Hello everyone! First post but long time Tech Guy listener. I am here as a LAST resort…about 9 months ago my touchscreen stopped working, likely due to a Windows update. I have put in over 40 hours researching and trying to resolve this issue to no avail. I have an older computer, Dell Inspiron 5555. It is nearly new as I haven’t used it that much but will have cause to use it much more now. I was thinking I might upgrade, but my 5555 has both a DVD/DC player and a port to hardwire to the network, both of which I like. The computer isn’t very fast, but that hasn’t been an issue since I’m not doing graphics or gaming.
I was able to get the Dell Hardware Troubleshooter to recalibrate the touchscreen ONCE and it worked until I closed the laptop. Once opened again, it didn’t work anymore and the driver disappeared from Device Manager. I have fully reset the computer and the driver is still missing.
Does anyone have any advice on how to locate the touchscreen driver, or have some other solution I haven’t thought of? Thanks in advance!!
Press Windows-X and select Device Manager. Is there anything corresponding to the touchscreen listed in the list of devices? (Perhaps listed with HID (Human Interface Device).) If you see something, you can try deleting it and then restarting Windows and hope that it re-detects it and downloads the proper driver. If it doesn’t download the proper driver, then maybe you can find one on Dell’s support site and install it.
Thanks @PHolder but the driver disappeared from Device Manager. Dell says that Microsoft has the drivers for touchscreen, and I can’t find a driver on the Microsoft website. It’s a known issue with Windows 10, what’s unknown is the solution…
If the hardware is not showing in Device Manager, there is nothing Windows can do to support it. Windows either can find it on its own or else it needs third party drivers to help it find the device. If Windows can find it, it should appear in Device Manager. If it needs third party drivers then those would come from Dell.
The absolute last resort is to backup your device and reinstall Windows. If that doesn’t work, then I doubt there is anything else that would.
If the laptop isn’t being triggered to get a driver, could be a hardware issue? Maybe there’s a loose connector for the touch screen? Does the Dell have any hardware diagnostics in the BIOS?
Yep, I’ve backed it up and reinstalled Windows to no avail. For some reason, I didn’t have restore points set up so an update wiped it out and now it says touch is not available. I’m just going to buy another laptop and give this one to my granddaughter.
@Jamze I was able to use the hardware diagnostics on its website and I was able to get the touchscreen back once after calibration. The moment I closed the laptop I lost it again, for good. If there are BIOS diagnostics on the computer, I don’t know how to access them.
When I used to look after a load of Dells, hitting F12 on bootup would take you into a menu that had a diagnostics option. Useful for doing checks on the hardware independent of Windows + drivers. This was before touchscreens though, so no idea if that’s something these diagnostics can check.
Since the drivers make it look like an mouse to your computer; just try what you wound do if the mouse didn’t work that’s how I fixed mine wean I sill had one.
I vote hardware failure, most of the things you’ve already tried would have blown away any software problems. Is it still under warranty? Guessing not, if it has an optical drive.
I heat seeing computers without optical drives for 3 rezones 1st of all the M-Disk like of recordeable blu-rays are an super good 2nd form of back-up media, 2nd I sill buy Audio CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays so I can use ITunes and MakeMKV to save them. No worries about lost shows on like Hulu and Disney +.
