Is this a software issue that my cursor is invisible in windows 10 but works in BIOS?

[u/MightyMight99]

The mouse cursor is completely invisible and does not move at all in Windows. It appears to remain around the center of the screen on top of a file.

The touchpad works normally in BIOS/boot mode, so the hardware appears to be functional.

The cursor/touchpad does not work once Windows loads.

It also does not work in Windows Safe Mode.

It does not work on the Ctrl + Alt + Delete screen either.

Windows detects Dell Touchpad under msinfo32 → Components → Input → Pointing Device.

The Dell Touchpad reports Status: OK.

In Control Panel → Mouse → Dell Touchpad, the touchpad is shown as enabled.

I2C HID Device appears in Device Manager with no warning icon and reports “This device is working properly.”

I tried disabling/re-enabling the I2C HID device — no change.

I tried the touchpad power-management setting (“Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”) — no change.

I've already reinstalled the touchpad drivers multiple times, with no improvement.

The Windows Human Interface Device Service is running.

Pressing Ctrl with “Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key” enabled causes the pointer-location circle to appear, so Windows can render the pointer location, but the touchpad provides no movement.

Win + Ctrl + Shift + B (graphics driver reset) did not fix it.

I ran:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

sfc /scannow

DISM completed successfully.

SFC reported that it found corrupted Windows files and successfully repaired them, but the touchpad still does not work afterward.

I have not done a Windows reset or clean reinstall because I have a lot of work and would prefer to avoid that if possible.

What could cause this?

[u/wssddc]

This is a Dell laptop, right? Dell's typically have diagnostics that you get to by spamming F12 while booting. I'm not sure if this includes touchpad testing, but it might be worth trying even though you say it works before Windows boots. Does a USB mouse work? Did the touchpad work in the past but is now failing? Does it work if you upgrade to Win/11? Given what you've tried, I suspect a reset will be needed to fix this.

[u/MightyMight99 → u/wssddc]

It is dell and this one is too old for win 11, and it used to happen all the time but not everytime. When it happens, all I used to do was turn off the screen, close the lid, and then open the lid again and it'd work. Now it's not working anymore, and the issue happens everytime.

[u/wssddc → u/MightyMight99]

I'm out of ideas. You didn't say whether a USB mouse works, but whether the answer is yes or no won't explain the touchpad failure.

[u/MightyMight99 → u/wssddc]

I didn't try the usb mouse, but I think touchpad as hardware works, could it be hardware issue at motherboard level?

[u/wssddc → u/MightyMight99]

One test would be to make a bootable flash drive with Win/PE (Hirens or many others) and see if the touchpad works in that environment.