# Left Click on my laptop touchpad stopped working!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-click-on-my-laptop-touchpad-stopped-working/628152>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 13, 2012, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-click-on-my-laptop-touchpad-stopped-working/628152 "2012-07-13T23:02:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\
**Post date:** [July 13, 2012, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-click-on-my-laptop-touchpad-stopped-working/628152/1 "2012-07-13T23:02:02Z")

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Situation:

My computer was working slowly, so I decided to close what I was doing and re-boot. After re-booting and opening browser (google chrome) The computer locked up locked up completely, would not work.

Mouse pad and keys were working normally when I shutdown first time

I could not get task manager to come up, so I took the drastic measure of turning the power off completely. Hold the Power key down.

Computer rebooted and asked me if I wanted to come up in safe mode, I said no, and open normally.

Well when it came up, the left click would not work. Right click works, touch pad works.

After considerable trial and error, I was able to switch to the mouse key through the control panel =\> Mouse

So know I can limp along and run the computer, albeit, much more slowly.

The left click moves and makes a noise as if it is still working. It just doesn’t do anything.

Did something happen because I didn’t start in SAFE Mode?

FWIW, I bought the laptop brand new about three years ago for $300 at Walmart and it works pretty well. I just surf the net and do some small spreadsheet and documents. no gaming.

I do have some keyboard issues as well that I work around. Four keys do not work (the Up arrow, the backspace and the “Two” and Three" keys).

But this mouse thing is really making me think about a replacement.

Any suggestions?

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-click-on-my-laptop-touchpad-stopped-working/628152/2 "2012-07-17T04:57:15Z")

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Almost certainly a coincidence–if you can switch the buttons in software it’s almost certainly a hardware issue, i.e., the button no longer works.

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**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2012, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/left-click-on-my-laptop-touchpad-stopped-working/628152/4 "2012-07-17T06:32:28Z")

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^^^???

Maybe what he was trying to say was what I was going to say: On most laptop touchpads, just doing a quick tap on the touchpad itself (not the button) does the same thing as doing a left-click. So, you should be able to leave your right-button as normal, and just tap the touchpad when you need to left-click.