X40 stiff trackpoint

[zmyx]

Hello there,

My girlfriend bought a mint condition X40 after me. The laptop looks brand new from inside and outside. The keyboard is also in a very good condition, i.e. the keys are new and look unused. The only problem we have is the trackpoint. It moves so slow under Windows and also Linux. We compared it to other two X40 and it is surely abnormally slow and stiff. All software are set up to maximum speed and highest sensitivity but still the movement of the mouse or the pointer is slow.

I looked in this forum and someone suggest that the red cap itself can be bad. We tried it with other three caps and the results were the same.

Have anybody had the same problem here? Perhaps with solutions which is not to buy a new keyboard?

[Vempele]

I've found that the sensitivity slider is inverted in Linux. What happens if you set it all the way to the left?

There's also an app for controlling trackpoint-specific settings in... Mandriva, IIRC. Make sure to have an external mouse handy if you try it - invalid settings will freeze the trackpoint.

[zmyx]

thanks for the suggestion. I checked the inverting setup but it didn't work. now i really think it could be the hardware problem.

I do have an old T20 keyboard with working trackpoint. would it be possible to transplant the trackpoint sensor from T20 keyboard on the X40 keyboard? At first glance the hardware layout look similar between the two. Has anybody done this hacking yet on this forum. Maybe I should be the first one to try it

[jdhurst]

You could have a hardware problem, but do remember that the little trackpoint stick does not move - not even by a smidgen. So unless the hardware sensor for pressure has failed, the software drivers will be the issue. You can try replacing the keyboard part that holds the trackpoint. ... JDH

[zmyx]

Hi once again,

one more thing to say about this rare case is, that when the notebook is very cold and one turns it on, the trackpoint is working just fine . It get's 'slow' when the machine gets hot. So one easy solution is to use this laptop only during my vacation at the north pole then..

I suspect that the amplifier circuit (if there is one) for the trackpoint could be broken. Will report back once I open it up.