Touchpad suddenly not working

Touchpad suddenly not working on A715-74G laptop.

Laptop is only 4 months old and has already had issues with WiFi connection dropping out, so I've had to buy a separate USB WiFi Adapter, and now the touchpad is suddenly not working when it was fine yesterday. A plug in mouse works fine.

Drivers updated and no change. Losing my patience with Acer now, having spent over £1000 for a brand new laptop with decent spec so I can start my own business and am spending my time fixing and researching issues with the laptop rather than focusing on finding new clients. So disappointed and angry.

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JackE

Open ControlPanel. Search 'restore point'. Click 'create a restore point' in the left pane. In the box that pops up, check if SystemProtection is turned on. If it is, click on the SystemRestore button. Click next. Select 'restore point' with a date/time stamp that coincides approximately with the time when the touchpad stopped working.

As for the wifi problem, open DeviceManager. Remove USB wifi adapter. Click network adapters folder. Right click the internal wifi adapter. Click properties. Click Advance tab. Click Preferred band. Select 2.4GHz band. If that doesn't work Click 5GHz band.

Jack E/NJ

MattskiG

Thanks for your reply Jack. I'm more concerned about the touchpad issue at the moment, but having tried your suggestion above there was no system restore point to go back to. The laptop had only been working properly for a few days since the full reset, and clearly this setting was off as a default.

Any other suggestions or am I back to smashing my head against the wall?

JackE

>>>[SystemProtection] was off as a default.>>>

Unfortunately, I suspect an errant auto Win10 update got in there while you weren't looking but didn't create an auto restore point without SystemProtection being turned on. To try to avoid another factory reset, open DeviceManager. Do you see any red or yellow driver warnings? If none, download and install iobit's DriverBooster freeware to see if it'll pick up anything off the net to fix the touchpad issue. But before you do anything, turn on SystemProtection in ControlPanel's restore point app just in case you get things working again only to have another update come along and mess it up again. Such is the new & unimproved Win10 lifecycle policies. It isn't like your old Win7 anymore. Quite frankly, this is why I default boot to the relative stablility of LinuxMint Cinnamon GUI on my ACER and HP machines set up to have nearly the same look, feel, function and stability of Win7 while still having full access and editing capability to my old work on the Win10 partitions. Jack E/NJ

MattskiG

Thanks again, Jack.

I have turned on System Protection now for C and D drives.

The Device Manager showed no yellow or red warning icons, and although IObit driver booster did find 18 drivers to update (464.30MB when Windows says all are up to date...), the 'HID Compliant Touch Pad' showed as up to date and nothing was installed for it. I'm assuming this is for both the touchpad and left/right keys.

I guess I'm now back to trying a reset from USB drive with a fresh copy of Windows 10 on? Is there anything else to try?

My only concern is, other than it not fixing the problems, if I do the reset and the touchpad doesn't work still, I'm not going to be able to plug and play the wired mouse I'm currently using, so I will then absolutely be without my laptop.

Whilst inconvenient and really frustrating when I've spent such a lot of money on something brand new for a new business, at least I am able to deal with my clients at the moment, while having no laptop at all would see me go under and lose everything.

I can't believe I'm literally depending on a USB mouse and a £10 WiFi adapter for my entire income, but that's what it boils down to. Despite the £1000+ brand new laptop... ARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHH!

Also, is this definitely a Windows 10 issue rather than an Acer issue? (OS vs hardware). I'm not sure there's any way to tell.

Appreciate your advice anyway, you don't have to help out so it's kinda of you to try ☺

JackE

You can do an ACER factory reset from the hidden ACER factory recovery partition using the ALT+F10 cold boot reset. This is the best way to rule in or rule out a hardware issue. You must do the reset disconnected from the internet or it will start automatically updating again. Installing a generic version of Win10 from Microsoft's USB media creation tool is not the same and will likely just put you back in the same position with a non-functioning touchpad still not knowing if it's a hardware or software update issue. Jack E/NJ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpzLJRAZldA

MattskiG

I'm unable to use ALT + F10 anymore for resets. When I first rang Acer about the WiFi issue, they suggested updated drivers which did nothing, then asked me to reset the laptop using ALT + F10. The reset didn't go as it should have done for some reason and I ended up with a laptop that would turn on, show the Acer screen, then switch off and keep going round in that circle. I couldn't get any fuether than the Acer screen. I then had to boot from the USB drive to get the laptop back on, so lost the 'Acer factory' defaults and ended up with a blank laptop with Windows 10 only on it, no Acer bloatware or software trials, nothing else at all. ALT + F10 does literally nothing now. F2 during boot is the only option to get any options up.

Commodore_1995#

Have you ever installed acer care center and acer quick access? There were some users in the Portuguese community, who said they solved connection problems by installing these two programs. It would be interesting if you provided the model of your wireless network card as well. Have you also checked for any touchpad settings in the bios?

MattskiG

Hello egydiocoelho,

I will download and install Care Centre and Quick Access tomorrow and reply with any feedback.

Before I do that, and so I can come back with the other answers for you in one message:

1. How would I find the model of network card?

2. How do I check the BIOS for touchpad settings?

Thanks for your support!
Mattie

JackE

>>>I then had to boot from the USB drive to get the laptop back on, so lost the 'Acer factory' defaults >>>

Yeah, a generic Win10 clean install using the USB media creation tool will usually make the hidden ACER recovery partition inoperable. The ALT+F10 method sometimes only works buy pressing and holding ALT+F10 before the machine is even turned on. Then turn the machine on while still holding the ALT+F10. Too late now.

You have two options. Try @egydiocoelho 's suggestion at this link https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/8011?b=1. Or try to get the original ACER factory Win10 version USB media from ACER UK. If you were in the US or CA, you could order the media online. But you're not so you'd have to work directly thru the store or ACER store or repair center to get the USB stick based on your machine's serial number id (SNID) Probably cost about £40. Jack E/NJ