HP Pavilion G7 Synaptics Touchpad Not Working

[Interitus]

My girlfriend has an HP Pavilion G7 laptop that is about 2 years old. When she powered it up today, the Synaptics touchpad was not working. I'm not very familiar with these laptops, but I have done everything I know how to do to get it functional with no luck. If anyone has any input, this is kind of a last stop before I send it in to get repaired. I'll list below everything I've tried and know about the situation.

Symptoms:
-Touchpad does not work at all. No solid button clicks register, no movement on screen.
-Pointer is not visible on the screen in the OS until I plug in a USB mouse
-Touchpad does not appear in Device Manager under Mice and Pointers
-Light next to the touchpad is not lit any color (the light that usually indicates on/off/locked)

What I have tried:
-Hard reset of the laptop
-BIOS settings (there were none visible regarding peripherals or the touchpad)
-Driver removal and reinstall both from HP site and Windows Update
-Double tap of the indented portion of the touch pad (supposed to lock/unlock) - did nothing
-Rescan for changes in Device Manager - no "unknown devices" showed & pad still not there

What I haven't tried or not sure how to do:
-BIOS update - just didn't have time
-Function key? There's not one shown on the keyboard, but maybe there's an "off" shortcut?

Other info:
-OS is Windows 8.1
-Laptop has not been dropped / jolted or anything like that

Everything seems to point to the device not being "connected" which leads me to believe that either the touchpad is indeed dead or something is toggled "off". I can't seem to find any documentation that points to a toggle key on the keyboard.

If anyone has any suggestions or ideas, I'd love to hear them before I send this thing in to get repaired.

 

[Ketchup]

Possibly a silly question, but what happens when you touch the indentation that turns the touch pad on/off?

 

[Interitus]

Its supposed to be the lock feature for the touchpad. There's a small indented circle at the top left that when you double tap inside the indent, the pad locks so that touching anywhere on the pad doesn't do anything. Usually the light next to it changes color to indicate that the pad is locked. I think with this particular model, yellow/amber is locked, green is unlocked and on.

 

[Ketchup]

Right, and if there is no light at all, I suggest that there is a wire problem, as I would assume such a light would be lit at all times during normal operation.

 

[Interitus]

Ah, sorry, took your question in the wrong context.

Absolutely nothing happens when I attempt to double tap the lock/unlock indented area. No lights, no change on screen.

It's kinda what makes me believe this is really a hardware issue. The pad just acts like something has disabled it at a higher level or it's just completely disconnected from the rest of the laptop somehow. It's just really odd considering the laptop hasn't even moved from where it was working the day before.

 

[ArisVer]

Try to boot of a linux live distribution to see if the problem exists there. If it does you'll probably looking at a hardware issue.

 

[Burpo]

Sounds like tapping may have been disabled & Touchpad turned off. Using a mouse, Go to your control panel then click on Mouse, device settings, then settings. Go to and click on TAPPING, not the plus sign next to it, click on the word. Make sure the box next to Enable Tapping is checked then apply settings.. Reboot machine, and try turning the pad on by tapping the area to the left above the pad. Indicator light should come on, or change colors. Should be working again without the usb mouse attached. I had a G6 did same to me, and I found I had to TAP that area pretty hard to get it to work. Once I got it turned back on, was careful not to turn it off again. Also didn't like the sensitivity of the pad, and totally removed the Synaptic drivers. Was happier without the multi touch/pinch feature the driver provided..

 

[redzo]

Try to boot of a linux live distribution to see if the problem exists there. If it does you'll probably looking at a hardware issue.

Yes. Better try this one. It's quite easy and it should shed some light.

 

[Steltek]

Another thing to try would be to remove the existing drivers and reinstall the ones from the HP website (or do a driver rollback in Device Manager) to ensure you didn't get an incompatible driver download from Windows Update.

If you aren't able to resolve the issue via standard troubleshooting, you should be able to find a video on Youtube demonstrating how to disassemble the G7 laptop down to the touchpad connectors.

As laptops go, G7's really aren't that bad to work on (as opposed to the pair of Dell Vostro 2520s I tore down the other day which was an f'ng nightmare). It is entirely possible the wire connecting the touchpad to the motherboard has simply come loose or developed a short.

And, in the event the touchpad has gone out, you ought to be able to replace the entire palmrest assembly for less than $25-$30 from eBay.

 

[Interitus]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Will try them out tonight.

 

[inachu]

synaptic touch pads are very tempermental to humidity in the air.

Found out in our IT dept that rubbing on some Nivea hand creme made the pads settle down and act normal. I also second that it might be hardware failure.

 

[Interitus]

Tried to enable "tapping" but didn't get far. Touchpad is not listed under the "Mice" Control Panel option, and I get an error with the driver when the "Mice" menu loads...

"Windows is unable to connect to the Synaptics Touchpad driver... blah blah blah"

Got some other stuff to do, but I'm gonna try to uninstall again and check MSConfig for any startup items relating to the touchpad. Probably be later tonight.

Go figure I have an IT intern interview tomorrow. If these people only knew, lol.