Saturday, May 25, 2013

How to Fix an Unresponsive Trackpad on an Asus Aspire One

Yesterday the trackpad on my Asus Aspire One apparently stopped working. I was simply using Evernote, typing some normal text, and suddenly the trackpad quit on me. I initially feared some sort of hardware probably, but eventually came across a simpler solution. Hopefully one of the following solutions works for you.

Try these solutions in this order:

  1. Simply hit the Fn+F7 keys. On many Windows laptops, some keys have normal functions, and then a special function. The special function on most of these keys must be activated by pressing the Fn key, usually found in the lower-left hand area of your keypad. So hit Fn ("Function") and also F7, at the same time.
  2. The above does indeed work for some people. However, it did not work for me; not the first time, anyway. So if simply hitting Fn+F7 did not work for you, try restarting your computer, if possible. If you can attach an external mouse, this may be easier to navigate. Then hit F7+Fn again, when Windows has finished loading.
  3. Here is what worked for me: The trackpad gave out late at night, so instead trying to fix it right then, I simply turned in for bed. I put my computer in "hibernate" mode (which is my selected default action when the computer lid is closed), plugged it in to charge, then headed off to bed. 8 hours later, I wake up, unplug the computer, open the lid, and once everything is loaded (it takes a bit to wake up) I pressed Fn+F7 at the login screen. And it worked! I was so grateful I decided to come and share that experience. 
  4. If none of these things worked for you, let's do a special restart. Shut down, remove both battery and power cord, and press the power button for at least 30 seconds.

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Running Windows 8
Asus Aspire One - Model Q1VZC