Inspiron 15 3000 Touchpad / Trackpad stops responding randomly

Hey,

Last year, I bought a Dell Inspiron 15 3000 running Windows 11. It worked great for a while, but I quickly noticed that the trackpad / touchpad would randomly stop responding for a couple of seconds, and then would start working for a very limited time. Its reliability was very intermittent. Using an external USB mouse would work though.

Recently, I have dualbooted it with Ubuntu, and when running it, the issue still persists.

I'm not sure, but I don't think it would be a driver issue if it is cross-platform, but I suppose it could be.

The laptop has experienced very light physical use and is in very good condition, but that doesn't rule out the possibility of a hardware issue.

I have noticed that if I tap the laptop it seems to get it working again temporarily before stopping again, which leads me to think it could possibly be a cable issue or similar. The device is out of warranty and I am willing to do any hardware investigation / modification(s) necessary.

Does anybody have any advice? I'm getting pretty desperate at this point!

Thank you in advance!!