TrackPoint difficulties

Anyone else's trackpoint take on a mind of its own every once in awhile and tries to go a a direction on its own. This has been bugging me for a while now and finally decided to post this while I was browsing the site and it happened.

I usually just take the track point off and put it back on after spinning into a new position.

This drives me nuts though because if you don't touch it, it moves. And when you try to move one way it becomes a lot harder then normal if your going in the opposite direction its stuck on.

Anyone understand what I'm talking about?

 

I know what you are talking about...at times, if I let go of my trackpoint, my cursor would "runaway", but as long as I am touching it and moving it myself I have no problems.

 

It is recalibrating itself. Don't touch it for a few seconds and it will stop moving. I hate this too, and really wish they would fix it, it has been an issue with trackpoint for ages apparently.

 

Correct, Oatman, it is recalibrating itself when it does this. It is necessary because if it did not recalibrate itself, it would think the cursor is at a different location than it actually is. It is not a problem, it's a fix.

Matt

 

It's mentioned in the owner's manual I believe. The wandering trackpoint is normal.

 

My old dell lattitude does it too. Except it never ever stops... what can I say, Dude! I got a dell!

 

This is refreshing. I wish I knew before sometimes I got really pissed off.

 

Mine only does that if I use the soft dome nub, hold one direction for a while (usually bottom right) and let go. Then it slowly wanders in the opposite direction for a bit. However, ever since I switched to the fuzzy dome, and it no longer does that. I switched back, and the issue reappears.

 

Mine does this too and I thought that the trackpoint is beginning to wear out since I'm using it more than I use the mouse. By the way, does the trackpoint wear out? (question for those who have used it for a long time)

 

Thank you for this thread. I wished they made more of an effort on the manual to let us know it auto-calibrates itself.

 

One thing I've found that helps is if the trackpoint is doing its wandering, touch the touchpad. It seems to make the trackpoint movement stop completely.

 

It only lasts several seconds at most, and it's not too often. Just don't keep pressure on the TrackPoint when you don't need to, and you'll be fine.

Matt

 

Two things commonly cause this, aside from some actual hardware failure.

The most common thing is that the user is unconsciously leaning the index finger on the TrackPoint, causing a relatively constant small pressure in one direction. The autocalibration routine recalibrates after several seconds to try to zero out this condition. Then, when the user removes the offending finger, the cursor will drift in the opposite direction from where the previous finger pressure was pushing. If the TrackPoint is left alone, the calibration will correct itself after a few more second.

The other thing that happens is some kind of obstruction in the keyboard that's causing pressure on the Trackpoint. Pop off the rubber nub, and make sure there's nothing stuck in the vicinity. The rubber nub can also become damaged, and rub against the side of a key, causing the same thing.

 

It happens because there's a constant pressure in one direction. So if could happen if you set your pointer speed too slow, and you have to hold the trackpoint in a single direction in order to move the pointer across the screen. Before the pointer has moved across the screen, it thinks that a recalibration is needed.