How to Fix Excel Freezing When Scrolling with a Touchpad
Question details
The user experiences Excel freezing and closing unexpectedly when using a two-finger scroll gesture on their touchpad.
- Product
- Microsoft Excel
- Device & OS
- Windows 10
- Scenario
- Navigating spreadsheets using a laptop touchpad.
- Observed behavior
- Excel becomes unresponsive and crashes when the user scrolls with the touchpad, while scrolling with an external mouse works normally.
Before proceeding, save your current work and verify if an external mouse allows you to scroll without freezing, which confirms the issue is isolated to the laptop touchpad drivers.
Update Touchpad and Graphics Drivers
Outdated or incompatible drivers can cause hardware interactions, like touchpad scrolling, to freeze Excel. Updating them often resolves the issue.
Windows 10 touchpad gesture drivers and display drivers must be kept up to date. Conflicts between older drivers and newer versions of Microsoft 365 can easily cause unexpected software crashes.
Right-click the Windows Start button and select 'Device Manager' from the context menu.
Expand the 'Mice and other pointing devices' section, right-click your touchpad device, and select 'Update driver'. Choose to search automatically for updated driver software.
Expand the 'Display adapters' section, right-click your graphics card, and choose 'Update driver'.
Start Excel in Safe Mode and Disable Add-ins
Conflicting third-party add-ins can cause Excel to crash when performing specific actions like touchpad scrolling.
Switch to WPS Office for Smooth Spreadsheet Navigation
If Microsoft Excel continues to crash due to driver or system conflicts, try WPS Office. It is a highly compatible, lightweight alternative that handles large datasets and touchpad gestures effortlessly without freezing.
- 1. Download WPS Office: Visit the official WPS website and download the free installer for your PC.
- 2. Install and Launch: Run the installer and follow the on-screen instructions, then open WPS Spreadsheets.
- 3. Open Your Excel File: Click 'Open' and select your existing .xlsx file to start scrolling smoothly with your touchpad.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Excel freeze only when I use the touchpad and not an external mouse?
This usually indicates a conflict between Microsoft Excel and the specific touchpad gesture drivers (like precision two-finger scrolling) on your laptop. A standard external mouse uses different generic drivers that do not trigger the same conflict.
Will repairing Microsoft Office fix the touchpad scrolling issue?
Repairing Office can sometimes resolve corrupted application files that cause freezing. You can do this by going to Windows Settings > Apps, selecting Microsoft Office, and choosing 'Modify' to run an Online Repair.
How do I report this persistent freezing issue to Microsoft?
If all troubleshooting fails, you can report the bug directly to Microsoft Support. Provide them with your Windows version, Excel build number, specific error details, and reproduction steps (such as exclusively crashing on a two-finger scroll).
