Dell XPS 13 (2015): Trackpad works in BIOS but not Windows/Linux

[bthornton84]

Hey all.

So I bought a Dell XPS 13 (2015, model 9343) off of Craigslist this weekend. The trackpad doesn't work (which I knew), so the seller let it go at a deep discount. I work in IT, so I figured it was nothing a few driver updates or firmware upgrades couldn't fix. Turns out I was wrong.

After a fresh install of Windows 10, installing all drivers from Dell, and even attempting to flash the trackpad firmware (which fails with a cryptic error 0x61), the trackpad doesn't respond to anything. I tried booting up Ubuntu 16.04 from a USB drive and, again, no trackpad (although the Settings window indicated that a trackpad was present and allowed me to disable/enable it).

Sounds like bad hardware, right? Here's the weird part: if I go into the BIOS (or even the onboard diagnostics suite), the trackpad works normally.

I'm stumped. Anyone know any tricks that might get the trackpad going again?

Thanks!

 

[Saeed-Omnia]

Maybe it is disabled from BIOS itself...

 

[bthornton84]

Maybe it is disabled from BIOS itself...

I had that same thought, but I couldn't find anywhere in the BIOS to re-enable it. I even reset all settings to thier defaults but that didn't help.

 

[Saeed-Omnia]

Have you tried updating BIOS?

 

[bthornton84]

BIOS has been updated to the latest version. And, as noted in the original thread, I attempted to update the trackpad firmware to the latest version, but I cannot get the firmware update to complete successfully.

 

[bthornton84]

Just tried booting into both Ubuntu and then Fedora (latest builds) and the trackpad doesn't work in either. Still works great in BIOS, though.

My theory right now is something went wrong during a trackpad firmware flash operation and that has left the trackpad in an inconsistent state. Just a guess, tho.