> Just had to poke the touchpad every so often so it didn't go to sleep

Unwarranted tip: next time, if you use macOS, just open the terminal and run `caffeinate -imdsu`.

I assume Linux/Windows have something similar built-in (and if not built-in, something that's easily available). For Windows, I know that PowerToys suite of nifty tools (officially provided by Microsoft) has Awake util, but that's just one of many similar options.