laptop crashed and touchpad not working anymore

Question

Hello, Hopefully someone will be able to assist me in figuring out what is wrong with my laptop.  I have an alienware m17x r4. It crashed a couple times.  The first time i was watching a video in fullscreen and the screen went black and it just turned off.  I turned it back on and windows failed to start.  This happened twice and as i was about to get concerned it finally booted and everything seemed fine then about 4 seconds after i logged into windows it crashed again, with the same thing.  It turned on fine right away but the mouse was a little 'fidgety' and then completely stopped working after about 10 seconds.  Other than that everything seems fine, I tried restoring from a restore point 4 days ago and it still is not working properly.  Any ideas what is wrong? In the device manager i checked the drivers and they are all up to date.

DELL-Babita S · Answer

Hi Mkmartinez,

Welcome to Dell Community Forum.

You may need to update the touchpad drivers from the Dell Support Website. Please click on the link below to download and install the drivers. Select the correct operating system prior to downloading the drivers. Synaptics touchpad drivers are listed under the sub-category Input.

http://dell.to/YysXFH

Let me know if further help is needed.

Thanks and regards,
Babita S
#iworkforDell

For easy access to drivers, manuals and product updates, please visit our Support Site .

mkmartinez · Answer

thank you for the response, i tried downloading the driver from the dell website unfortunately the touchpad is still unresponsive.  As i said everything looks fine in the device manager, the driver is up to date and says it is functioning properly

DELL-Babita S · Answer

Hi Mkmartinez,

Thank you for your reply.

Since the touchpad is not responding at all, there may be a possibility that it has been disabled in error. When you press + , the touchpad is either enabled or disabled.

Press this key combination to switch off or to switch on the touch pad function and the illumination around the touch pad.

The article in the link mentioned below provides information on how to use the Touchpad disable/enable hot key on your Alienware Laptop to disable or enable the Touchpad on your computer.

http://dell.to/15joObN

Hope this helps resolve the issue.

Let me know if further help is needed.

Thanks and regards,
Babita S
#iworkforDell

For easy access to drivers, manuals and product updates, please visit our Support Site .

mkmartinez · Answer

It is definately not disabled.  The touch pad is on and not responsive

DELL-Babita S · Answer

Hi Mkmartinez,

Thank you for your reply.

I am sorry to hear that the issue has not been resolved as yet. Since the touchpad is still not responding, you may need to first un-install the Synaptics drivers and then re-install the same on your computer. Even if the drivers show as up-to-date, please un-install and re-install the same. The BIOS firmware on your computer may also need to be updated.

To proceed on reinstalling the touchpad driver and BIOS on your Alienware laptop, perform the next steps:

Download the Touchpad driver according to your Alienware Laptop Model. Click on this link to download the drivers from the Dell Support website: http://dell.to/YysXFH
After downloading the driver, Click on "Start" , click on "Control Panel" and open "Programs and Features" .
Locate the "Synaptics Touchpad" driver and click it.
Click on "Change / Remove" button to proceed with the uninstall.
Restart your computer after the uninstall is complete.
When your system is back into Windows, proceed to execute the driver previously downloaded on Step 1.
After the driver installation is done, restart your computer one more time to complete the process.
Open the Synaptics Touchpad and Disable Touchpad / Pointing Stick when external USB mouse is present.

BIOS can be downloaded and updated using the same link mentioned above.

Plug your computer to a good, working UPS before you update the BIOS. If you experience a loss of AC power or a significant voltage sag/spike during the BIOS flash, you will either have to replace the BIOS chip or motherboard. Ensure all external USB devices are disconnected and there is no disk in the Optical drive prior to flashing the BIOS.

Please keep me posted with the results.

Thanks and regards,
Babita S
#iworkforDell

For easy access to drivers, manuals and product updates, please visit our Support Site .

DELL-Babita S · Answer

Hi Mkmartinez,

Unfortunately we have not received feedback from you on this topic. If you need continued support, please respond to my post.

Thanks and regards,
Babita S
#iworkforDell

For easy access to drivers, manuals and product updates, please visit our Support Site .

Locked Topics – Laptops General

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