[Owner's Thread] Inspiron 13 (Skylake models)

Hi! I thought I'd start this to pick up the refugees from the Slickdeals post going on today. $250 for this laptop.

As posted before, the RAM & hard drive are very easy to upgrade. Here's a short YouTube guide. Looks like any 2.5" drive will work.

Does anybody have one of these? What RAM speed is it using? 1600MHz or 1866MHz? You can check using CPU-Z, in the memory tab. It's either 800Mhz or 933Mhz (since it's DDR, the frequency is doubled). 8GB sticks are crazy cheap, only $30 on Amazon.

 

Dell said it was 1600Mhz, so I've bought this Kingston HyperX Impact 8GB stick. It's $33, 1.35V for DDR3L (dat battery life), and CL9 (if that would ever matter, haha). And that heatspreader just looks cool.

 

I had the broadwell version of this and overall it was a great laptop. It is a little on the larger side resembling most 14' laptops, but if footprint does not bother you then there is certainly a lot of computer for the money.

 

Nice, that's good to hear. How was battery life on it? I've heard very mixed opinions, even from a review site which saw 15% variance between units on the exact same test.

 

I can't really comment on that. I have a weird mixed use. I will say that if you activate hybernation then you can get a week out of it with about 30-40minutes of use bedside per night. (netflix helps me sleep)

 

Sure, I feel that. OK, that's pretty solid. How long does it take to get out of hibernation, out of curiosity?

 

I had the hybrid drive so it was quick... with a standard 5400 it is probably around 45secs+

 

Sure, right, right. I have a Samsung 840 EVO that I'm transitioning out of my desktop, so hopefully it'll give this Pentium a jolt of speed. Also, I just heard Android apps are coming to Chrome OS. I'm debating whether I want to dual-boot Chrome OS with Windows 10 now...we'll see how it fares under Windows 10.

Sadly, the Dell website was wrong on the delivery date. It's been pushed back from tomorrow to next Wednesday. But, at least the new hard drive is coming, so I can backup and wipe that 840 EVO this weekend.

 

Hello everybody,
new forum and new Dell Inspiror 13 7359 owner here!
This is my first Dell in my life, I fell in love when I saw it on this website.
After some long comparing I went for this model, instead XPS 13 and Spectre 360. Reason was price and how much it worth for me. For how I use this laptop the higher prices didn't justify the buy. I got used to aluminum body (I had an HP Elitebook 8460p), going back to plastic body it's not the best, but I can say I love te finish of this laptop.
I bought the i7 6500u, 8gb, 256SSD (which is from Liteon, i thought it was from Samsung).
I'm planning to buy a 16gb module, which has be proved to work on it, and a very large SSD (512gb-1tb), when price will go down further.
DDR3 16gb single modules are very expensive, unfortunately.
I'm planning to do some tests and a little review, when I'll have more free time.
I use it for professional photography and video editing (small works, for bigger works I've a full workstation).
If you need some info about the laptop feel free to ask.

 

Oh, fantastic! True; I feel like I get 90% of the laptop of the XPS 13 / Spectre 360 for a huge 50% (or more) discount.

I'm glad the plastic is OK; I really liked the aluminum of the Spectre 360, but the price of this Inspiron 13 was just too good to pass up.

Nice; solid specs! 16GB confirmed to work? Sweet--a bit out of my price range, too, but I imagine if you need it (especially with photo/video editing), you can't do without it.

Lite-ON, interesting. The Dell XPS 17 in my signature also has a "Lite-On" drive, but it turns out it's a Plextor drive actually (Plextor licensed out their SSD tech to Lite-On apparently). So it may actually be a Plextor drive.

--

I do want to ask: do you know anything about this? It's a custom Dell recovery image for Windows 10 that you can download. I was just going to start fresh, but I'm curious what Dell has done and whether I can get those changes if I install on my own. They mention "Updated patches that address common issues for Dell systems", but what are they?! Are those not just Windows updates? Hmm...

 

Thanks so much for starting this!!

Love computers but hate working on them. However, I think I'll take a stab at upgrading to a SSD. Would like to get around 500gb but not necessary. Any suggestions or at least can you give me compatible choices/specs?
Thnx

 

I can say the plastic has a very nice finish, it's like brushed, satin finish. It would hide any scratches. Looks very robust, there aren't any crackle sounds at all when pushing. A little of bending in some points, nothing to be worried. I usually treat my things very well, I usually open and close display lid very gently.
I'm not fully convinced about keyboard. Keys have a nice finish, but sometimes the keystroke aren't recognized. You need to press a bit stronger the keys to make them registered. When you press a bit on the side the keys it isn't recognized. Maybe with time will become more softer.
The price tag was very attractive indeed The hardware is pretty the same as XPS and Spectre.
About the 16gb ram module, I didn't test it personally, but I've seen pictures on a forum posted by a user, which bought the module and taken picture of bios screen: it recognizes the module fully. On Amazon there's only one model: by Crucial, and it costs about 170,00€. 8gb modules are about 40€. Expensive!
Yes I had to go with best specs because I was sure I would complain in the future. Furthermore, in the italian Dell website there are just 3 config, not customizable. i3, i5, i7. i3 and i5 comes with hdd only. So I would had to buy a SSD separately and the price difference was just 100€. I bought mine on another website, not Dell. I got it for 800€ while on Dell website was 900€.
Would you like to know one BIG reason I've choosen the Dell? SATA hdd/ssd, not M.2 (which are quite expensive), replaceable ram by user, and battery too. I can't imagine if a ram module goes wrong. You have to send the laptop to repair, for just a ram module, because on XPS and Spectre they are soldered. I can't imagine it. On Dell you need just to buy a common ram module and you can replace it almost easily, and when working with IT time is crucial
XPS 17 it's a solid machine, nice!
Yes, it could be a Plextor drive,basing on the link you've posted

About that Dell Recovery image: it's really big, 6gb! I've tried to download but I stopped it because it taken very long and I had to go out with the laptop.
In my opinion manufacturer images for recovery will be better than stock Windows 10 installation, because you have all the drivers injected (which could be customized) and have some optimizations under the hood, for longer lasting on battery and so on.
The optimizations could be some specific laptop model fixes, because of the hardware inside, aside from the CPU. The motherboard is custom from Dell, screen too, and so on. I don't know for sure what are the optimizations in the reality.
Maybe there were bad issues which could lead to big problems, and fixing them by windows updates wouldnt have been possible solution to adopt.
Who knows

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I think you could go for Samsung SSD, they are pretty good and stable in performance.
500gb is a nice size. I really like the 1tb models, and I have seen 2tb models too, but 600€ for them it's a bit too much actually.

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Thnx for your comment and sorry for bothering you again but If I dont touch the memory, do you think 1 TB SSD will be worth it? (remember I'm a SD member which means I am a cheap SOB that recognizes the importance of getting the best "bang for the buck".) Of couse going from 4 to 8 in memory is only $34. Just want to make sure there will be no conflicts.
Thnx

 

I don't think you will have problem with that SSD. It's a bit pricey, actually the 256-512gb has the better price per Gb in my opinion.
You could clone the actually drive, so you would have original recovery partition from Dell.

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Thanks for this crazy detailed response; I didn't expect so much great information!

Great to hear on the plastic finish; I don't mind scratches, but as long as it is durable and doesn't seem prone to "cracks". My XPS 17 lasted a long time, but in the last year, after moving it around in a backpack for 10 months every day, I got some cracks around the hinges. That could've just been age, though, haha.

Oh, OK. Yes, I've heard the keyboard described as a bit "mushy". I use a mechanical keyboard now, but after years of "meh" keyboards, my fingers are used to bottoming-out on the keys, haha. I'll see how it goes.

Yeah, their storage prices are insane sometimes! It's hardly reasonable.

Hahahaha, really, you, too?! Yes! I had found other systems that were thinner, but then you must buy the configuration you want: RAM is almost always soldered on those thin laptops and M.2 SSDs are still obscenely expensive. Because of the 2.5" hard drive, I can use my desktop's 250GB SSD that's always been a tad too small. And I can pay $34 for 8GB of RAM instead of $100 or even more.

Yeah, the XPS 17 lasted me such a long time. I had an XPS 16, but when it died during the warranty, they had actually stopped producing them, so they upgraded me to the XPS 17. Bigger than I had wanted, but it worked and that was enough.

Sure; glad it helped. I was also confused...I'd never heard of LITE-ON SSDs and couldn't find any reviews. Then, I teased out the Plextor model number hiding in the LITE-ON model number, haha.

True; great points about the image. I think those drivers will be quite useful because Dell hasn't listed a touchpad driver for Windows 10 on this laptop, haha. So...where would it be? Do you just use the Windows 8.1 for now? Hmm...better not risk any weird bugs and just go with the Dell image. Sadly, you need the service tag to actually download the image, but since it hasn't arrived, I can't download the image now. Hmm...maybe if I call Dell, they can give me the service tag a bit early, haha.

Totally; happy to get all of us in one place!

I agree with AndreaM; 1TB drives are "cheaper" for their $/GB, sometimes $0.20/GB or less. But, in the absolute price, you won't find a 1TB cheaper for less than $200. It depends on what you will do with the SSD. If you need 1TB, then absolutely. But, I've survived on 250GB and 640GB drives for a long time. However, important to remember: SSDs get noticeably slow once they are 90%+ full (unless they have large overprovisioning, which is just space on the SSD that is always empty because you can't even access it!). I am going to use an old Samsung 840 EVO 250GB that I use in my desktop machine.

In terms of compatibility: any 2.5" SSD will work. Most SSDs are 7mm tall, but a few of them are 9mm tall. I think both will fit fine in the Inspiron 13. FWIW, the current hard drive (500GB) is 7mm.

And, the Inspiron 13 should use SATA 6Gbps, but any SSD made within the past 1-2 years is likely SATA 6Gbps anyways. SATA 3Gbps shouldn't even be that big of a bottleneck unless you are transferring massive files all the time.

 

New Intel video drivers update available today on Dell website





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This update gaves one interesting fix, at least for me.
In Premiere Pro when I was using Lumetri in conjunction with a LUT and GPU Mercury Engine acceleration the preview became black and the same when exporting the final clip. Playback was a bit sluggish.
Now everything works very good and smooth! hardware acceleration is working fine on a low powered Intel HD 520.
I'm so happy!
I was tempted to install the latest driver from intel website, but I would have lost some optimizations made by Dell on Intel drivers, and maybe facing some incompatibility.
But it was better to wait.

Here it's a screen of Premiere Pro and some sensors reading.
PS: if you notice weird artifacts on the image it's because I've retouched it for privacy reasons




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New bios has gone out.
And yesterday evening audio doesn't work anymore. I'm trying various solutions, removing and reinstalling driver, reboot... till now didn't worked.

Edit: looks like audio problems are gone. Removing totally the audio driver and installing them from website made it. It was a software problem, I suppose.

I updated bios too.
In the changelog looks like they fixed the keyboard backlighting, now the laptop store the illumination setting when you turn off the pc and remember it at every start.

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double-post

 

triple-post

 

I'm back! It arrived; I love it. Overall, it's a fantastic laptop, especially at the price point. I could've paid double and still been very pleased. Now, I'm an unusual user, maybe. My last laptop was 7 years ago, a Dell XPS 16 that was warranty-replaced with a now-dead XPS 17 (need to update my signature!). No touch, weighed 7+ pounds, a massive 17" screen, and a battery life that was lucky to last 3 hours new and definitely less than 90 minutes as it aged. Then, my traditional desktop, is a 4.5GHz i5-4670K with a 24" 144Hz monitor and mechanical keyboard.

First of all, it took me a bit of time to get used to the screen. 13.3" is somehow smaller than I remembered, haha, but I appreciate the size now. Not too big and not too small: easy to carry, but also easy enough to read text and browse the web. Otherwise, it's a gorgeous screen: I'd expect this screen in a $1000 laptop. Crisp 1080p, IPS angles and color accuracy, brightness is good, etc. The bezels are a little big, but in a way, it's nice that they "center" the screen above your fingers on the keyboard. And they do help when I'm using it mostly in touch-mode. I wish it could be a bit brighter at lower percentages (if that makes sense) because 60% is where I like it, but I wonder if that's a little too high for battery consumption. Fingerprints don't show up that noticeable, either, unless the screen is off.

The hinge: love it. I knew it had been a good design idea, but it's really something. Very sturdy feel, yet easy to flip as well. Keyboard/trackpad deactivates once you go past 180 degrees. The stand mode is a God-given bounty; I love it. It's great for casual browsing, watching videos or movies, or even reading. I haven't tried tent mode a lot, but I think it would be better if you tap/touch a lot because there can be a bit of display wobble if you tap too hard. Tablet alone is a weird vibe: the keyboard, as many others have proclaimed, feels a bit weird. It's like you don't have a secure grip on it, keys press/depress as you shift your grip, and then the weight can get you down a little bit.

The keyboard: awesome. It took me a while to get used to the smaller size (the smallest keyboard, but also my smallest laptop, after my 16" Dell XPS 16 years ago, haha), but I'm getting used to it. A few missed keys, but I blame lack of practice. Already, since using it 3 days now, I'm getting very close to my normal typing speed (~80wpm). I think my fingers are just used to the activation weight of a mechanical keyboard, so I just need depress a bit deeper when I start typing faster. I like the top-function row keys doing their alternative function, but this can be reversed back to the normal "F1-F12" keys in the BIOS.

The trackpad: solid, too. Gets my gestures every time. I'm still getting used to a buttonless trackpad: my first one ever. I'm used to using two hands on the trackpad (weird, I know, haha), but now I'm re-configuring for one hand. The two-finger-tap for right-click has saved me a lot of hassle just today; I just learned about that today, haha. It has a bit of friction to it, but that helps me feel precise with it. Not too slippery and not too harsh. The only issue I've had: I can't seem to change the scrolling speed. 6 lines or 100 lines: everything still scrolls the same. Maybe a driver issue; I'll mess around it with later.

Battery life has been surprisingly nice. I haven't been counting yet because I keep needing to plug it in for various reasons (heading out in a little while or the BIOS update, which requires it to be plugged in). But, I'll try to get a good gauge of it. There are dozens of battery life options: in the Intel Graphics Menu, in the Dell Battery program thing, in the BIOS, etc. Maybe when I get more down time, I'll try tweaking a few of them and seeing if there are any noticeable improvements. But, so far, it hasn't even gotten close to running out. Charge speed is pretty quick, too, around ~1 hour to get from 40% to 100% (it reaches 90% much faster, though).

It doesn't get warm at all when just browsing or editing documents, which is what I was really hoping for. I've only heard the fan turn on a few times: Windows updates, the BIOS update, or when it's charging (this one I can't be sure, but it seems to be related. It makes sense: batteries get hot when they charge). And even then, it's a very quiet fan. I've only once heard it get loud enough that I can hear it without trying to hear it.

The pen is decent, too. It's enough for general drawing, but it might be hard to write precisely (unless you can write big). I like how it's always available, though.

The Dell Win10 update worked out well, except that it couldn't find updates (error 80240fff). I manually updated to 1511 and that got me updated and fixed the error (a few more updates downloaded after that). And, yes, the partitions were 4KB aligned upon install. It's an image, but it actually runs through the proper Windows 10 installation with hard drive selection, etc.

Oh, yeah, upgrading from 4GB/HDD to 8GB/SSD was a night-day difference. It was a struggle sometimes just browsing websites with the HDD. They would take a few seconds to load, even though our WiFi is pretty good. Loading speed and general use is approximately 15x better. I'm a little sad that they still sell it with an HDD! It completely hinders the true speed of this laptop. But, with the SSD, finally it feels like I'm using a modern laptop and not some underpowered Atom from 2009 running Windows Vista, haha.

--

Yes! That BIOS update did help with the keyboard not changing its backlight settings.

That's really weird with the audio: when I used the Dell Win10 image, the audio driver was actually the only program inside "Programs & Features", actually! But, I didn't trust it, so I went ahead and just used the one I found from Dell's website.

 

Great update! Really good to know about the 4GB/to 8GB upgrade. Thnx
This EVO SSD is on sale today for 139. Will this work?
http://www.frys.com/product/8310197
Thnx

 

Sure, no worries.

Yup, will work 100%. I have that same SSD in my desktop, not that that's worth anything anecdotally, haha, but it's a great SSD.

 

So, received ssd. Do you have the time to help me install the OS? i have a couple links for instructions but thought I would first reach out to you as it seems you have a tremendous knowledge and skill at this. I thought if you can assist and i have problem, you would know what to do.
No worries if you don't want to, you already have personally help me out a lot and I really appreciate it.
Have a great day!

 

So, received ssd. Do you have the time to help me install the OS? i have a couple links for instructions but thought I would first reach out to you as it seems you have a tremendous knowledge and skill at this. I thought if you can assist and i have problem, you would know what to do.
No worries if you don't want to, you already have personally help me out a lot and I really appreciate it.
Have a great day!

 

Hi! Sure, yeah, I can lend a hand. The general steps are just putting the SSD in and booting from a USB flash drive that has Dell's recovery image on it.

Find a blank USB flash drive that's at least 8GB.

Download the Dell image of Windows 10 from here: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Products/

Type in your service tag, go to Drivers & Downloads on the left, click Operating System, and follow the instructions.

After it downloads, it will go to this new screen: http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN299044

Follow those instructions (for Windows 10): you'll have to "setup" your USB flash drive for booting. Then, you plug it in and you're good to go.

What steps are you on / having difficulties with?

 

Debating between this and the Spectre x360. That one has the i7-6560u and Iris Pro 540... decisions, decisions.

 

I would say that these two are different market segments, though. The x360 starts at a higher price, a metal-based body, a GPU nearly an order of magnitude faster, etc.

 

So Dell pulled the latest bios after I installed it on mine. What's the story here, any bug I should worry about? RAM and SDD upgrade works fine for me. Really happy with the performance and quality of the 7359 so far.

 

It's back, actually, literally just today. I think you just missed it.

It's still v1.08, but the date has been updated...maybe some bug fixes were put in secretly, haha.

 

Would you advise to reinstall the bios? I don't want to mess it up!!! I already have v1.08 (old). I really hate it when Dell used the same version number if they changed anything.

 

You can reinstall BIOSes no problem. The only thing you would lose are any custom BIOS settings or any BIOS passwords--if you never changed anything, though, should have no effect.

When you install it, Dell compares the old and new BIOSes. If they are incompatible, it won't let you install. I just installed this "new" v1.08 over top of my old v1.08 and it looks solid!

 

Thanks. Did it. They did add something, not sure what it means.

 

Yeah, that BIOS updater screen is weird: I'm pretty sure it was the same going from v1.07 to v1.08 (old) AND v1.08 (old) to v1.08 (new).

I've no idea what actually changed. But, yeah, no harm in flashing again and at least now, we're "technically" on the latest version, haha.

 

I got one of these Inspiron 13 - 7359s from the UK Dell outlet with the 6500U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD and FullHD IPS screen. Although silver plastic, it's an attractive enough looking slim laptop. I have 2 complaints so far - the keyboard and touch pad,The keyboard compared to my old XPS 13 M1330 is smaller with many reduced sized keys even though this new laptop is actually 10mm wider than my old machine. I've also found the touch pad less than perfect with many times the pointer not picking up input from the pad and giving an over all vague feeling controlling the pointer. The touch pad issue is a deal-breaker for me. How do Dell keep getting away with selling laptops with terrible touch pads? I use an E5500 latitude at work and the touch pad on that is the same. The last laptop I bought - a latitude E7440 was also the same and I ended up returning that as well. How difficult is it to make a laptop with a touch pad that actually works correctly??

 

I agree, touchpad isn't very good. Not very precise and it has some lagginess.
The keyboard lose some presses sometimes if you hit the key not on the center.

The sad thing I've discovered recently is our model went out of production. If I try to order a spare battery the DELL US site inform me the spare part isn't available anymore because the product is discontinued.
WTF?
Meanwhile the new model went out, with DDR4 (which should be native for Skylake processors) and others minor changes.
So if my battery broke after warranty period (which is shorter for batteries than laptop itself) I can't replace the battery, and there are no compatible batteries because only DELL sold them.
That's not good.

Sent from mTalk

 

Anyone know how to replace screen panel?
I got a 5368, with a crappy BOE panel with the parameters here http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Inspiron-13-7368-Convertible-Review.169209.0.html
I am thinking about to replace it with a LP133WF2-SPA1, but I'm not sure if it fits.
Unlike the LP156WF6-SPB1, LP156WF4-SPB1, or LP156WF4-SPL1, LP156WF6-SPA1....the LP133WF line do not have the same dimension for different panels of 13.3inch, for example:

LP133WF2-SPA1
IPS
1920×1080
340
72%
306.3×188.7
LP133WF6-SSA1
IPS
1920×1080



LP133WF1-SPA1
IPS
1920×1080
300

297.3×193.45

 

We've got a bunch of these. 13 7359 2-in-1
The update page is cool, shame that they are not compatible with the DELL business software to handle auto-updates etc.
Plasticy body - it does feel nice though. I hang my USB-stick off the silly magnets at the front of the unit, so I have slight scratch marks from the metal USB-Drive rubbing against the DELL's plastic, but it still looks fine. Those magnets are held in by hot-snot and break off inside the computer the FIRST time you open it - so unless you REALLY want to get into thte PC - DONT. everything else inside there is SUPER-modular which i think is cool - you break a USB jack? sweet as, no soldering, just order another from spares and click it in
Keyboard is OK - fine for the price. We have had 1 broken screen so far - user blamed it on the hinges, but i have my doubts... power adapter is piddly, but at least it's compact - micky mouse type. pen sucks. I have one on my desk at the moment with no response from it's built-in mouse+keyboard - i thought that was interesting as this was a backup - hardly ever used and all updates are disabled... nonetheless I will try and download a driver off DELL next week and see if it takes, for now if I need it, i'll just use the touchscreen!

The Audio glitch is a bastard. I get it happen to about 1 a week. It started occurring about 6 months ago - first mine lost all audio, then someone in marketing, then next week about 20 people all in one week! It's a dumb DELL update that they shouldn't have pushed out - but despite my experience I can't avoid it. I have pre-prepped some with the latest driver, I have removed that stupid audio enhancement software... the only ones that haven't eventually got it is the ones I completely BIN DELL's garbage install and put Windows 10 Enterprise on.

New BIOS came out this week... the SSD has new firmware again also, but DELL hasn't updated to the latest version of that yet so we play the waiting game for that one (retail SanDisk SSD firmware doesn't work on the DELL drives due to a difference in they way they report to the BIOS)

I actually popped in here to see if anyone else has the trackpad/keyboard vanishing glitch yet, but it's probably a new version of the Audio glitch lol who knows what it will be this time.

 

Anyway this is just an update incase someone is searching what to do if (when) your keyboard and touchpad crap out - I tried the official "help" here: https://www.dell.com/support/articl...chpad--or-mouse-not-working-correctly?lang=EN
(this model is a precision touchpad by-the-way so this is Dell politely saying "we have no idea on debugging these new-fandangled devices")
with no result, I was starting to think that I had to re-seat the ribbon-cable inside like here: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19345988 BUT

But I knew there would be another way, because it works in BIOS (use the touchscreen to log into winblows>"advanced restart">troubleshooting>access UEFI>restart), and also that when you do an "advanced restart" > "Use CMD" nothing works, but the CAPS LOCK key is lit. So I booted to safe mode (not easy) and fixed it:

1. Do an "advanced restart" (lucky I can use the touchscreen to log into windows and then do this)
2. keep plugging USB keyboards into different USB ports until one finally lets you choose option "4: safe mode with networking"
3. keyboard will have stopped working again, but hopefully CAPS LOCK is lit. mash it a few times on both laptop and USB keyboard.
4. After you can get it to toggle, start working on the Windows Key
5. Now the keyboards should be fully responding, tap the Windows Key again whilst moving the mouse
6. after about 2-3 taps the mouse cursor will appear and you will have everything working again.
7. No driver installs happened in this process, and nothing is indicated in the logs - perhaps there is a circuit somewhere that needs a "magic combination" to reset it - which would explain why re-seating the connector inside the laptop also works (and why DELL's tip is often to remove the battery and mash power button to clear any stagnant power from the circuits).

The logical part of me wants to think that it was really just "waiting" to install drivers and that the combinations of tapping [CAPS] and [WIN] was a placebo during that time... but this seriously took about 2 weeks and about 20 hours before I got the process down-pat. I have only had it on one other DELL since, and it was already in safe mode too, so I can't confirm if the "Magical key combination" works in Windows 10 OS, but I would try that first because getting into safe mode without keyboard is a PITA! ***UPDATE*** as per below: you DON'T need safemode! ***

As mentioned earlier in this thread avoid opening the computers as there are parts held in by hot-snot that wont go back into place again (ie latch magnets)

***UPDATE*** I have no idea why the first time this happened "it didnt do any driver installs" - I can only guess that uninstalling the keyboard earlier indeed fixed it, and the "placebo" was really just causing me to wait, as it seems to start working after idling for 5-10 minutes after that restart. (safe mode wasnt necessary, just any normal restart - see below)

 

Okay another 2 DELL Inspiron 13 7359 2-in-1's have had this occur now! The Keyboard and Mouse (touchpad/trackpad) both suddenly stop working completely. As per the last post, the touchpad is a "precision touchpad" which means DELL has no interest in supporting it, other than "run the troubleshooter" (which finds no error).

Plugging in a USB keyboard and mouse allows me to log in and use the system as normal, tapping [CAPS LOCK] on the USB keyboard also toggles the [Caps Lock] status light on the DELL's keyboard, but no buttons work besides power and the touch-screen.

1 of the failures was straight after doing the latest windows update 1703 (OS Build 15063.296) . The Device manager for the Keyboard (Standard PS/2 Keyboard) and Mouse (PS/2 Compatible Mouse) both state "Device Migrated" success and normal configuration and startup. I fixed this one by trying the above steps with combinations of uninstalling each device, including USB ports and chipset drivers in SAFE mode, and then left it a few minutes to see if that "placebo" was enough to fix it... surely enough it came back on. It seems to be a driver fault that springs to life after a few minutes (see below).

ANOTHER FIX TO KEYBOARD + TOUCHPAD FAILURE:
Cause(?):
yesterday another one of this model DELL started ignoring it's input devices, right after I performed the following 2 updates (in this order):

1. Audio_Driver_KY3FK_WN32_8.65.135.91_A04.EXE - which updates "Connexant SmartAudio HD" v.8.65.122.0 > v.8.65.135.91
2. Serial-ATA_Driver_PFJ82_WN32_14.8.9.1053_A06.EXE - "Intel(R) 6th Gen * SATA AHCI Controller" v.14.6.0.1029 > v14.8.9.1053

Apon reboot I was unable to log in due to the keyboard not respond and I immediately knew the cause.

Notes:

• I tried uninstalling the updates that I applied (in the reverse order) which didn't help.
• Comparing the drivers, events and anything else I could find about the keyboard+touchpad: I noticed that there was no tab called "Keyboard Lock" in Keyboard Properties dialog.

The Fix:
After doing this about 4 times now I knew that the DELL's internal control devices are the ones marked as PS/2 , and having noticed the "Keyboard Lock" was missing I knew what to target. I had done many combinations previously for uninstalling and re-installing them all but this way worked best:

1. Open "Device Manager" and then unplug the USB Keyboard (mouse is irrelevant)
2. Use the touchscreen to uninstall all the "HID Keyboard Device"
3. Uninstall any other keyboards until you are only left with "PS/2"
   
4. LAST: Uninstall "Standard PS/2 Keyboard" (it will ask to reboot). The others 'wont need a reboot but this buggy one does!
5. Reboot the computer (this DELL said "Windows is Configuring..." and took several minutes)
6. You will need the USB keyboard or touchscreen to log in again, and notice that "Keyboard Lock" now correctly shows in the properties window. You are almost there...
7. One more reboot (make sure this and the last reboot were logging into an administrator account) and leave the computer logged in for a few minutes (5-10 mins) and the input devices will magically jump to life again!

**UPDATE** as below, I had another fail - and it was possibly AC power causing it this time.

 

Sorry to post a contradicting fix again.
I just had a 5th one fail today

Model:
Inspiron 13 7359 2-in-1

Fault:
Keyboard and Mouse stop responding in Windows/Bootloader (sporadic function in BIOS/Troubleshooting)

Notes:
CAPS LOCK light still flashes when plugging in external keyboard. Touchscreen still works.
This time the internal keyboard sometimes didnt work in BIOS. Mouse always did.
...This all lead me to believe that it really IS a loose cord, but I thought I would check the other tip on the DELL forums first - remove the battery, as this would explain the voodoo "Placebo fix" I found the first time. It's sealed in the case, which I don't advise opening due to hot-snot (single-use glue) holding things together inside... so I first tried just ditching the AC adapter. It's worth noting I tried EVERY other one of my fixes first (starting with the most recent one).

My LATEST Fix:

1. Unplug the AC adapter and USB keyboard, and SHUT DOWN the computer (I used the touchscreen to tap the power icon on the login screen). I DID NOT OPEN THE COMPUTER AT ALL.
2. Boot the DELL using the battery. Still no mouse and keyboard so again I used the touchscreen for the next step.
3. RESTART the DELL (Still on battery) by tapping the power icon on the login screen.

When it came back on it was working.

Perhaps note that I tried every other fix mentioned previously, but I really AM going back to the "Placebo fix" theory and that it's just bad power inside. Dell probably is aware of this as they regularly say to remove the battery. I previously worked at a Japanese laptop manufacturer and I can say while removing the battery is sometimes suggested to remove doubts before the pain of shipping a PC - I can also say that I have NEVER personally had a customer with a keyboard failure, and the only instances I heard of it happening were literally dead keyboards (usually drink-spills, but for the trivial cost it's not worth upsetting the customer over that) - so to frequently suggest removing the battery (especially on a sealed computer!) to re-activate a keyboard is a bit suspicious to me!

Overall, I still have to say this model computer is of reasonable quality (for the price) when it works, and when buying DELLs, you aren't exactly expecting them to be fault-free... but I would HIGHLY advise you refer to this thread for keyboard faults with your DELL. Looking at their forums, I can see many examples of this, and also the Inspiron 15's having the same fate, and each time the DELL rep says something along the lines of "wow I have not heard of this before, please try removing the battery". I fear the next time this happens I will actually have to open one of these bottom-end machines as it seems that DELL knows this to be the real fix, and the fact that I have had 5 machines from 3 different batches suggests that it's a flaw in design, and not a fluke.