Thinkpads Forum

Hello

The trainee in our office is using a nice little X201, and she has always had a problem when she is using it in the dock with an external monitor. She would prefer to keep the laptop closed and use only the external monitor. But when she tries to close the lid and the external monitor turns into the primary monitor, she is unable to type anything there. I have actually never put much thought into this until today when I was helping her with a non-working wireless mouse. I rebooted the X201 with the lid closed, and on POST I got the error "ERROR 0210: STUCK KEY 47". So it seemed like the lid was touching a key on the keyboard just enough to activate it.

The reboot fixed the mouse issue, but I also realized that the stuck key is probably the reason for the display problem. I tried to keep different keys activated while she was typing, but we didn't manage to replicate the behavior we see on the external monitor when the lid is closed. And no pressure marks are visible on the LCD screen or the bezel, so we don't know which key it is.

So does anyone know what specific key the code "KEY 47" is referring to? It would help to know, so I can narrow the search.

Thanks!

Hi,

I think it's the trackpoint that is activated, try disabling the trackpoint click feature - it should be called "Press-to-Select" in the trackpoint controls.

Ah, ok. I didn't even know that this feature was available before I activated it on my own Thinkpad right now. You are right, "Press to Select" option, in the UltraNav settings.

That makes sense, I will look in her setup tomorrow. If that doesn't help, I will try to deactivate the entire Trackpoint function to rule it out totally.

If the keyboard 47 error occurs again, keep the lid closed but disconnect the external keyboard from the dock. My guess is that the keypad 7/HOME key is stuck on the external keyboard, based upon some experiments with an X60 (the closest system I have to the X201) and looking at some keyboard scan codes. The HOME key on the X201's keyboard will probably not cause the 47 error. On my X60, if I hold the HOME key down while powering up, the system hangs on the splash screen until I release the key. This is the same action that I've seen with the T23. A few years ago I posted this:

http://www.kawakami-ca.com/ibm_t2x/0210_errors/

A quick check of some random keys seems to indicate that the X60 generates the same error codes as on the T23. My assumption is that the X201 will use those codes as well, but I can't guarantee it since I don't own any X20x systems.

ref: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=76302

Thanks for that input as well. Funny you mention the Home key, that was one of the keys I actually suspected. It seems like the cursor keeps "banging" against the beginning of the text field, and / or tries to scroll to the top of any page, and only random letters makes it in there. But holding the Home key down didn't make the same result as the closed lid makes. Anyway, I will try your suggestion as well as the one above. The external keyboard is old and lousy, and is just as likely to be the problem as the X201 itself.

Ok, the key is found: It turned out it WAS the Home key after all. Disabling the Trackpoint functions or disconnecting the external keyboard didn't help, so I tried keeping the Home button pressed one more time. And I guess I didn't try long enough the last time, beacause after a while that made the cursor do the same thing as it does with the lid closed.

I can't see anything wrong anywhere, nothing out of position or bent. But the lower part of the LCD bezel is apparently touching the Home key just enough to activate it. So if she leaves the X201 with the lid closed almost all the way, but without having the latch snap in place, it's a satisfactory solution. The built-in LCD is turned off at that point, and turns the etxernal monitor into the primary. The user was not interested in having a dual-monitor setup, as it strains her eyes too much to focus away from the big external monitor.

Thanks for the input!

do any one have solution for above problem???

The reason that the Stuck key error occured is given above. Did we ever find a solution for the root cause, the screen bezel touching the Home key? No. Nothing appeared to be bent or misaligned/installed wrong. Had it been my personal laptop, I would probably have opened it up and made an attempt to adjust the height of the rear part of the keyboard. But as it is a work laptop, and we found a workaround, I didn't bother to look more into it

Admin note: Removed duplicate post