Inspiron

[Grandpa2390]

I have the Inspiron 7590, and this issue has plagued me for a few months now. Occasionally without warning, the touchpad mouse will just stop responding. for a while I thought my computer was freezing, but one day I tried navigating with my keyboard and found that everything works except my mouse. It's almost as if the driver crashes.

Sometimes this happens when I unplug a USB mouse, sometimes it happens when I wake my computer up from hibernation, sometimes it just happens randomly. I looked in the device list to see about reinstalling the driver, but there doesn't seem to be anything in the device manager for the touchpad.

For a while I would reboot my computer to get the mouse working again. Then I discovered I could get it working again simply by putting my laptop into hibernation and then waking it back up. But while this only takes a minute or 2 to do, it's getting old after a few months of doing it two-three times a day.

It's not that the touchpad is somehow being disabled because I navigated to the mouse options using my keyboard and found that my touchpad was not disabled. I even used my keyboard to disable the mouse and reenable it in the settings, but my mouse still didn't respond. It's as if the driver has crashed and needs to be restarted. And at this point the only way I know how to do that (assuming that's what I'm doing) is to restart my computer or put it into hibernation and wake it up.

[Isaac T]

Did you ever find a solution? I'm having the exact same issue with my Latitude 5500

[Grandpa2390]

no but not too long after I posted this, maybe a couple of weeks, I did find the device in Device Manager.
I found that if I disable the device and re-enable it, the touchpad starts working again.

So here's my current method of solving the problem if the device is already open, then alt+tab to it.
otherwise:
1. [window key]

2. type Device Manager (until the device manager option shows up in the search) then press enter. for me all I have to do is type devi

3.press [tab] to highlight the name of your computer in the list, then use the [down arrow key] to move down to "Human Interface Devices"

4. with "Human Interface Devices" highlighted, press the [right arrow key], it will reveal the devices in the category.

5. press the [down arrow key] until you get to "HID-compliant touch pad" and press [enter].

6. press [tab] until the "general" tab is outlined and then the [right arrow key] to move to the "driver" tab.

7. press [tab] until the "Disable Device" button is outlined. press [enter]. press [tab] to select yes. press [enter].

8. the touch pad device is now disabled. but the button to enable it is still highlighted. so just press [enter] and your touchpad should be enabled and working again.

I leave the windows opened in case the device crashes again and needs to be restarted. then I can [alt]+[tab] to it and skip straight to step 7. For a while I looked around online to see if I could find a command prompt command or a script or something to do this automatically. I could probably write one with autohotkey but it wouldn't be the same as a command.

I wouldn't call this a solution but it's made the issue bearable. better than restarted my computer. My computer hardly ever wants to wake up from hibernation.

[patryk92307]

Hi, 

I got the same problem with touchpad. Is there any solution???

[Grandpa2390]

the only solution I have so far is the one I explained above. navigating to the device manager, disabling the touchpad driver and reenabling it. this doesn't help with two finger touch becoming erratic. the only solution to that is to put the computer to sleep/hibernate/shut down and the turn it back on.

I'll buying the m1x or m2 macbook pro when the 14/16 inch models are released. I'm sick of not having a touchpad that works.

[Grandpa2390]

you can also hit finish control (the one with the symbol on it) to right click the touch pad in the device manager list and disable it with fewer steps.

[thistlillo]

Same problem here, with an expensive Dell XPS. I bought this Dell after years of Mac and, now, I look forward going back to Apple again: even more expensive, but they work (this DELL, every once in a while, starts thinking it does not have a hard drive). Dell support only says to reinstall everything, as if it were a "short" solution.

However, thank you for your solution: this way I am able to have the touchpad working again without rebooting. This is the solution that Dell should suggest together with "reinstall everything".

[Grandpa2390]

Typing my response from an M1 MacBook Pro. I finally had enough 2 weeks ago-ish, and bought the M1. I was waiting for December and then I just said, meh. so nice. with the M1, Apple isn't really all that "more expensive" anymore. part of the reason I went ahead and just bought it. it's cheap enough that if I could buy a new cheaper computer after a year of Dell with more power that actually works like it's supposed to... I can do the same in 2-3 years if I decide I need a better Mac than the M1.

at step 5. instead of pressing enter, press Fn+Right_Cntrl (If it has the drop down menu symbol on it). it's the keyboard version of right clicking. then you can just down arrow key to the disable device. do the same to re-enable it. save a few steps.

[SoCalBritGuy]

I have pretty much the same issue. The keyboard mouse stick stops working and so does the touch pad. On investigating I see that the only active driver is for a regular mouse. My laptop is out of warranty but thankfully DELL still post the old downloads. I have found that re-installing the touch pad driver and rebooting brings back my stick and touchpad. It is no solution but it might help someone smart understand what is going on. Something is resetting which is the active driver. Another confirmation of this is that I have the pointer icon in my task bar and if I open the utility it shows a conventional mouse rather than touchpad. I am tempted to look for an updated driver from the manufacturer but I have not gone down that path yet.

[Grandpa2390]

reinstalling the driver probably works for the same reason my solution works. My solution is to reset it by disabling it and reenabling it in the device manager. something is causing the driver to freeze, crash, something. and resetting the driver fixes it (temporarily).
you could probably use the current driver (or a more current driver). I'm thinking that to install the driver it has to disable and reenable it. 
Though with the installing a driver solution, you may be able to make a macro to do it with a keyboard combo. Might need to play with that and AutoHotkey