Dell Precision M6800 input device issues

Question

So several weeks ago I started getting random issues on my Dell Precision M6800 with its input devices. The trackpad and trackstick would repeatedly beep upon touch and freeze up the system until the beeping stopped. This would also affect the mouse plugged in. It appeared to also affect the keyboard but I think I've narrowed that down to accidentally touching the trackstick when typing. More recently the touchpad and trackstick just stop responding altogether without the beeping. The physical volume buttons also sometimes aren't backlit at which point they don't function when pressed. The issues first appear to have come about after I removed the laptop from the PR02X docking station to clean the desk, so at first I thought maybe the dock was the problem but the issues occur when on the dock or not. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the touchpad drivers, removed the keyboard and palmrest and cleaned and re-seated all ribbon cables/connectors, tested on and off the dock. I'm really at a loss as to what to try next. They're not massive issues as I use a mouse and can alter volume through the OS but I'm just concerned in case this is the start of bigger problems. It's strange because when the laptop is booted from cold (and sometimes restarted) , everything works, and it's mid-session when things stop working. Another point of note is that when things stop working, the 'Dell Touchpad' program also momentarily freezes up when I try to open it and once open only shows options for the mouse (as if the trackpad and trackstick don't even exist). Trying to think about it logically it would seem like the palmrest assembly has become faulty as most of the issues are with components built into that, but that doesn't account for the trackstick which is part of the keyboard and plugged directly into the motherboard. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

DELL-Cares · Answer

We tried reaching you on a private message asking for the Service Tag number to ascertain the warranty but did not receive a response. Please feel free to reply to the private message whenever you are available.

GaryWright · Answer

Well what with the issues still coming and going rather erratically, plus research into some other issues I've been having, it seems that they could be caused by security software.

I was having some additional weird issues that I managed to pinpoint down to using Comodo Firewall, which I fixed, and along the way found out that many people have had what I would otherwise associate with faulty hardware that they narrowed down to various anti-virus software.

I've been logging a timeline of events since my issues first started and they actually started only a week or two after installing the Dell Data Protection | Security Tools suite. I only installed this and the other associated Dell security software out of curiosity, quickly found it was no use to me as a regular consumer, and uninstalled it. My issues cropped up within the weeks after.

Now, I can't be certain if that's the case as there's obviously some residual files left somewhere that are still having an effect on device drivers and a clean install of Windows to confirm my suspicions is currently out of the question.

So this is all speculation, but it ties in what with the sequence of events and is similar to other hardware issues (mostly keyboards and touchpads) that other laptop users (not just Dell) have found to be related to security suites.

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