Dell M4800 - Track Point Not Working?

Initially the trackpoint was working well, including the 3 buttons. I just replaced the base bottom (So everything was essentially replaced in and out). I triple checked just now to make sure that all ribbon cables were in and secured. There are only 3 cables from palmrest/keyboard into the motherboard, so I know ribble cable is not the issue.

The trackpad and its own buttons work fine. But trackpoint and its buttons are not even recognized. Does not budge at all. I went to Dell Touchpad settings on Windows, and the trackpoint does not even pop up as available settings. Which I remember being there before.

I just checked the bios, but no settings that disabled trackpoint there. I did not reseat the CMOS battery, so no change/reset was made on the bios settings anyways.

What can I try at this point? I triple checked that the ribbon connections are perfect. It was easy job for me anyways.

Thank you for your response in advance!

 

Anyone please help??

 

Can anyone helpppp? Hellp!

 

It should work out of the box, it's always possible that you got incredibly unluck and that the trackpoint is shot. Was the keyboard replaced. Also, there is a small daughter board under the keyboard, have you checked the connections there?

 

tijo, thanks for the reply!

Yea there were a few cables under the touchpad that I did check to make sure were in and tight. It worked very find under I swapped the base chassis. Ive done a lot of work on Precision and Alienwares, so I know it wasn't something novice I've done to harm the parts...

This is what baffles me though. The BUTTONS (on the palmrest piece) for the trackpoint is connected to mobo via palmrest. The trackpoint itself is connected to mobo via the keyboard. If something went wrong with the keyboard, wouldn't buttons still work?? It's like as if connection via both keyboard AND palmrest are both not working...

Thanks again!

 

Just a thought, have you checked whether the device is showing in device manager?

EDIT: also, looking at a photo of the keyboard underside, there are three cables coming from the keyboard assembly. I'm betting one for the backlight, one for the keyboard and one for the trackpoint. It's always possible that the trackpoint cable was damaged somehow.

 

I just reassembled the cables again, carefully seating them. They have black tape to secure them in, to make sure they don't get damaged or get wobbly. They haven't been moved or anything during reassembly and I am really sure I did not damage them. Knowing how fickle they are of course. I just also flashed A09 bios and still does not work.. Of course also reinstalled the touchpad drivers.

When I go to the Dell Touchpad settings, it used to have settings for 1. Touch pad. 2. Trackpoint 3. Mouse. But like said, the settings for Trackpoint no longer shows up. Literally as if the hardware does not exist.

Under the device manager, the only thing that shows up is "Dell Touchpad" under Mice and Other Pointing Devices.

I am starting to blame the motherboard for this. Because both the buttons for the trackpoint and the trackpoint itself is not recognized, I don't think it's BOTH cables being bad. These should work out the box even without any drivers, etc. I think even in bios they are supposed to work. But this is driving me crazy, since I extensively use trackpoint 80% of the time...

Thanks again!

 

This is what you meant, right?:

 

rQ, EXACTLY! That settings part disappeared completely!

Literally, there is no settings to be able to change that in the FIRST PLACE. "Point Stick" category does NOT exist. Only Touch Pad and Mouse. As if this computer never shipped with pointstick in the first place..

I reinstalled the drivers for touchpad, but still same issue!!! OMG!

 

Just spent more time trying to figure this out.. Still no solution.. HELPP!