Laptop trackpad problem. Pointer will not go up or down.
We have an Inspiron 1420 laptop with a normal trackpad. Recently we’ve had a problem where the pointer will not go down no matter how much you drag your finger down on the trackpad. The pointer will still go left and right, but not up or down. It usually lasts a minute or so and then it stops, but I’m worried that if we don’t find a solution then it will get worse. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!
This could be software related issue. You can try reimaging the hard dive, it might help. Backup all important data and then reinstall the operating system and drivers form the recovery discs. If reimaging the hard drive will not help, most likely the trackpad is going bad and you’ll have to replace it.
If you don’t want to reinstall Windows, you can test the laptop this way. Boot your laptop from any live Linux CD, I usually use Knoppix. This will boot your laptop into Linux OS bypassing Windows installed on the hard drive. You don’t need any special Linux knowledge for this test because it will boot your laptop into a Windows like environment. All you need to do is create a bootable Linux CD, boot your laptop to the desktop and test the trackpad. If you still experiencing the same problem even with Linux running from the CD, your problem is related to the hardware, apparently you have bad trackpad.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
UNIT TYPE: Gateway CX2618 convertible/pen based laptop. I dropped the unit but thankfully it was under warranty. Motherboard, Keyboard, Top and Bottom Plastic shells, USB card etc. replaced and fully licensed Windows XP (for pen based computing) reinstalled. Received new battery and power adapter. Problem…when I unplug the power cord from the unit and thereby go to battery power, the cursor jumps to the upper right hand corner of the LCD and remains stuck in a 1″ by 1″ area. This holds true when the touchpad, external mouse or a wireless mouse is used. I even tried using the old battery and power cord to no avail. I’ve done a Google search and actually have found this problem to be more common than I ever thought. However, I have never been able to find a solution to the problem. Again, all mouse devices work fine unless I go to battery power. I have read that “battery drivers” exist but have not been able to find one anywhere on the internet (microsoft, battery oem, gateway etc.). Your help is appreciated
September 6th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
hello
well im not sure if im supposed to ask my problem here..oh well..
well its about my touchpad i used to scroll down and up using the right hand side of touchpad, but one day it just stopped working!
what is the matter?
thnx
October 2nd, 2008 at 8:51 am
i have a toshiba laptop, with vista.
today the cursor just stopped moving and i didn’t to anything different than what i always do when using the laptop.
i don’t have an actual mouse, i use the touchpad and have tried rebooting the laptop, too.
i don’t know what else to do.
March 24th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
I also just bought a Toshiba Satellite L305D-S5904 less then two months ago and have used it maybe no more then 15 times. Doesn’t have one scratch on it and I bought it at Best Buy! I had a friend of mine look at it. He said it was either the motherboard or touchpad. I know things happen, but this is my first toshiba. I see noname had the same problem. I sent it back to get serviced. My question is, is this normal or are other having problems like this? Thanks……… Joshua
March 24th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Joshua James,
If your touchpad stopped working at all, try enabling it, maybe it’s just disabled.
Press and hold down the Fn key and at the same time press once on F9.
Answering your question. I’m fixing a lot of Toshiba laptops and your problem is not common.
October 6th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
my laptop shuts down unexpectedly
sometimes I get a hdd error & sometimes it just shuts down