Trackpoint moving itself sometimes

[dvorak]

I'm having some troubles with the Trackpoint, rather often it seems to move itself a little and then stop, feels like it needs to set itself back into its default place.
I'm beginning to suspect the Trackpoint cap (using default), I haven't noticed this effect when removing the cap and then manually using the black-square, of course without the cap I'm not using it that roughly. I did notice a little (pixel or two) movement, but that may have been caused by my finger somehow.
I wonder, did me removing the cap 10 timer or so cause any minor damage to the inside of the rubber has anyone alse also encountered this little annoyance?

PS. I tried it once with the soft-dome and one time it did also move itself, then I removed it, it was rather uncomfortable to use.

[gazingwa]

It is just recalibrating itself after use....
If you hold a steady pressure on it for a period of time, it thinks that is center... so when you let go, it moves until it figures out that is center.

[dvorak]

Thanks for your answer, though it's interesting, it seems logical, but why is this calibrating happening while I naturally move the mouse, and can it be turned off somehow?

Trying to manually make this happen didn't succeed, probably I've got too unsteady fingers.

Edit: Heh, now I was able to reproduce it, I succeeded, although I'm still a little unsure why this should happen while I normally move my pointer around...

[gazingwa]

Well... if it didn't auto calibrate, you would need a utility which would be cumbersome, cost more money, and would be bios or os dependant. Sometimes when you normally move the pointer around, you are applying a constant pressure in one direction, it will cancel out the smallest constant motion and then it is out of calibration. So when you let off it fixes itself.

[snickervicker]

you can speed up the calibrating by moving the cursor to the corner the mouse is heading towards. it stops the calibration when the mouse cant move any more. whenever that happens to me i just send it to the corner for a few secs and it stops!

[Daver]

Honestly, it's just another IBM "quirk" you get used to.

Use another machine with a trackpoint that doesn't work as well like a Dell, and you'll even miss the quirks.

-Daver

[mdarnton]

Lift your finger, let it figure out what it wants to do and do it, and in a few seconds you can get back to work. It's good to rest your eyes once in a while. :-)

[ThinkPad]

Same thing happens on mine aswell. I just learn to live with it,

[dvorak]

I didn't even think in the first place it could be calibration, but now that I've been monitoring my mouse movement, I do see that I rather often forget to lift my finger and end up with weak yet constant pressure and then used to wonder why it would move itself ;)