Brand new Lenovo 17" Ideapad 3-17IML05, Trackpad doesn't work (not even showing in Device manager)

[HCHTech]

In the constantly evolving "troubleshooting" flowchart I have in my brain but have never tried writing down, there is an early decision box on the hardware path: "Does it work in Linux?". Undoubtedly picked up on these very pages. We have USB keys and CDs of Mint & Parted Magic that we use for this task. We also use PC-Doctor diagnostics on every machine that crosses our bench, which is Linux-based.

The key to getting better at this stuff is streamlining your processes as much as possible because less time = more profit. I hate it when it takes me 4 hours to find an answer that should have taken me 20 minutes because I went so far down the wrong path. Each of those experiences is a learning opportunity, of course.

 

[Philippe]

I swapped the hard drive into the 1st laptop, and it works just fine, so its definitely not a broken touchpad, and is absolutely a software issue

This^^

 

[nlinecomputers]

This^^

I guess I misunderstood that the first time around. I thought he meant that he swapped in a new already installed with Windows 10 hard drive to the non-working Laptop and it worked. IF he did that then yes it is bad software. But if he took the drive out of his bad laptop and put it into a second laptop and the touchpad worked then it implies that it is a hardware fault. I'm not sure what was done now.

 

[Philippe]

No problem. It was just for the sake of clarification.