XPS 15 TouchPad/ClickPad Intermittent Problems - Possible Workaround

Question

Hi, excuse the long post but I wanted to document the things I'd tried to resolve this. I have an XPS 15 7590 running Windows 10 and experienced the same intermittent touchpad issues reported elsewhere. However I now seem to have found what's triggering the problem and since I changed my configuration as below I haven't had the problem again. The symptoms were that the touchpad would seemingly suddenly start working only intermittently. Specifically: 1. Touching and moving my finger over the surface of the touchpad doesn't move the mouse immediately - there's a lag of a second or two after which the mouse cursor moves for a short distance and then stops moving again. Very annoying obviously. 2. Tapping the surface, which is supposed to emit a single left mouse click, does nothing. I don't know about other tap combinations but just the basic left click tap certainly stops working The only way to get a click out of the touchpad at that point is to depress the physical left mouse button (which is actually anywhere on the touchpad, as well as at the bottom left of it). That at least does work, but the touch-sensitive tap failing to work is an annoyance. I found that after rebooting, the problem went away. However later on the same day it would just come back and initially I couldn't find a reason. I reported the problem to Dell and sent them a video of the erratic behaviour and they then changed the whole palm rest assembly under warranty. It made no difference. The new touchpad had the same problem. The touchpad itself is a Synaptics ClickPad (https://www.synaptics.com/products/touchpad-family/clickpad) and I assume all the problems people are having are with the Synaptics ClickPad. I'll call it the ClickPad from this point on. I took at a look at the driver. Synaptics say on their website that they have a specific driver for the ClickPad but the driver installed on my XPS 15 turned out to be the standard Microsoft one for a PS/2 Compatible Mouse. Dell don't appear to issue a specific driver for the ClickPad on the XPS range, so there's no additional driver on Dell's support website either. So what's going on with the driver? I did a quick search of the Microsoft Update Catalog (http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com) in which all the certified drivers for Windows are listed (and are downloadable) and that does indeed show that Synaptics have certified a Windows 10 driver for the ClickPad. There are in fact two, a, SMBus version and a PS/2 version. However, neither actually pick up the ClickPad when I try to install them. The SMBus one says that the existing Microsoft driver is newer and refuses to install the synaptics one. The PS/2 version installs but does nothing. So a Synaptics driver for the ClickPad is a bit of a dead end - the only driver that will install is the standard Microsoft PS/2 mouse one. I then realised that the ClickPad problems were only occurring after the display had been turned off due to the Power and Sleep display timer expiring. By default I think it's set to 5 or 10 mins and I was relying on it to turn off the display when the laptop wasn't being used. I tried setting that timer to Never and the problem disappeared! So it seems that whatever the problem actually is, it's being triggered by the display being powered off by the Power and Sleep settings timer. Anyway I'm now using just a screen saver to turn the display off rather than the power and sleep settings (there's a blank screen saver in Windows 10 that does the job seemingly as well). Note that shutting the laptop's lid also turns off the display, but that doesn't seen to cause a problem with the ClickPad. I'd be very interested if others who have had this problem also find if the above workaround resolves it. Hopefully someone from the engineering team at Dell who looks after this aspect of what is otherwise an excellent laptop will come up with a proper fix.

JoePena · Accepted Answer

Did you try this?

chainstair · Accepted Answer

I dont know if I found the solution or not.

Currently it is working for me. This with the power management setting didnt work for me because 10 seconds after I turned it off, it turned back on again.

U need an external mouse for this to work.

So what I did is this:

Find out if it is really a Software Problem: Shut down PC, Go in to BIOS settings by pressing F2 on the keyboard. If you can use the mouse normally then its a software (windows) issue.
Download this driver
Go into Flight mode or turn off all your network connection (to disable automatic install of the driver)
Open Device Manager under Windows -> System Devices and find the two devices Intel Serial IO IC2 Host Controller (A368 and A369). Right Click on each -> Uninstall Driver -> Click also on "Delete the driver software for this device" and Done
Now restart the notebook
U will see that all the problem are coming from this driver, because the mouse should work now but not in the best way. The support for multi touch and everything is missing.
Now install the driver that you downloaded. And after that you will see that everything is working as before.

Like I said. Since I did this, my mouse was working without touching the power management settings again. Somebody should approve that this is also working for them.

Enjoy guys and good luck!

DELL-Jesse L · Answer

cliff001,   Thank you for posting this information.  Good troubleshooting for a workaround. Hopefully, our engineers will resolve the issue.

DELL-Cares · Answer

Thank you! We have received the required details. We will work towards a resolution. In the meantime, you may also receive assistance or suggestions from the community members.

cliff001 · Answer

A little more information as to why the ClickPad and the display (seemingly separate devices) may be related.

It turns out that the tap and so-called gesture functionality in Windows 10 is actually provided by the operating system. This could explain why the Synaptics ClickPad driver isn't needed as Windows is probably using its own software for this and doesn't need the Synaptics driver.

Further, the taps and gestures that Windows supports aren't just supported for the ClickPad. They're also supported by the touch screen.

This is speculation at this point but if the software that handles those touch gestures and mouse movements is shared by both the ClickPad and the display, then powering down the display could conceivably have an effect on the ClickPad, particularly if that driver (assuming it is a driver) isn't handling the powering off and on of the display properly.

Hopefully someone will be able to look at this in more detail.

DELL-Jesse L · Answer

cliff001,   Following up to see if your system is still working without issues? Let us know.

cliff001 · Answer

I've not had the issue since disabling the Power and Sleep display timer.

I'll see if I can come up with a reliable way to replicate the problem and post it here. Maybe then Dell could also reproduce it as simply replacing the palm rests under warranty is not going to solve it.

cliff001 · Answer

I re-enabled the display sleep timer and although the touchpad issues didn't reappear straightaway, the following morning they were back. So it seems the display has to be off for some time (ie overnight) before the problem reoccurs.

hicla · Answer

Same thing is happening to my XPS 15 7590 running Windows 10 Pro 20H2. All drivers updates and windows updates applied.
Dell Support first authorized a touchpad replacement. When I told the support tech again that the touchpad was working fine in the BIOS and immediately after booting Windows, which indicates it's a drivers issue, I was told I should reinstall Windows. I'm obviously not that eager to do that, especially because it gives no guarantee it will solve it.
Dell needs to figure out what's going on and provide a fix

hicla · Answer

Unchecking 'allow computer to turn off this device to save power' for the 'Intel serial IO I2C host controller - A369' device worked for me, thank you!

cliff001 · Answer

I'm trying that too with the Power and Sleep display timer re-enabled. Interestingly I have two I2C host controller entries showing (A368 and A369). Do you have the same and how did you work out to try disabling the power management setting?

cliff001 · Answer

Nice spot - am trying that

JoePena · Answer

I just did the A369. I was skeptical, but I have had zero issues every since I did this. Huge relief that I didn't go through time of changing out touchpad.

cliff001 · Answer

Well I've been running for about a week now with the A369 power setting change and also haven't the problem since. So I can keep the power and display timer enabled now without it affecting the touchpad. No idea why a serial I/O controller driver might have this effect, but it clearly does!

hicla · Answer

I only did the A369 as well and it was fine for a couple of weeks. Then Windows, in its infinite wisdom, decided to re-enable the power management for that device and the problem started showing up again. Disabled again and it's gone.

XPS

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