Touchpad issues

[Trime]

Well I turned on my laptop today and the touchpad is not responding at all. It was working fine when I turned the computer off the day before and have never had any similar problems with hardware on the machine in 2 years of owning it.

I tried reinstalling it via the folder all of that stuff came pre-installed in. Unfortunately this has had no effect and it is still not responding.

Any ideas on how I can pinpoint the problem or if I am missing anything obvious here?

-Edited for typos.

[Epical]

I get people come into work all the time with problems like this and more often than not it's because someone hit the turnoffthetouchpad button. What brand of laptop do you have? For example, if it's a higher-end Toshiba, the touchpad should be lit up with a blueish background. To enable the touchpad again, hit the top right corner. If HP, I believe it's Fn+F11 to get the touchpad back.

But yeah, look for the small little symbols on the top row of your keyboard for something that resembles a hand/touchpad. Unless your laptop is really old or has be physically ouched in the last little while, there's no real reason as to why it should suddenly stop working.

Random thought: have you installed a USB keyboard in the past little while?

[Killgannon]

you didnt say it... but have you taken it apart at all recently? or did you drop it? but yea also do what epical said cause it could be that simple

edit: i dont know how to read/i can't see... Koga =! epical... =/

[Trime]

Laptop is an Acer Aspire 2020. Nothing special just ordered if off their site.

I am aware of the 'turnofftouchpad' function and it was the first thing I tried when it stopped working. So unfortunately nothing that simple.

I have been using a USB mouse since the touchpad stopped functioning but haven't actually used any hardware USB or other connection that could have interferred with it.

Regarding whether its been dropped or jolted. Not by me personally but I guess its possible or even likely seeing as how we have several pets.

How would I go about checking if the hardware is still recognised by the machine or if a possible physical action has completely stopped that. I have tried the basic check for hardware thats connected but not installed but I can't see the touchpad on that list.

[Killgannon]

when you unplug your usb mouse do you still see a mouse in device manager?