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"Track stick" on 8600 vs 8600c swappable?

post #1 of 13
10/3/04 at 12:46am
Thread Starter 
I just got an Inspiron 8600 (c model, i believe). I was very disappointed to find out it only has the touchpad. I wanted to trackpoint, too. I've been told in another thread that I could swap out the keyboard for a D800 keyboard and get the functionality. If so, I could do the same with an older-style 8600 keyboard. Does anyone know if this is really possible? I could of course take the keyboard off and check, but I want to retain the ability to return it in case I decide to get a refurbished old model with the trackpoint. Has anyone done something like this and given a trackpoint to a natively trackpoint-less laptop? Has anyone taken off their keyboard and noticed the unused extra jumpers it would require? I could deal with not having a parallel and serial port if I could just get my beloved trackpoint...
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post #2 of 13
10/3/04 at 12:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Omegatron
I just got an Inspiron 8600 (c model, i believe). I was very disappointed to find out it only has the touchpad. I wanted to trackpoint, too. I've been told in another thread that I could swap out the keyboard for a D800 keyboard and get the functionality. If so, I could do the same with an older-style 8600 keyboard. Does anyone know if this is really possible? I could of course take the keyboard off and check, but I want to retain the ability to return it in case I decide to get a refurbished old model with the trackpoint. Has anyone done something like this and given a trackpoint to a natively trackpoint-less laptop? Has anyone taken off their keyboard and noticed the unused extra jumpers it would require? I could deal with not having a parallel and serial port if I could just get my beloved trackpoint...


http://www.parts-people.com/index.ph...28&prevstart=0

The trackstick and keyboard share the same single connector.
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post #3 of 13
10/3/04 at 1:24am
Thread Starter 
I just took mine apart. :-) Shh don't tell. When I saw it was only two screws I had to check. Yes, there are two ribbon cables that plug into a single pin-style connector. Mine only has the keyboard ribbon, but the little socket for the 4 pin trackpoint ribbon is there. This site shows some close-ups, too:

http://www.bay-wolf.com/8500video.htm

So now the question becomes "does the motherboard have the functionality?" I am much more optimistic now. Has anyone actually done it?
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post #4 of 13
10/3/04 at 1:56am
your trackstick wont work unless you get the palmrest that has the buttons too.
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post #5 of 13
10/3/04 at 2:25am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spiike
your trackstick wont work unless you get the palmrest that has the buttons too.
Yeah, I know. I meant both. They have them both on ebay and I could probably find them new somewhere. And it would make me unjustifiably happy. :-) But does it definitely have the functionality? For sure?
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post #6 of 13
10/3/04 at 4:23am
Should do. You can get the plamrest from parts-people as well if you wish.

stu
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post #7 of 13
10/5/04 at 10:38am
Thread Starter 
Now they reply and say the BIOS doesn't support the trackpoint. Has anyone actually TRIED IT? Please let me know quickly if you have.
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post #8 of 13
10/5/04 at 10:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Omegatron
Now they reply and say the BIOS doesn't support the trackpoint. Has anyone actually TRIED IT? Please let me know quickly if you have.
Thats BS since the latest I8600 BIOS must be backwards compatible with the first gen I8600's with the trackstick.
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post #9 of 13
10/5/04 at 10:55am
Thread Starter 
Alright, maybe I should just buy some and try it. I've got either a week or two to decide whether to send it back (depending on when the 21 days starts). I guess I could always sell it on ebay and get my money back if I can't return it.
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post #10 of 13
10/15/04 at 8:51pm
Thread Starter 
I got a used keyboard and palm rest and installed it, and the trackpoint DOES work. So they were wrong again. The XP drivers or whatever recognize it, too, and it shows up in the mouse settings. Unfortunately, this pointing stick sucks compared to an IBM trackpoint. But it works. :-) It is very slow, and when I found out I could change the speed through the Orientation tab, I made it faster like I want. That would actually be fine, except it seems to not recognize movement until you have moved it a certain amount, probably from people whining about how it moves when they don't want it to, so if you put it in fast mode it overshoots everything. But if you put the pointer speed at max it is mostly acceptable. The orientation tab only seems to switch between two basic speeds, so I dunno. I will play with it more and try to find out. Also this keyboard seems "looser". And the trackpoint buttons are certainly spongy, but I can deal with that. I hear there are instructions online for modifying them anyway. And the third button emulation (pushing both buttons at once) only works for the touchpad buttons. We'll see...
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post #11 of 13
10/17/04 at 11:35pm
I have a 8600 installed in a D800 case and the BIOS is not modified in any way shape or form and it works great.
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post #12 of 13
10/18/04 at 12:18am
Thread Starter 
I've got the speed of the trackpoint quite a bit better, but it still sticks when you're trying to aim it at small things. I taped some washers under the buttons so they aren't so spongy (which makes the third button emulation work), and i'll probably put spacers under the keyboard so it isn't so squishy. *sigh* i shouldn't have to do this...
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post #13 of 13
3/15/07 at 12:40am
I have two 8600c with the F5236 mobo, bios rev a14 and neither one will work the stick pointer. I also just added a D800 palmrest and trackpad assembly yet it refuses to work as well.... any idea why?
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