TrackPoint excruciatingly slow

[Cookie Guru]

I have my TrackPoint settings set to be really fast. However the TrackPoint feels like it's at the slowest setting.

I also have a ThinkPad Compact USB Keyboard (FRU 03X8715) that I use with this laptop while docked. The USB keyboard respects the speed settings.

No idea where "Evaluation Copy" comes from; I'm using the drivers that came with the Win10 install. Not sure if it matters but I have the TouchPad disabled in the BIOS.

What causes this and/or how can I fix it?

[dr_st]

I haven't tried disabling the touchpad on the Thinkpad 25, because I actually like it. You can try re-enabling it to see if it has any effect (shouldn't, but perhaps there is a bug in the software).

Also, try to rule out physical problems with the touchpad. Is the cap fully/correctly attached? Is it intact? I started experiencing problems (sluggish trackpoint movement) after using the TP25 for a few months, and it turned out that the trackpoint cap got ripped on one side, so it was not making good contact with the actual joystick underneath.

[shawross]

You could try Linux from a USB drive to see if it an OS or hardware problem.

Goodluck

[w0qj]

The OP said he is using Win10 on his T25-Retro (circa 2017), and has excruciatingly slow TrackPoint, despite cranking up the TrackPoint mouse speed to fastest.

I also had such a problem on my X1 Carbon Generation 4 (circa 2016), again excruciatingly slow TrackPoint, despite cranking up the TrackPoint mouse speed to fastest (for both Win7 64-bit and Win10 64-bit).
ThinkPad may have used a new supplier for the TrackPoint red rubber tip for my X1C4; its red rubber tip was far too soft, and actually became seriously deformed over my 2 years of use (abuse). In the end, the TrackPoint was hammered flat (no dimples, top crown shape was flattened to a flat pancake shape).
This "too soft" rubber tip also seriously slowed down my TrackPoint speed, I believe.
Even ThinkPad service department commented that my TrackPoint red tip looked "different".

Anyways, I recently switched to another new TrackPoint red tip with a noticeably harder rubber texture (but normal texture), and lo and behold, the TrackPoint speed was up to the normal snappy/fast speed that I've been accustomed to for the past 20+ years. I love my TrackPoint on my X1C4 now! ymmv.

[Cookie Guru]

Linux live CD was a great suggestion. I booted in there and set the sensitivity to a reasonable value and all worked great, so clearly this was a driver issue in Windows.

It looks like there was a driver update that was forced upon me earlier this year that caused this. The solution was to uninstall the existing Synaptics drivers and install the latest ones directly from Lenovo. "Programs and Features" (appwiz.cpl) wasn't any help as nothing from Synaptics was found there, but there's a command to bring up the uninstaller:

Code: Select all

rundll32.exe "C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynISDLL.dll",standAloneUninstall

Blocking driver installation is possible: Control Panel > System > Advanced system settings > Hardware tab > Device Installation Settings, but that will disable driver installs for all hardware which is probably not advisable for most situations. But there is Stop Windows from installing drivers for specific devices.

[micrex22]

Linux live CD was a great suggestion. I booted in there and set the sensitivity to a reasonable value and all worked great, so clearly this was a driver issue in Windows.

It looks like there was a driver update that was forced upon me earlier this year that caused this. The solution was to uninstall the existing Synaptics drivers and install the latest ones directly from Lenovo. "Programs and Features" (appwiz.cpl) wasn't any help as nothing from Synaptics was found there, but there's a command to bring up the uninstaller:

Code: Select all

rundll32.exe "C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynISDLL.dll",standAloneUninstall

Blocking driver installation is possible: Control Panel > System > Advanced system settings > Hardware tab > Device Installation Settings, but that will disable driver installs for all hardware which is probably not advisable for most situations. But there is Stop Windows from installing drivers for specific devices.

Yep. On my T61 Windows 10 did its routine update (shat itself a few times and required a few hard reboots) finally got its crappy updates installed and REMOVED my trackpoint driver. So expect Windows 10 updates to occasionally screw over your trackpoint driver (among other things).

[Cookie Guru]

Linux live CD was a great suggestion. I booted in there and set the sensitivity to a reasonable value and all worked great, so clearly this was a driver issue in Windows.

It looks like there was a driver update that was forced upon me earlier this year that caused this. The solution was to uninstall the existing Synaptics drivers and install the latest ones directly from Lenovo. "Programs and Features" (appwiz.cpl) wasn't any help as nothing from Synaptics was found there, but there's a command to bring up the uninstaller:

Code: Select all

rundll32.exe "C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP\SynISDLL.dll",standAloneUninstall

Blocking driver installation is possible: Control Panel > System > Advanced system settings > Hardware tab > Device Installation Settings, but that will disable driver installs for all hardware which is probably not advisable for most situations. But there is Stop Windows from installing drivers for specific devices.

Yep. On my T61 Windows 10 did its routine update (shat itself a few times and required a few hard reboots) finally got its crappy updates installed and REMOVED my trackpoint driver. So expect Windows 10 updates to occasionally screw over your trackpoint driver (among other things).

I may have spoke too soon. Actually back to square one after reinstalling drivers. Any suggestions?

[DaddyLongLegs]

Did anyone figure out what driver we can install in Windows to get back the sensitivity setting? This is driving me insane.

[micrex22]

Did anyone figure out what driver we can install in Windows to get back the sensitivity setting? This is driving me insane.

Windows 10 as it was getting ready to update broke my trackpoint driver and set the sensitivity back to default. And it did it twice after I rebooted.

You can try setting the sensitivity back to normal (if Windows 10 reverts it), or, try uninstalling and installing the latest trackpoint driver for your system.

[skrble]

I know I am probably a bit late to help the OP, but others might find this helpful in the future (Windows user here).

If you want to kick up the speed of a certain device, the best way is to make them faster individually. You obviously do not want to have quick TrackPoint and ultra sensitive touchpad or external mouse. I found an utility EitherMouse 0.81. From there you can adjust speed of each input device indenpendend on each other.

Source: Lenovo Blog CZ https://www.lenovoblog.cz/2020/01/zvysu ... ndows.html

[w0qj]

Thanks, EitherMouse sounds interesting, thanks for your info!
www.eithermouse.com

But may we ask:

1) Are you sure that the official website for EitherMouse is not a malware site?
Our FireFox said that "The site ahead may contain harmful programs".
This info provided by: Google Safe Browsing.
http://developers.google.com/safe-browsing/v4/advisory

Are you sure www.EitherMouse.com is not a malware site?

(I might give EitherMouse a spin if it's confirmed that it is not a malware site). Thanks!

I know I am probably a bit late to help the OP, but others might find this helpful in the future (Windows user here).

If you want to kick up the speed of a certain device, the best way is to make them faster individually. You obviously do not want to have quick TrackPoint and ultra sensitive touchpad or external mouse. I found an utility EitherMouse 0.81. From there you can adjust speed of each input device indenpendend on each other.

Source: Lenovo Blog CZ https://www.lenovoblog.cz/2020/01/zvysu ... ndows.html

[Cookie Guru]

Are you sure www.EitherMouse.com is not a malware site?

https://www.autohotkey.com/boards/viewt ... 44#p289544

[DaddyLongLegs]

After years of dealing with this issue I finally found a fix.

You need to download Synaptics Pointing Device Driver 19.5.19.28 for Windows 10 v1803 64-bit

It has to be that exact version.

Once you download it, it will be a .cab file. Extract it using winrar or 7zip or whatever.

Once that's done, install the driver as your Synaptics Pointing Device by doing this: Right click each individual .INF file in the extracted .cab folder (the folder should be named something like "ea10cb2d-3433-48cb-ba3a-b487acb7c014_ea74f9717ecb9763af8dd7eb8bf3dacd64c8ac6a" unless you or your extraction program renamed it) and click "install" for each INF file. After that, then go to Device Manager and right click on "Synaptics Pointing Device" under "Mice and other pointing devices". Choose "Update drivers" and then "browse my computer for drivers". Choose "Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer" and then "have disk". Then point the file browser to your extracted .cab folder and select your INFs from there. Windows will complain about you having a newer driver but ignore that and force install 19.5.19.28.

Once the driver is installed (you may have to reboot before doing the following, I don't remember), here is where we finally unlock our TrackPoint sensitivity options for the T25:

Go to the extracted cab folder again. There are two files with the .appx extensions (SynUWPCPL_19005.19028.0.0_x64.appx and SynUWPStickCPL_19005.19028.0.0_x64.appx). Do the following to each .appx file, individually:

Code: Select all

The certificate used to sign the Synaptics app installer is expired as of August 4, 2018. 
You can still install if you do this:

Right click the *.appx installer file and select Properties.

Go to Digital Signatures tab.

Select the certificate in the list and click Details.

Click the View Certificate button.

Click Install Certificate button near the bottom.

Select Local Machine in the Certificate Import Wizard and click next.

Select Place all Certificates in the Following Store and click Browse.

Select Trusted Root Certification Authorities and press OK.

Click next, then Finish.

OK out of all the dialog boxes and try to install again.

Again, do that for both .appx files.

Once that's done, reboot. Now you will have a TrackPoint option in the Windows 10 "metro" style settings menu where you can finally adjust the sensitivity of the TrackPoint again!

And it actually works. It's not a placebo. Which makes Lenovo hiding the feature that much more strange.

After you do this, you might want to enable a group policy to dis-allow Windows 10 from updating your mouse drivers, ever. Because it will "overwrite" these. There's a lot of guides on how to do it; there's also a registry trick to block automatic updates for specific devices too.

Anyway enjoy the guide as I still love this laptop and I hope this helps someone else out there.