Touchpad Disabled
Touchpad Disabled: a reader asks…
I’ve been using my Toshiba laptop with a USB mouse for a long time. Recently I had to go somewhere and didn’t take my mouse. When I turned on the laptop, my built-in touchpad wasn’t working. Do you have a quick fix?
You might have disabled your touchpad awhile back, since when you use a mouse, an active touchpad can cause inadvertent mistakes while typing on the keyboard. For Toshiba computers, there’s a simple keyboard combination you can try that might turn it on for you. Just press the Fn key while simultaneously pressing the F9 key. You should see an on-screen confirmation that the touchpad is enabled or disabled (this key combination alternates every time you press it). Toshiba touchpads do seem to be ‘touchy’ in that they stop working at odd times.
Other brands of laptop with touchpads may have a different key combination, for example, Samsung uses the Fn/F10 combination and Lenovo Thinkpads use the Fn/F8 combination. If you look at the alternate symbols on each of the F keys (above the number keys), you might see one that looks something like a touchpad – a rectangle of some sort. And some laptops have a hardware switch located somewhere that turns the touchpad on or off.
If a simple key combination isn’t available or doesn’t work, then you have a bit more of a problem. It might be easiest to borrow someone else’s mouse or buy a cheap one (if wireless, you need both the mouse and the USB connector) in order to access the mouse controls. In Microsoft Windows, these will be in your control panel under “Mouse”.
For all touchpad users, I recommend you disable tapping and use the physical mouse buttons that are included with the touchpad. It’s just too easy to make mistakes with inadvertent tapping.
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Author: Chris Gardner
Your Tech Coach at PosiTek.net
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