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How do I disconnect the touch pad on my laptop?

How do I disconnect the touch pad on the Sony Vaio
laptop?

I don’t have a Sony so it might be a little different on your machine, but
there are definitely places to look.

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I’d start with the Mouse settings in Control Panel. I’d specifically look
for something that allows you to control or turn off the touchpad. If that’s
not there, then in the Hardware tab therein, you could try disabling the device
that corresponds to the touchpad. The only catch is that the device might not
be called “Touchpad”. As I sit here working on my Dell, the Touchpad is
actually referred to as a PS/2 Port Mouse … meaning that it’s just mimicking
a standard mouse.

Be prepared to know your keyboard-only interface if that disables your
“other” mouse as well. That could happen, and the way to restore that is to
re-enable the driver.

If, like my Dell, your computer has both a touchpad and an “eraser head”
mouse, unless there’s something specific for it in control panel, you’ll be
disabling or enabling both together.

If there’s nothing in the Control Panel that allows you to control your
touchpad, another place to look is in your system BIOS. When you boot your
machine, before Windows begins loading, you’re probably given the option to hit
some key to enter setup, or press a function key to change BIOS settings.
Exactly where will vary a great deal from one manufacturer to the next, but I
have also seen options in the system BIOS that allow you to control it’s
behavior.

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23 comments on “How do I disconnect the touch pad on my laptop?”

  1. (Giving something back to Leo) — Sony’s touchpad can be a pain. Accidental touch can make cursor jump elsewhere when you are trying to type a document.

    So, plug in a mouse and then right-click My Computer, Properties, Device Manager tab, Mouse, highlight Alps GlidePoint or the equivalent, Properties, check “Disable in this hardware profile.” If that doesn’t work, the touchpad software is corrupted. Re-install Alps and then disable it per the above.

    Reply
  2. Toshiba touchpads can usually be disabled with the special functions keys. On most it is FN + F9. ‘F’ keys should have pictures hinting what their secondary functions are.

    Reply
  3. Actually, the only way I found I could do it was to go Start, Control Panel, Sony Notebook Setup, Device, and then untick the pointing device tickbox. Confirm this when the button appears and enjoy cursor-jump free tying from now on.

    Reply
  4. I have been having problem with the touchpad for YEARS…Thank you for the FN+f9 holy %$#* that is awesome. I had a card taped over my pad for 3 years because I could not figure it out.

    Reply
  5. Aloha,

    My Toshiba 1135-S1551 Alps touchpad is not responding to selections I made in properties (i.e., hide cursor when typing). I re-installed the driver to no avail.

    PLEASE help me resolve this problem!

    Tana-Lee

    Reply
  6. I’ve accidently shut off a touchpad for a laptop by preventing the processes that control it from starting up at boot time.

    Used msconfig and services.msc to stop these processes. The actual process names will vary per laptop and this may not even come close to working if the touchpad is controlled by hardware that’s built in, but it’s worth a shot if you really wanna stop the touchpad altogether.

    Go through your process and services lists and Google those you think are involved with the touchpad. Stop ’em from running and voila.

    Reply
  7. To disable touchpad in my Sony Vaio:

    Open My Computer

    Open Local Disk (c:)

    Open Program Files folder

    Open Sony folder

    Open Setting Utility Series folder

    Open VCCPointingDevice

    “Built-n Pointing Device” window pops up

    Uncheck the Enable box.

    Say yes, I am sure.

    Reply
  8. I tried to disable the ALP touch pad on my Dell Latitude D610 but its not possible as the function is grey and can’t be changed. Do you have any other idea?

    Reply
  9. I had this exact same problem, and for some reason, when I touched the touchpad, it would move the pointer and I couldn’t disable the touchpad under Control Panel > Mouse. Because the touchpad configuration wasn’t even there.

    So after looking all over the Internet and not finding an easy solution, I tried something and got the solution to making touchpad show up again under Control Panel > Mouse properties.

    For some reason, apoint.exe (the ALPS touchpad program) stops starting itself when Windows boots itself, making the touchpad configuration inaccessible.

    So this is what needs to be done:

    1) Start menu > Search > search all files/folders for a file named apoint.exe (should be in C:\Program Files\Apoint)
    2) Right-click on apoint.exe, create a shortcut.
    3) Find your Startup folder and put the shortcut in there. (just press START, go to All Programs > Startup, and put the shortcut in that folder.)
    4) Reboot then check Control Panel > Mouse, and touchpad configuration should be displayed.

    P.S. You do not even have to reboot, you can just execute apoint.exe and touchpad configuration will show up in Control Panel > Mouse. But be sure to put apoint.exe SHORTCUT (***not the file itself***) in Startup folder if you want it to work every time you reboot.

    Hope this helps.

    Reply
  10. Leo,
    I recently acquired a refurbished Dell Latitude D600 and I find it very annoying to have to click the touchpad buttons after I move the cursor. Any way I can just move the cursor and start typing?

    Thanks,

    Dave

    Reply
  11. I have tried everything listed to disable the touchpad on my Latitude PP01L but I can’t find any of the files listed above. This thing is going to drive me bonkers.

    Thanks for any help!

    Richard

    Reply
  12. Hi, I have a Toshiba Satalite lap top, I had the new XP profesional put on.
    I can’t find the “Touch pad” device to disable it.
    Can you help me please?
    Thann you,
    Sandra L Kane

    Reply
  13. I have a Dell Latitude/D620 and I was wandering how to disable the mouse pad and just use the pointer in the middle of the keyboard and the two buttons below the space bar. I had the same version laptop and it had the icon on the bottom of the screen, so I am not sure if a program has to be downloaded or not.

    I have that same model, and I’m not aware of a way to disable just the trackpad.

    – Leo
    17-Mar-2009
    Reply
  14. I also have a problem with my touchpad. I have a Dell D620. I’m running windows 7 and it’s just been upgraded to 64 bit. I use and external mouse and the touchpad is driving me totally crazy. There’s no option to turn it off in the control panel. Please help before I throw it out the window!

    Reply
  15. Your post helped me a lot knowing how to disable my touchpad before searching a lot on the internet without good results. Thanks Leo!
    Greetings from Chile.

    Reply

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