Thinkpads Forum

I'm absoposolutely sure this has been addressed billions of times, however the search function on this forum isn't so great and my particular predicament uses words like, "crazy, wacky, malfunction"-- something that isn't uniformly used.

My 600e's trackpoint went wonky. I FINALLY got the backlight and keyboard fixed, and the old thing was starting to show promise again, but suddenly today the trackpoint went out. I'm fairly frustrated that one thing after another just keeps failing. I bought two parts units from a forum member and managed to break their keyboard's connectors, so replacing the keyboard isn't really an option.

The cursor is flailing about. I've googled the problem and mine seems to be a bit different from some. People say theirs fly all over the screen with no pattern, while mine only has horizontal issues, going to the far left and then the far right. I've uninstalled/reinstalled/redownloaded the drivers, even using a generic one. And I've run anti-spyware software (about to run antivirus). I'm just going to forget it if I have to pay for a keyboard to fix this, and just save for my x61. Hopefully I can fix it though.

I want to open it up to disconnect/reconnect it only as a last resort, since I've done it so many times and I've experienced how easy it is to break the keyboard connector. I read somewhere that other drivers might interfere... but I don't want to uninstall every driver until I find one that fixes it.

Any thoughts?

Most likely what has happened is that the trackpoint has become "stuck"; constantly moving in one direction. It is supposed to re-calibrate itself so that with no pressure on it, it stays put. It can become temporarily confused if you keep fingertip pressure on it for a few seconds and then remove the pressure. The cursor will then move (usually just a short distance and only for a second or two) until the trackpoint re-centers.

As far as searching for topics, these tips can help:

- if using more than one search word/term, be sure to also select the "Search for all terms" option
- try to guess what somebody else would use to describe the problem/issue; for this trackpoint problem the following terms can help: drift*, itself, automatically (as in "my trackpoint automatically drifts by itself")
- as shown by the example above, you can use the "*" wildcard to match related words; "drift*" will match drift, drifts, drifting
- restrict the search to a single forum instead of searching the entire site; for your system, selecting the "Legacy Hardware" will ignore every other forum

related threads:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=52552
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=48072
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=28302
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=21900
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=18506
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=10680

I experienced the "drift" ever since I got the ol' thing used. This is decidedly different. It goes to the extreme right of the screen and then the extreme left. I can control it vertically but when I try to horizontally it gets overridden and jerks around alot.

Well, crap. The consensus in the other threads seems to be that the only thing to do is replace the keyboard. DAGNABBIT! I just bought two parts units whose keyboards didn't work. I suppose I'll try to reseat the keyboard, and if that doesn't work I'll just disable the trackpoint and use the thing as a paperweight.

Thanks!