Fixing a raised trackpad on a Dell XPS 15 (9550)

–UPDATE, Oct 18th, 2017– Dell have just started a free battery replacement program for affected laptops. Check the Dell Product Bulletin page and enter your service tag number to see if you can get a free replacement. If you wish to replace the battery yourself, this post will show you how.

I’ve had a Dell XPS 15 (9550) for coming up on 2 years now, and it’s well out of warranty. Recently I noticed the trackpad was getting harder to click and the front edge of the trackpad had been lifted up a little. I originally thought I had something stuck under there. You know; crumbs, food stuff, small creatures of the deep, children. Something like that. But it continued to rise up ever so slowly, to the point I could no longer actually click the trackpad no matter how hard I pushed.

Looking online I found a few posts that described a similar problem. They mentioned that battery swelling causes the problem since the battery is directly under the trackpad.

I opened up the laptop and looked for myself. Sure enough this was the problem so I went and bought a replacement battery from an online seller. Part number 4GVGH or 1P6KD since they’re the same thing. It took about two weeks to arrive and once it did, it was a pretty simple process to swap them over.

Here’s some photos of what I did, in case you have a similar problem.

1. Get upset by the raised front edge of the trackpad

1. Buy a screwdriver kit from a local store for A$20. Ensure it has Torx heads as the laptop base uses T-5 screws.

1. Remove the base of the laptop. Don’t forget the two regular screws under the flap. See how the battery is swollen. Remove it by sliding out the power connector (top right, near the + in the picture) and then remove the screws the arrows point to.

1. Feel free to compare the old and new batteries to see just how bad the problem is. The new battery is on the right!

1. Now install the new battery. Don’t forget to be careful and gentle with the power connector on the top right as it’s a little fiddly to get it into the correct position.

1. Put the case back together and you should find your trackpad is (almost) as good as new.

All up, it took me about 15 minutes to shutdown the laptop, open it up, replace the battery, take some photos and put it all back together. The battery even came with a decent amount of charge!

P.S. I should point out the usual things: if you do this yourself you will void your warranty (if any still remains). I’m not responsible for your results, and please remember to dispose of your battery in an environmentally friendly way (recycling centres, battery collection centres, etc.) [update If you get your replacement battery from Dell they’ll want you to send the original battery back to them, so no recycling required]

Good luck.