How can I disable my EliteBook 820's touchpad

[tombraman]

I've tried most everything (device manager, control panel mouse, touchpad software...), yet I still can't disable the touchpad on my new EliteBook 820. It's crazy sensitive, and makes typing a basic sentence nearly impossible unless I slow down to a crawl. Surely HP has a means for controlling this piece of hardware -- what is it?

[erico]

On the upper left corner of the touchpad there is a small rectangle. double tap it quickly to disable the touchpad. It will turn an amber color when the touchpad is disabled.

[tombraman]

Erico: Thanks for responding. Unfortunately, my EliteBook 820 does not have a rectangle in the upper left hand portion of the touchpad. There is a small dot, but nothing happens upon doubleclicking the dot. You can see what it looks like here.

[erico]

OK. I used the image from the user manual. Apparently it is inaccurate. 😉  Many touchpads have the same feature used to enable and disable, but look slightly different. You should also be able to disable it from within the control panel. 

It might be that you are not tapping the dot quickly enough.

[tombraman]

Erico: Per my first note, I have tried disabling the touchpad via control panel-->Mouse, but it does not have a "Properties" tab that would normally allow me to disable the trackpad. So, there's no way I can tell to disable it via the control panel. And again, I have tried device manager and several toucohpad software applications (including Synaptics), neither of which have worked. Finally, I have tried tapping the upper left dot on the trackpad many times and many ways; from my perspective, it's a very unlikely solution.

Can anyone from HP answer this question? It looks like Erico has exhausted his quiver of suggestions. (Thanks anyway, Erico!)

[erico]

Try the PC Diagnostics.  Press the power button and then tap the Esc key.  Choose component tests and then select Mouse.

[tombraman]

Erico: Can you point me to step-by-step instructions to locate and use PC Diagnostics? I am unable to locate what you're referring to. When I click the power button, the computer shuts down immediately, even if I press the esc key immediately afterwards. So that doesn't appear to bring up PC Diagnostics. Thank you for clarifying!

[tombraman]

Erico: I did press 'esc' upon restart, and I was lead to some pre-Windows diagnostic options. However, nothing led me to a component diagnostic tool, let alone anything related to my mouse. At this time, I do not have a USB mouse connected to the laptop. The only thing I want to address and fix is the touchpad.

If you have rock-solid instructions on how to proceed, let me know. If you're just guessing , it might be more worthwhile to appeal directly to HP. Thanks.

[erico]

Certainly.  Watch the video.

Your notebook should have a newer version that has more component tests than the one in the video. If not, you can download the latest version (v. 5.5.0.0) at Http://www.hp.com/go/techcenter/PCDiags. 

[Insightfuluser]

tombraman, I have read this old post and I am wondering if you got the answer or figured out how to disable the touchpad.

I have the same laptop and I have the exactly same issue in order to disable the touchpad. It is impossible to disable it through the Control Panel or by double tapping the touchpad.

Thanks