T520 Trackpoint buttons inactive

[Rletson]

I recently did a hard drive transplant on a T520, replacing its Win 7 Pro drive with one (from another 520) with a Win 10 install. (Insert list of PITA Windows 10 validation hurdles here.) The Trackpoint itself works fine, but the upper buttons (the ones right below the space bar) don't respond, while the ones just below the touchpad do.

I can't tell whether this is a mechanical, electrical, or software issue--I was not previously the main user on this machine and so can't testify whether the buttons worked before. (I suspect they did.) Searching around (including on this site) suggests that some drivers might not match the Windows 10 version, and indeed the Trackpoint control app seems to have vanished from the taskbar. (Attempts to reinstall have had mixed results, none of them satisfactory.) But the fact that the cursor control works but the upper buttons don't suggest that maybe it's a physical-connection matter. FWIW, the somewhat newer T520 that supplied the Win 10 drive is working just fine with this machine's old Win 7 drive, Trackpoint and all.

Any wisdom?

[Fierelier]

Note: I'm not very experienced with this particular issue, just have some pointers.

As long as the correct trackpoint driver is installed, you should be able to change a bunch of mouse settings in Control Panel > Mouse.

If you do not see related settings to the trackpoint/trackpad, maybe try disabling automatic driver updates (Important, or else your changes might get overridden, as Windows thinks it's drivers are always better), uninstalling the UltraNav driver (if installed), and installing the UltraNav driver from Lenovo for your machine (If no W10 driver is available, the W7 one should hopefully do). The UltraNav software (not driver) should, at least in my experience on W7, not be required. Perhaps you should keep it uninstalled.

If all else fails, just plug in the old W7 drive, see if it still works. If not, I recommend reseating the keyboard connector if you're allowed and experienced enough.

[Rletson]

Thanks for that nudge--I should have thought of booting from the old drive, which I had preserved in a caddy. Turns out the buttons don't work under Win 7 either, so problem must be hardware and a keyboard repair/replacement is in order. (This 520 was my wife's home machine, and she never uses Trackpoints, so it could have been broken for a long time.)

[kfzhu1229]

On the T520 keyboard, in terms of wiring, the 3 trackpoint buttons are wired with a single trace on one side of the membrane. If that trace is shot, none of the buttons will work.
You can rewire that trace, but that also means you gotta open the trackpoint buttons, and unweld the plastic piece that's welded there...
But before that, maybe you should see if it's actually the trace broken or the trace shorted to something that the button is permenantly pressed...

[RealBlackStuff]

What if...
in BIOS/Config/Keyboard the trackpoint and/or touchpad is DISabled?

[Rletson]

Thanks--I didn't think of a BIOS setting, but on I checked and it's enabled. I suspect something has munged the hardware, and eventually I'll feel strong enough to look into that possibility--probably look for a replacement keyboard (since a couple of individual keys are getting sticky).