[Thinkpad] 8611 error / disabling trackpoint on 600e via cmos

Hey, I made a promise to myself that if I got a solution figured out I'd
subscribe to this list and post my message in case someone else down the
line hits the same problem.

My trackpoint mouse died today, then again, I did carry the laptop all the
way around Australia on the back of my bicycle (lunky.com) and a recent
trip to Burning Man, so go figure. Anyway, when I rebooted I received the
typical "8611 error". After searching around the net I discovered the
machine will not boot with a malfunctioning trackpoint that is enabled.

Ok, so how do I disable it? All of the docs I found on IBM and the net
mention to use the PS2 utility in windows to disable the trackpoint. Ok,
but the system won't boot....so I can't disable it! After another hour of
poking around the net I found a page metioning a mod in the cmos you can
make where the trackpoint is enabled/disabled, but for a different
machine. To make a long story short, I ended up stumbling on how to
disable the trackpoint mouse via the bios setup. Sure, you have to use an
external mouse now, but at lease you will still have a usable machine.
  
Anyway, I don't know if this is the correct solution, but I'm writing this
email on my laptop again, so it worked for me.

Disabling the trackpoint mouse via CMOS on a Thinkpad 600e:
*use at your own risk*

- go into the system config utility (which you get forced into when your
enabled trackpoint is dead)
- get back to the main menu and goto "config"
- press control-d
- make sure you are on the "base 128 cmos" page:
    -at ofset 20h (1st column, 3rd row)
       change value to "01"

- press f2 then f3
- exit out and restart

The machine should boot sans trackpoint.

Craig Giffen
Portland, Oregon

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Received on Mon Sep 29 01:21:04 2003