After prolonged exchanges with Dell and after they refused to replace my lemon of a machine or issue a refund, they agreed to replace the trackpad for a third time. This time, I was given assurances that the part would be the claimed-to-be updated trackpad design.

As it turns out, Dell has issued a different bracket design and a different kit for their contracted technicians to use. This makes the repair more challenging and frustrating. It seems it's actually the bracket that has the lack of sufficient grounding. This makes sense with other posts on the subject showing wires being soldered to the laptop frame, bypassing the issue completely.

While installing the 4th trackpad into my laptop, the technician cracked the screen. It made an audible pop. He then immediately tried to pretend like he hadn't done it, even though the crack was pretty obvious and I had been using the machine crack-free up until the moment he arrived to carry out the repair.

Get this: Dell doesn't have a reasonable supply of replacement screens available. The latest message I received from them on Twitter suggests they don't know when, if ever, they'll have a replacement part available. They continue to refuse to issue an exchange or refund. My machine is still under warranty. (I bought an extended warranty after the second trackpad.)

Dell has been totally absurd on this. It's just failure after failure after failure. They refuse to stand by their products or make things right.

My machine is not fit for function, and right now, they are failing to meet their warranty obligations.

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@dartyb wrote:

While installing the 4th trackpad into my laptop, the technician cracked the screen. It made an audible pop.

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That sentence is just filled with all sorts of wrong.

Just had the technician out to replace the trackpad (first time). Mine was the second he has done, but the kit has been changed since the first one he did. It now includes an adhesive conductive strip that bridges between the trackpad frame and the copper SSD cover, so it achieves the same aim as the soldering solutions, but with a different anchor point (and a valid warranty!)

Mine is a 2-fan (low spec graphics) model so it just needs the conductive strip, while 3-fan models have an acetate strip in the kit to bridge the edge of the motherboard. [See photo of technician's instructions]

Now works well (so far!!) and has much better left and right clicks.

This is consistent with the labelling of the solution in the other thread as "Dell Approved". I don't seem to be able to post on there, but will try to cross-post later.

IMHO there should now be a recall so that everyone can have the fix.

Inspiron 7160 new trackpad with conductive strip

Update - still working perfectly.

Dom H, repair still working for you? 

I gave in, called, service tech came out to replace touchpad, I wasn't lucky enough to get the newest version of the upgraded part as Dom H. did. Got an older version, no grounding tape included as shown in picture above. The tech finished, "new" touchpad was worse than the original. His response, "I don't know what's wrong". Had him take it apart again, I assisted this time, found he had not installed the 2 small tabs of the mounting bracket under the laptop frame rail so the touchpad was not being held snugly in place. Corrected, re-assembled and touchpad actually works correctly.  

I'm like the others, expect a few weeks of it working before problems begin again but this time, I have a roll of copper tape waiting. Should it occur again, first thing will be to ground the touchpad frame to the SSD bracket as shown in the pic above. 

My result was the same as all the others, the replaced touch pad worked correctly about 2 - 3 weeks before acting up again. Finally broke down and added the grounding tape from the SSD bracket to the touch pad as shown in the pic by Dom H. Touch pad worked correctly for roughly 2 hours before the cursor began the jumping and stuttering routine again so the grounding  / conductive tape didn't resolve my issue. I can use the laptop for a couple of hours with the touch pad before having to go back to using the external mouse.

May try having the touch pad replaced one more time before the warranty ends. If that doesn't correct the problem, maybe a new laptop from a different brand will.

@Scorp210 Did anything help in the end? How did you proceed with Dell?

@Dom H Does your solution still work for you? Is the "Replacement with Tape" manual an official document by Dell or have you created it yourself?

@drummi​ I had the trackpad problem as long as i have had the laptop. i replaces the trackpad one while it was still under warranty, it worked for some time, but started the erratic movement again. 

At that point i had to use the laptop daily and had no time to find a solution, so i just went with it and always used an external mouse, that i need most of the time anyways. 

now, as i dont have warranty anymore, i opened the laptop to clean it recently, the fans were pretty dusty and it overheated often recently. while open i also looked at the trackpad and did a quick google search, that lead to the solution of grounding the trackpad. i only have found people describing how they connected the copper parts of the trackpad itself to the closest by screw of the trackpad frame. I ordered copper tape and, yesterday, did how videos on youtube showed, and it works as good as it never has before. 

right now im not 100% sure if this will last, but it has solved the problem for many people and never came back, so i´m hopeing it will do the same for me.