Cursor Not Moving? What You Need To Do

Stuff always breaks when you’re super busy, for example, you’re in the middle of a VITAL level in your game, working through your essay citations or about to send the last email of your working day when disaster strikes. Cursor not moving? Your mouse appears to have broken, but don’t despair! Here at Acrylic PC Repairs we know all of the little tips and tricks to share with you to get it working again, and get back on track…

1. Reboot

The best thing to try first is rebooting your device. By doing this, you’ll be preventing “computer cobwebs” from forming. Rebooting often fixes glitches by resetting your software and desktop environment. Cursor not moving still? Don’t panic, there are plenty of other things which you can try to get it back up and running. 

2. Try An External Mouse

If you’re on a PC, the problem could well be the mouse itself. In this instance, the first thing to do is try a different port, change the battery or try another mouse and see if that solves the issue. If you’re on a laptop, try plugging in an external mouse (if you have one to hand). Although this won’t fix the problem of your touchpad not working, if this works you can use it to finish any urgent tasks until you can get your touchpad looked at.

3. Find A Touchpad Button On Your Keyboard

Look for a button that looks like a touchpad on your keyboard. Some laptops have one above the touchpad, on others it may be a function key at the top of the keyboard. Try pressing the touchpad key and if it doesn’t do anything, try pressing and holding ‘Fn’ first (usually located at the bottom left of the keyboard). Check to see if this has enabled your touchpad. If not…

4. Check Your Settings

If you have Windows 10, your touchpad may have been disabled in the settings. To re-enable it, you should open your taskbar pressing the “Windows Key” and search for ‘mouse’. Using your arrow keys, select mouse settings, then choose additional mouse settings. Under Hardware, select ‘Properties’ and then ‘Driver’. If it is disabled, you can enable it here. If not, try disabling and re-enabling it.

5. Look For An LED

Some laptops (particularly HP) have an LED in the top-left corner which, when lit, means that the touchpad is disabled. Fortunately, the fix is very simple – just tap twice quickly on the pad to re-enable it. If this hasn’t worked, we have one more at home fix for you to try… 

6. Run The SFC Scan

This handy Windows scan checks for and repairs missing and corrupted system files, which could well be causing the issue with your cursor. To run this, press the Windows logo key and type ‘cmd’. Using the arrow keys, click on ‘Command Prompt’ and select ‘Run as administrator’.

In the command prompt window that appears, type sfc/scannow and press enter, then allow the computer time to run its scan. Note: This can take a while to run, just be patient. When it is complete, restart your computer (See above on how to do this) and check whether this has fixed the problem.

Cursor Still Not Moving? 

If you have tried all of the above and your cursor still isn’t moving, it’s time to get the professionals involved. Perhaps your touchpad or port needs replacing, or maybe there are issues with your operating system files. Whatever the issue, with our computing wizardry at Acrylic PC Repairs, we can help. We will be able to diagnose the issue, order any replacement parts and get your computer back to full working order. We know how important your tech is to you, which is why we work quickly and efficiently to fix your devices. Get in touch today.