Windows 7 Replacing screen has stopped mousepad working?

[Triophile]

Hi guys.

I'm a bit stumped by this at the moment. I've replaced a broken screen on a Sony laptop (model SVE151D11M), and it looks as if the mousepad may have stopped working after the laptop otherwise boots normally. In Safe mode, however, the mousepad works fine. The screen works perfectly in either mode.

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the mousepad - no joy. I uninstalled (and deleted the driver software), and reinstalled - again, no joy. The drivers which are being used in Safe and Normal modes appear to be the same anyway.

Has fitting a new (compatible, rather than original) screen caused some kind of conflict, despite Device Manager telling me the mousepad is working properly and that there are no conflicts? I've replaced screens before and never had this problem.

Any help much appreciated, Jon.

 

[Digerati]

I am assuming you mean the notebook's "touchpad" pad. If the screen was installed correctly (that is, the connectors are securely fastened and no wires were pinched or crimped during re-assembly), then I don't see how the new display panel could do this.

The fact it works in Safe Mode but not normal mode does suggest a driver issue. When you uninstalled the old driver, did you reboot before installing the new? You sometimes need to do this with hardware drivers to ensure any opened files for the old drivers are purged, thus allowing the new drivers to load.

Does an external mouse connected to a USB port work?

Note too that most notebooks have a Function key combo to disable/enable the touchpad. It is Fn+F9 on my Toshiba.

 

[Triophile]

And I thought I was generally quite good at obeying the maxim: thou shalt not fiddle with a computer when thou art tired, at the end of a long day. First time I've made that mistake in a while, and you're absolutely right Digerati, the touchpad had been switched off. Not sure how though, as I hadn't knowingly done it, and the owner claims not to have done it either.

Anyway, got the very latest drivers on there (100MB for a touchpad!), made sure the Fn key plus Mouse key were set to allow the mouse to operate, and everything's moving, scrolling and zooming again.

Never really seen the point of turning the touchpad off, when it's usually deactivated by an external mouse being plugged in, AFAIK.

Thanks again for the help for this dunce.

Regards, Jon.

 

[Digerati]

Never really seen the point of turning the touchpad off, when it's usually deactivated by an external mouse being plugged in, AFAIK.

No, I don't think touch pads are automatically disabled when a mouse is connected. At least I have never seen that - just as the notebook keyboard and monitor remain active if you connect an external keyboard or monitor/projector.

That said, there are many (like me) who must have bad typing posture habits or something because I frequently (and usually unknowingly) brush the touchpad with the knuckles of my thumbs, sending the mouse pointer across the screen - and me into a tyrant. So I regularly disable my touchpad when I connect a mouse to my notebook to preserve my sanity - or what's left of it.

Anyway, I am glad you got it sorted out before the notebook ended up smashed against a wall!

Thanks for the followup.