E6410 - Middle Track Stick button died

Hi all,

So I got refurb E6410 with a backlit keyboard back in November. Just yesterday, the pointing stick's middle scroll button died.

Previously, it had issues with the page jumping around occasionally if I used middle button scroll. When I held the middle button and scrolled, sometimes it would jump to a random part of the page (pointer would not move), which was annoying but tolerable.

Yesterday, the stick pretty much became unusable. The pointer would only move horizontally with occasional vertical jumps. That soon resolved itself (stick works fine now), but then I found that the middle button did not work. I tried reinstalling drivers multiple times, which did not help at all. I tried running a Ubuntu Live CD and it did not work under there either.

The touchpad works fine, and had none of the scrolling issues mentioned earlier. However, I strongly prefer the stick.d only move horizontally with occasional vertical jumps. That soon resolved itself (stick works fine now), but then I found that the middle button did not work.

This negates one of the reasons I use the pointing stick over the touchpad - scrolling is simple on a three-button Trackpoint. A bit more convenient than two fingered multitouch for me.

 

So, call Dell and get the faulty hardware replaced, yes?

GK

 

Never mind, it somehow resolved itself once I restarted Windows. Lets see how it's going to turn out.

 

Were you having issues with your keyboard? If it happens with higher frequency maybe call up Dell and have them ship you a keyboard?

 

Well, I had occasional issues with Ctrl and some other keys being seen by the OS as being held down when they weren't (pressing it again usually made it go away)

 

Remove and replace the keyboard. The connector was changed in the E-series, and I think it is easier for it to wiggle around.