[ltp] TP600E: How to handle error 8611?

[Heiko Engelke]

Hallo,

I've been using a thinkpad 600E for quite a while now, but yesterday the 
trackpoint suddenly stopped working. I had to reboot, but it fails with 
Error 8611, a trackpoint error. The bios check started and reports "DEV 
086 ERR 22 FRU 0010" for the system board. I searched at google for this 
error and found several suggestions: I could do some hardware repair, 
including a system board replace[1], but I don't have the heart to do 
hardware repairs at a laptop because I don't have any experience with a 
laptop's hardware. A weblog says that the laptop could have become too 
hot[2]. Could be, we've got 30°C these days, and the crash was yesterday 
about noon. But letting it cool down didn't help, I tried this morning 
at 25°C, and it failed again. Another way would be switching the 
trackpoint off by software[3]. Would be a nice solution, it it worked or 
me. I tried to plug a mouse to the PS/2-port (which would be a good 
workaround), but the bios doesn't accept that. (Interestingly, the mouse 
cursor is still in the same position as yesterday, some distance away 
from the middle. Is the curor's position stored in hardware? I've taken 
the battery out of the laptop for some time.)

IBM's advice[4] is simple: "Keep rebooting" -- no help. The laptop is 
kind of old now, so there can't be any warranty left and giving the 
laptop to IBM and letting them do the repair would be expensive, I 
think. What do you suggest?

[1] http://zurich.ai.mit.edu/hypermail/thinkpad/1995-08/0305.html
[2] http://radial.sovereignmagic.com/archives/002336.php
[3] http://matt.ucc.asn.au/thinkpad.html
[4] 
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=0&q=8611&uid=psg1MIGR-4LAMN7&loc=en_US&cs=utf-8&cc=us&lang=en

-- 
regards,
Heiko Engelke