If your mouse or touchpad has frozen on your PC or laptop, there are a few different ways you can unlock it. It might be that the mouse has gone to sleep and a couple of key presses will get it working. Alternatively, a reboot fixes most issues like this, but if it’s more complicated, we can help walk you through that too.
Here’s how to unlock your mouse if it stops working.
If you have a spare mouse on hand, plugging it in so that you can use the mouse with these troubleshooting steps will make the process a lot easier for you. If you can’t, you can use the Tab key and arrow keys on your keyboard to move between menus and options.
Frozen PC or laptop? Time to reboot
Before you start trying to unlock your mouse, it’s worth checking whether your whole PC has frozen or not. A good test for this is to hit the Caps Lock or Num Lock keys on your keyboard. If their indicator lights light up, then your PC is still operational — it’s possibly just the mouse that’s frozen.
However, if those lights don’t light up and if the laptop seems otherwise unresponsive, then you can try force-quitting whatever app you’re in. If that doesn’t work, though, it’s time to reboot it. Press the restart button if you have one, or press and hold the power button until the PC shuts down. Then boot it up again and see if the mouse is working properly again. If not, try some of the fixes below.
If you think your laptop is the problem and it’s still not right, here’s our guide to the most common Windows problems and how to fix them.
How to unlock your mouse
If you’re pretty sure that it’s the mouse that’s the problem, then we need to address that specifically. It’s not always obvious what the root cause of this issue is, but try these fixes in order and see if one of them unlocks your mouse for you.
Step 1: It’s possible that somehow the touchpad has become disabled. Most laptops have a specialized key for turning the touchpad on and off. Look for an icon that looks like a touchpad with a stop sign or cross through it. You may have to press the “FN” function key as well.
Try pressing that key to see if it re-enables your touchpad and unlocks your mouse.
You can also try double tapping the touchpad. Some manufacturers use that as a touchpad lock shortcut. Double tapping may unlock it again.
Step 2: If you’re using a standalone, external mouse, it may be that you just need to reconnect it. If it’s a wired mouse, unplug it and plug it back in again. Also try a different USB port on your laptop or PC.
For wireless mice, try turning the mouse off and on again. Then, if needed, try repairing the mouse with your device.
With wireless mice, it’s always good to check that the mouse has battery, too. That might mean plugging it in to charge or replacing the internal batteries. Alternatively, you can just plug it in and try running it as a wired mouse temporarily.
Step 3: You can also try reinstalling your mouse and touchpad drivers. Search for “Device Manager” in Windows search, and select the corresponding result.
Look through the list of devices for “Human interface devices.” Select the arrow to open that up and look for your mouse or touchpad.
If you can, double-click your touchpad or mouse, or if using the keyboard, select it and press Enter. Select the Driver tab at the top of the new windows, and select Update, then follow the on-screen instructions. If there are no new drivers to update to, select Uninstall device then reboot your laptop, and the drivers should be reinstalled automatically for you.
If your standalone mouse that’s frozen has its own set of drivers, you can download the latest version from the manufacturer’s website.
Step 4: Did you try cleaning your touchpad or mouse? If there’s a lot of gunk on the touchpad, it may not be detecting your fingers — or it may be detecting the gunk as well and getting confused. Either way, shut down the laptop and wipe down the touchpad with a lint-free cloth dampened with some distilled water.
If you’re using a standalone mouse, you can try a similar trick on the underside sensor. Also try using it on a different mousing surface, too.
Step 5: If all else fails, roll back to a system restore point when the mouse was working to see if that fixes the issue.
Fed up and just want to get a new mouse and get your PC working again? We hear you. Here are some of our favorites.