My trackpad wasn't working properly due to assembly issue

Hello, I’m writing this mostly as a PSA and to inform support that this was an issue for me and they may need to look closely to resolve this in manufacturing.

My trackpad wasn’t working properly due to a slight assembly issue. The symptoms were: trackpad would not work at all in certain positions or it’ll stop working randomly. Lifting laptop by one of the corner would trigger the issue 90% of the time, while pushing both front corners slightly down would fix it (sometimes it required rebooting the laptop or remounting the trackpad for it to work properly again)

I was just about to write about the issue to support, but I decided to look closely at each element and I discovered that the small PCB on the trackpad module, that contacts the pogo pins, has a very big gap to the metal housing surrounding it, like it wasn’t properly “clicked” into place in the factory.

Below are the photos of this connector PCB. Note Those photos present ALREADY FIXED issue, I didn’t take photos of it being misaligned.


After disassembling this portion of the module (unscrewing 2 screws on the side of that PCB is enough), I pressed the PCB down into the metal bracket and now everything works fine.

Note: I HIGHLY ADVISE CONTACTING SUPPORT FIRST, DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS REPAIR ON YOUR OWN IF YOU CARE ABOUT THE WARRANTY UNLESS SUPPORT INSTRUCTS YOU TO DO SO! THE SMALL FLEX CABLE CONNECTING THIS CONNECTOR TO THE REST OF THE TRACKPAD IS VERY FRAGILE, YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!

9 Likes

Same issue here. Trackpad would not work in the center position. It being not detected also therefore disables the keyboard. Removed the two little screws holding the metal bracket from the back of the trackpad, fully seated the PCB, and now trackpad works.

Strike that. It worked once, and then after a reboot it stopped again. No amount of reboots or physically moving the trackpad now get it back. The keyboard still works though.