HELP! My trackpad stopped working

My n550jk trackpad randomly stopped working. Can't do anything with it, it's like it doesn't even exist (there is no mouse arrow icon). I consider myself a tech guru so feel free to get technical to try to help. Some background

• No I do not think I suddenly installed something one day and it stopped working. It was random, the ONLY thing I can think of major that changed my Windows is I went through a major windows update recently. I checked all the updates though, nothing was driver related
• Yes I tried to reboot
• Yes I clicked the trackpad enable/disable hotkey to make sure it was enabled
• Yes I reinstalled drivers (Asus SmartGestures)
• Yes I rolled back and even tried older drivers
• No it doesn't work even if I uninstall SmartGestures
• No it still doesn't work when I unplug my USB mouse. The mouse arrow icon actually disappears when the USB mouse is unplugged
• Yes under Device Manager everything is found and working properly
• Yes touchscreen works fine
• Yes I made sure I have the newest firmware/drivers for everything related to trackpad and IO
  
• One interesting note - usually when everything is working properly, I have that SmartGestures icon on the bottom-right toolbar. After all the install/uninstall/updates I've done, that icon and app has stopped appearing in the bottom-right toolbar...not sure why

Please help!!

 

I emailed support and their response was 'go ahead and clean and reformat your computer'

That's last resort, any other suggestions?

 

lol. Asus support is like the horse doctor of the IT world. Slow, unsteady pace? Format. Sticky keys? Format.

Try downloading the ATKACPI driver package from their support pages. Install that, then reinstall the smartgesture thing. There is an.. inf-rewrite involved here, so it's possible that a windows update would update the driver info for one of the components the "incredismartfingergesture" program relies on with some explicit code or something..

Other than that, try fiddling around with the touchscreen settings. The "touch keyboard" interface has an option, apparently, to replace the other pointing devices. This could be related to the previous point, though.. I wouldn't have mentioned it except I had a friend who somehow got this problem on a touch-screen device, that the touchpad disappeared. And it had to do with the way that driver intercepted the pointer device... Solved it, as always, by uninstalling and reinstalling the devices. Which expelled the demon in the computer, I think).

I'm imagining a similar problem can happen if you have a mouse installed with it's own software, if you're unlucky.

Btw - simple way to test if the touchpad responds with a default driver: disable the touchpad "device" in the device manager. Reboot in safe-mode. Should be able to move the pointer around now. If not - probably hardware fault. Although.. hardware fault on trackpad is something I've actually never seen in person. It seems incredibly rare.

Also, you could boot up a linux live-image, for example. Download something small and functional, put it on a usb (with unetbootin, or something like that), and just boot up the live-image.

(..next episode, on "Adventures in Windows"..)

 

1. ATKACPI reinstall - Did that, not fix
2. Touchscreen settings - I'm not sure what you mean because couldn't find any settings, therefore I have never even touched settings nor change it
3. Safe mode - Doesn't work. You told me to 'disable the touchpad "device" in the device manager' well the problem is the device doesn't exist so there's nothing for me to disable

 

Can you try a linux live CD/USB such as ubuntu or mint? It will help you rule out a hardware problem.

 

Hm. And this happened after a reboot and som windows updates? That's interesting.. Not going to help figure out what it is, but that's interesting..

 

Agreed! Any live OS will do.

 

any suggestions on a small USB OS i can test on? i assume i just choose to 'boot' from it during startup?

 

..is Damn Small Linux still maintained?

PCLinux Minime editions should be an idea for something that contains things you'll use. I'm also fond of Manjaro.

But since most flavors end up being distributed in a "1Gb or less" package. It's .. already "portable" by Wind.. *cough* "normal" standards, isn't it.

Follow the directions here, and you'll be fine: Universal USB Installer – Easy as 1 2 3 | USB Pen Drive Linux

Booting it at startup without making any other changes involves.. hitting "esc" at startup/the splash screen before the Asus logo. And choosing the usb drive as the boot device. The end.

 

Any major Linux distribution will do. The most common ones seem to be Ubuntu and Linux Mint. You can also run Mini Windows XP from a Hiren's Boot CD.