no external mouse, but you cannot use the built-in mouse, reboot from the keyboard. There are several ways:

  • Click on the Win button (it shows the Windows logo) to open the Start menu. Using the arrows, go to the “Shutdown” item, press Enter and select reboot.
  • Press CtrlAltDelete and use the arrows to go to the menu button with shutdown modes.
  • From the desktop, press AltF4 and use the arrows to select a reboot.

If the problem persists after a restart, then use one of the following methods to troubleshoot the touch panel.

Hotkeys

On almost all laptops, the TouchPad is turned on / off using one of the keys from the F1-F12 series, pressed in combination with the Fn button. For example, on laptops ASUS operates a combination of FnF9. Possible combinations for other manufacturers:

  • Acer. Fn F7.
  • Samsung. Fn F5.
  • Dell. Fn F5.
  • Lenovo. Fn F8 and Fn F5.
  • Toshiba. Fn F5.
  • Sony. Fn F1.

To understand which key is suitable, the applied drawing will help, which usually shows the crossed out touch panel.

How to Install a Touchpad on a Lenovo Ideapad Laptop

You can enable the touchpad on your HP laptop using the dedicated button above the touch panel. If there is no separate button, pay attention to the Touchpad itself. If there is a small indentation or dot on the built-in mouse, try double-clicking on it.

Enabling the Synaptics Touchpad

If the laptop has a touchpad manufactured by Synaptics, then it has additional parameters through which the TouchPad is turned off. To check if the sensor is turned on:

  1. Open the control panel and go to the “Hardware and Sound” section. Go to the “Mouse” subsection.
  2. In the properties of the mouse, go to the tab “Device Settings” (may be called ELAN).
  3. Click the Enable button, if available, and save the configuration by clicking OK.

There may be another useful option in the mouse settings, when activated, the touch panel will automatically turn off when an external input device is connected. If the TouchPad does not work when the mouse is connected to the laptop, the reason for this is just the above option.

If the “Enable” button is inactive, then the cause of the error should be sought elsewhere. for example, in the BIOS settings.

BIOS Setup

The basic I / O system displays all the main components of a laptop. Accordingly, they can also be controlled from here, and the touch panel is no exception.

  1. Reboot the laptop. When turned on, press the Delete or F2 key to enter the BIOS.
  2. Go to the “Advanced” tab and find the “Internal Pointing Device” parameter. Set it to “Enabled”.
  3. Save the configuration by pressing F10 and “Y”.

The names of the partitions and parameters differ on different versions of the BIOS, so it is better to find the operating instructions for your laptop model on the official website of the laptop manufacturer and carefully study it.

Reinstalling drivers

For any device to work properly, certain software is required. You can download drivers for the touch panel on the website of the laptop manufacturer in the “Support” or “Service” section. When downloading, you need to pay attention to the following data:

  • Laptop model.
  • Version of the installed system.
  • Bit depth Windows (x86 (x32) or x64).

Maximum compatibility is achieved when all three parameters coincide. But if there are exceptions: if the bit depth of the system must necessarily match, then the version of Windows is allowed to be different. For example, on Windows 10, some drivers from Windows 8 will work normally, provided that an update has not been released for the top ten.

If the drivers are downloaded as an executable file with the extension exe, then they can be installed like any program using the installation wizard. If the installation wizard fails, add the drivers manually:

  1. Open the control panel, set the “Large Icons” view and launch the device manager.
  2. Expand the “Mouse” section and find the touchpad. Right-click on it and select “Properties”.
  3. Make sure the device is in use and working properly.
  4. Click on the “Driver” tab. First, try rolling back the software by clicking on the button of the same name. If the driver rollback did not solve the problem, click “Update”.
  5. A window for selecting the update mode will appear. If you have already downloaded the necessary software from the manufacturer’s website, select the manual installation.
  6. Specify the path to the downloaded drivers and wait for the installation to complete.

After reinstalling the drivers, restart the laptop. At the next start, check the touchpad. If it does not start functioning, it may be due to physical damage. In this case, the question of how to turn on the touchpad should already be asked by a specialist in a service center. Damaged can be:

  1. A cable connecting the touchpad to the motherboard.
  2. The sensor itself (for example, the panel cracked due to impact).
  3. The South Bridge is a microcircuit responsible for the operation of peripheral devices. If the south bridge is damaged, the USB and LAN ports often also fail.

You can disassemble the laptop yourself using the instructions for your model, but this is not recommended, as unprofessional interference is fraught with the appearance of even more serious problems.