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Does anyone have a laptop w/ a pointing stick (ala IBM Thinkpad)??

iamme

iamme

Lifer
Does your pointer sometimes move by itself? Just slowly drift in a certain direction? Is there a fix for this? My laptop is no longer in warranty, BTW.
 
my dell inspiron 8100 did that if I pressed too hard in a single direction.. I just didn't press as hard so it's not doing it 🙂
 
That sounds reasonable. The pointing stick on my Inspiron 8200 has done that a few times. I just move it in some other direction and it stops.
 
My thinkpad does this too. No fix as far as I can tell, I just let it slide. Sometimes I try to fight it, but it's no use.
 
I don't own one of these but I recall dealing with one several years ago and the problem was a software issue that had something to do with a "dead zone" setting just like a gaming joystick. Somehow these things are supposed to learn and ignore an offset automatically if they are setup correctly.
 
I've had 4 IBM Thinkpads, and they've all done this. Just don't press in any direction so hard, or just let it keep moving until it stops. Then you can resume your pointing. 🙂

-X
 
Did you try pulling off the TrackPoint cap, and cleaning the little joystick underneath? Crud sometimes gets stuck under there, and affects the accuracy of your pointer.
 
The IBM website has literally hundreds of documents on the subject. If the cursor drifts just leave it alone for a minute and it is supposed to compenste and stop by itself. There is also a trackpoint utility that has some adjustments.
 
Never had the problem, but I've heard of it. To me, the pointing stick is better than the touchpad - but both are suck compared to a real mouse. So, I always disable them in BIOS and use the tiny Atek optical mouse. Much nicer!
 
As everyone is noting, this is a common but not universal problem with pointers. It's due to a electronic bias which unfortunately is not user adjustable. I had one Toshiba that was almost constantly drifting. I had to disable the trackpoint. This was not a problem since it was almost unusable even if it worked OK. The next Toshiba only drifted if both the mouse and trackpoint was simultaneously active. After it got to be a year old or so, the drift pretty much went away but it still didn't work well. I now have a ThinkPad and this is the first pointer that is a reasonable substitute for a mouse. Also, it doesn't drift at all even with the mouse enabled.

I suggest trying disabling the mouse when you use the pointer (and vice versa) and see if that helps.
 
My ThinkPad T23 does this sometimes also, I just wait a few seconds and it stops by itself, I have got used to it since this is my third IBM and I still love emm🙂
 
The trackpoint on my work Thinkpad T23 drifts and overall stinks. It also sometimes catches my finger when I try and hit the "B" key. I much prefer the touchpad on my personal laptop.
 
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