Trackpad malfunction: I cannot highlight text, or cut and paste, or drag

Question

My trackpad lets me move the cursor, and then click to place it on the screen. But that's it. I can no longer left-click and highlight text to cut and paste it.

Maybe I changed one of the settings by accident or pushed a function key.

I already uninstalled the trackpad driver and reinstalled it. Didn't work.

Any help would be appreciated.

I have a Surface laptop 3, x64, windows 10

Answer 1

Hello DanShab,

Thank you so much for posting in Microsoft Community.

I appreciate you raising this concern to us and sorry to hear that you're experiencing issues with your Surface Laptop 3 trackpad. Let's try a few troubleshooting steps to see if we can resolve the issue.

First, let's check if the trackpad settings are configured correctly. Here's how:

1. Go to Start menu and click on Settings.
2. Click on Devices.
3. Click on Touchpad.
4. Make sure that the "Tap with a single finger to single-click" and "Press the lower right corner of the touchpad to right-click" options are turned on.

If the settings are already configured correctly, let's try updating the trackpad driver. Here's how:

1. Go to Start menu and click on Device Manager.
2. Expand the "Mice and other pointing devices" category.
3. Right-click on the trackpad device and select "Update driver".
4. Browse my computer.
5. Let me pick from the List.
6. Choose a driver from the list.

If updating the driver doesn't work, let's try rolling back to a previous version of the driver. Here's how:

1. Go to Start menu and click on Device Manager.
2. Expand the "Mice and other pointing devices" category.
3. Right-click on the trackpad device and select "Properties".
4. Click on the "Driver" tab.
5. Click on the "Roll Back Driver" button and follow the on-screen instructions.

If none of these steps work, you may try these:

1. Run Surface Diagnostic Toolkit: Fix common Surface problems using the Surface app and Surface Diagnostic Toolkit - Microsoft Support
2. Download Drivers and Firmware: Download Surface Laptop 3 with Intel Processor Drivers and Firmware. from Official Microsoft Download Center\
3. Reset your device. This removes all files so make sure to backup before doing so. Restore or reset Surface for Windows - Microsoft Support

Please let me know how it goes and hopefully it helps!

Best regards,

Rolando S.

Answer 2

Sorry for the late response.

I uninstalled the touchpad driver and reinstalled it. This did not work. Then I updated windows and restarted.

This did not work right away. About 12 hours later, the problem just suddenly disappeared on its own. I have no idea what happened.

Dan

Answer 3

Hello DanShab,

Thank you for the response and for letting me know that the issue disappeared by itself. Just make sure to check your Surface if it is up to date and please observe your device from time to time.

If any case issue persisted, you may get us back in here.

Regards,

Rolando S.