samsung x1 trackpoint drifts around!

the trackpoint seems to have a mind of its own and drifts around when ever it feels like it, sometimes its ok then bam..... its off drifting to the right corner!

is ther any way of turning this little nipple off! i could just use a normal mouse and there would be no problems!

thanks

 

There must be a Software that controls the trackpoint. Using it you could disable the trackpoint. But i´m not sure which one it is, take a look here:
http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/productsupport/download/Model_Select.aspx?type=&typecode=300200&subtype=&subtypecode=300201&model=NP-X1&filetype=DR&language=

 

this might sound a bit silly but have you tried cleaning the touchpad? especially the sides. Mine goes crazy when it is dirty.

 

thanks for the help, ther isnt a touch pad on the x1 just the nipple thing.

 

The drifting problem seems to be an inherent feature of all pointing sticks and you may find that Goole points you to some fixes.

First, have you checked the website for the manufacturer for any newer driver? Device Manager will tell you what the hardware is (look under Mice and pointing devices). What are the options in the Mouse control panel?

If a newer driver doesn't fix the problem then if you right click on the pointing device in Device Manager you can try adjusting the properties there. There is no disable option and if you uninstall it then Windows will try to reinstall the driver each time you start the computer.

John

 

I have had this problem on my Dell M60 (XPpro) at work. The solution for me was to download and install the Synaptics driver software ( www.synaptics.com) and use that to disable the trackpad completely.

For the record,my Samsung Q45 Vista HP already has this driver installed but fortunately it hasn't caused me any drifting problems - I think it may generally be an age issue..

 

The X1 is an unusual design and only has a pointing stick and no touchpad. The Samsung download site doesn't have a driver for the pointing stick.

John

 

I have this problem as well.

I am desperate. I have tried everything, I thought the problem was covered under guarantee and was going to just hand my laptop over to Samsung, but sadly my laptop is out of warranty. And I don't want to fork out £85 (=$200 roughly) just to have it looked at (does not include the cost of any repair, that is just to have it looked at as anout-of warranty repair).

I have posted a long saga of everything I have tried to fix this problem, over on the bleeping computer forums , here:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic118255.html

-but it's not really that useful because I still don't have a solution.

In short I have the same problem as you and I am very glad to find someone else with the same thing because I have searched the web all over and not found anyone else with it.

There are plenty of postings with mouse problems, these are usually down to hardware or malware, but this problem we both have is different.

The mouse is 100% ok (no drift, rock steady) but about 5 minutes after starting up, the mouse pointer will take off and zoom off, either to the lower left. Sometimes it may decide to head upwards or skate off to the left.

Later on it decides to stop zooming around by itself and you have the pointing stick back again. Rock steady. No drifting or jerking.

If you disable the pointing stick and use an external mouse, the same thing happens. You can unplug the mouse and wait, then the cursor will do it again, all by itself. The mouse does not have to be connected for the problem to happen.

After trying a LOT things (anti-virus, anti-malware, rootkit checkers, BHO checkers, new drivers), I just rebuilt the machine. Same problem. I installed Ubuntu Linux .. same thing.

This told me the BIOS had to be the problem, or a possibly hardware problem, although a very weird one indeed.

So last night I re-flashed the BIOS. It seemed to be gone!!! After reinstalling XP (always a fresh install, not keeping anything, re-format the HDD) it seemed to stay gone.

All day - the problem stayed gone.

This evening I put back the firewall, added major applications... and it has suddenly started up again.

I think it might be the Samsung update package that is causing it. I am going to re-flash my BIOS and rebuild the machine and start with just plain windows again.

My question for you: are you running Samsung update? Have you recently installed it? If you have, maybe this is the problem.

On the other hand if you have found a cure then please please do let me know, thanks.

 

I have finally concluded that this really is a hardware problem. (Although a very weird and intermittent one, it still acts a lot more like malware or a virus but it turns out it IS hardware).

How do I know? I have diaabled the pointing stick in the BIOS (hit F2 when powering up) and now it does not appear, even with an external mouse.

Out-of guarantee repairs are too expensive and an external mouse is just fine for me.

 

Keywords for others with this problem: Samsung NP-X1 laptop pointing stick problem, mouse problem, cursor drifts. mouse goes crazy, mouse pointer moves by itself.

 

Thanks for the update.

I haven't had a notebook with a pointing stick for several years but I recall that they were all vulnerable to random drifting.

John

 

hi, I'm glad (not so much in fact) to find out people with same problems as mine : my trackpoint is also crazy. I tried everything also but no way. Did you have any new solutions (despite of disable the pointing stick in the bios) ???
Thank you for answer.