Having the cursor locked when you’re in the middle of writing something is probably one of the most frustrating problems a laptop can throw. We’ll show you how to fix this, so you can quickly get back to important things.
Therefore, many laptops allow you to disable the touchpad, via a dedicated button, a combination of keys or through the BIOS.
It’s too easy to accidentally press that button and ask yourself why the cursor is locked and does not move. If you have cats, it is also very likely that you have the correct keys to turn off the trackpad without you noticing it.
When this happens, restarting your laptop will not help. Instead, you’ll need to find the button or combination of function keys that will reactivate the trackpad. It is also possible that someone else has deactivated the trackpad via Windows.
Here we will explain how to enable it again.
Look for a touchpad switch on the keyboard.
The first thing to do is check if there is a button on the keyboard that has an icon that looks like a touchpad with a line that runs through it. Press it now,and see if the cursor starts moving again.
If not,try to check your row of function keys at the top of the keyboard. Many will have icons, so look for one that can be a trackpad, usually F7, but we have also seen laptops that use F5 and F9.
It is unlikely to work simply by pressing this button, even if on some laptops it will. But in most cases, you need to press and hold the Fn key and then press the corresponding function key to bring the cursor back to real life.
Check your Windows configuration
To check if the trackpad has been disabled in Windows, click the Start button, type “mouse” in the search field, and then select Mouse (or Mouse Settings) in the search results.
In Windows 10, type directly into the search box in the taskbar.
On the Device Settings tab of the Mouse Properties screen, select the touch panel from the list. If you do not know which one to choose, click on each one and you’ll probably find that one is disabled.
Some HP laptops have an LED in the upper left corner. If yours is on, it means that the touchpad is disabled. Simply double touch (a double quick tap) to reactivate the pad.