3 Posts
1
38759
Dell Touchpad Driver Issues
(Just a heads up, I'm by no means tech-savvy.)
I've had an issue with my Dell laptop that runs Windows 10, I've spent a good chunk of today figuring out, with no solution and a possible new issue. With no warning, my laptop's touchpad started behaving strangely today. It would change sensitivity in the middle of using it and the two-touch scrolling and zooming won't work. Nothing in the settings changed nor have I downloaded anything between yesterday and opening my laptop today.
I assume it had something to do with the drivers connected to the touchpad. When I go to Device Manager, both the HID-compliant touchpad and HID-compliant mouse with the same file location (I2C HID Device), both their Device Statuses stated: "Currently, this hardware device is not connected to the computer. (Code 45) To fix this problem, reconnect this hardware device to the computer".
It's the built-in touchpad, so I had no way as far as I could research to just "reconnect this hardware device". I attempted to update the drivers to no avail. I tried many other different solutions, restarting my laptop various times within the process, including the official Window's support. One of the solutions listed was "try uninstalling your touchpad driver: open Device Manager, right-click (or press and hold) the touchpad driver, and select Uninstall. Restart your device and Windows will attempt to reinstall the driver."
I didn't know which one it meant, so i uninstalled both drivers, after restarting, neither were found in the Device Manager. My touchpad is still functional, though it's still got the issues mentioned before. Now I'm trying to find a place to download the touchpad drivers, none of which so far are "compatible" with my model. I even tried the part of Dell support where you directly put in your model number and such to get a direct diagnosis, but I couldn't find any touchpad driver.
I'm finally at the end of my wits and am here to look for direct answers. Who knows, with how inconsistent Windows 10 is and problems seem to come and go, maybe I could or could have just waited and the problem will fix itself. But I get very concerned over hiccups like this in case there's a bigger issue, and I know so little about this stuff that I can jump into doing things without fully thinking and possibly make things worse.
Agnes3DS
3 Posts
3
May 8th, 2020 19:00
I have found the true origin of my issue and managed to find a solution!
I didn't notice it, but there's a driver under Human Interface Devices called "I2C HID Device" that had a yellow triangle with an exclamation point on the icon. When I look at the status it has Code 10 and couldn't run.
After finding the real issue, I managed to find the correct solution. First, make sure the driver is fully updated to see if fully updating fixes the issue. If it doesn't, continue to the solution I used:
WARNING: It's highly advised to make a backup of either the Registry Editor folder you plan on modifying or create a restore point for your whole computer. Information on how to do either can be found here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/322756/how-to-back-up-and-restore-the-registry-in-windows
After you've ensured you're all backed up, you can continue. I followed two guides for this, the one from Reddit doesn't lead to the exact location (or the information is outdated) but it has a better fail-safe solution rather than deleting the upperfilters file completely. The other from LifeWire is completely fine except that it doesn't tell you to replace the file. I'll leave the sources but I will be combining the guides into one and try to simplify it:
https://www.reddit.com/r/computer/comments/cj7xw0/how_to_fix_i2c_hid_device_code_10_could_not_start/
https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-delete-the-upperfilters-and-lowerfilters-registry-values-2619222
Step 1: Open Registry Editor with Windows + R and type "regedit"
Step: 2: navigate the folders to reach this point: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class
Step 3: Under the Class folder, you'll find a long list of keys. If you're issue is like mine and is related to only the touchpad, find and open 4D36E96F-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318 (take your time, make sure you don't modify the wrong folder)
Step 4: If you see the file "Upperfilters", delete it.
Step 5: Right click, select "new", select "New Multi-String Value" and name it "Upperfilters". You're essentially remaking the file you just deleted.
Step 6: Double click on the new "Upperfilters" value you just made. In the "Value Data" box, type "mouclass" and save. You might have a pop-up say something along the lines of "we can't register blank lines" but you can just ignore it. I don't know if the system is cap sensitive, but just in case I used the exact capitalization used in the reddit post. Capital U for Upperfilters, and all low caps for mouclass.
You should now have a replacement file with the following information:
Name: Upperfilters Type: REG_MULTI_SZ Data: mouclass
Now restart your computer, if it worked, nothing should be broken and your touchpad issues should be fixed! No more yellow triangle on the I2C HID Device!
Agnes3DS
3 Posts
0
May 8th, 2020 18:00
Update: I remembered the system restore point feature existed, so I managed to restore my laptop to a state from a few days ago and I got the drivers back luckily! I'm still experiencing the touch pad issues, but I'm way less worried now