Dell XPS Palm Rest Problem

Hi. I work for a small business as a computer tech and i had a Dell XPS M140 laptop come in today.

Issue: After about an hour of use/being powered on the mouse pad and buttons will suddenly cut out. Keyboard still works and if you attatch a USB mouse it will work.

The palm rest builds up quite a bit of heat, more than a normal laptop would (at least ones i have used) I disassembled it and found there was a chip located right below where the palm rest sits above the MB.

My guess is that the heat is causing the palm rest to malfunction. But i was lookin for some more opinions on this problem, and if it is, some advice on how to fix it.

Thanks,

Aaron