Acer Touchpad Not Working

PROBLEM: ACER TOUCHPAD NOT WORKING

This is a funny story. I have today upgraded Vista through Microsoft Upgrade. However, the required restart didn't work. I had to turn the laptop off as it was stuck in the "Logging Off" screen.

Everything turned out fine after restart, except -- The Synaptics TouchPad did not work. Neither the Pad to move the mouse pointer, nor the Left and Right Buttons.


Luckily I had the external Microsoft wireless mouse attached. The USB wireless mouse worked, so I was not impaired.

Tried rebooting to no avail. Looked for the new driver on manufacturer's website, uninstalled, installed again (it was the same version anyways), no change. Touchpad is still not working!

A quick search on the web revealed what the solution is:

SOLUTION FOR "ACER TOUCHPAD NOT WORKING" SOUGHT

It turns out that, while trying to restart laptop after the software upgrade, I was pushing various buttons that I knew not what they were for. In the top row of the keyboard. Such as turn off screen, the ZZZ button that put laptop to sleep (but after coming back still ended in the "logging off" mode). etc. One of the infamous buttons was the Fn-F7. That one's pic has something that looks like a hand over a square - the Touchpad. It's an on-off switch for the Touchpad! Who knew! I played with this only as the computer was shutting down. I did not need touchpad at that time to find out it was disabled. Funny.

SOLUTION FOR "ACER TOUCHPAD NOT WORKING" FOUND

So press Fn-F7 and your touchpad is back. Simple as that.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

Did you have a similar problem? Where is the touchpad on/off button on your laptop? Leave me a comment, would you? Thanks!