Difficulty

Very easy

Steps

5

Time Required

                          10 minutes

Sections

1

  • How to disable a faulty Toshiba Portege Z30 Pointer stick (Accupoint)
  • 5 steps

Flags

2

In Progress

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Introduction

All you will need is a Philips screwdriver and a pair of scissors. We’re going DIY on this one!

What you need

Step 1

              How to disable a faulty Toshiba Portege Z30 Pointer stick (Accupoint)
  • Take your Philips screwdriver to the screws on the base of the laptop (not forgetting the screws under the rubber feet, bottom right).

Take your Philips screwdriver to the screws on the base of the laptop (not forgetting the screws under the rubber feet, bottom right).

1024

Step 2

  • Disconnect the battery with multicoloured wires, and use your screwdriver to remove the 4 screws holdigin it in place. Remove the battery.

Disconnect the battery with multicoloured wires, and use your screwdriver to remove the 4 screws holdigin it in place. Remove the battery.

Step 3

  • Turn your attention to the keyboard connector pictured, held in place by the plastic locks. Delicately unclip the locks on either side and pull the ribbon from the socket.

Turn your attention to the keyboard connector pictured, held in place by the plastic locks. Delicately unclip the locks on either side and pull the ribbon from the socket.

Step 4

  • As you can see, the ribbon is divided into two parts, with a small and large section. The smaller section is what we’re interested in - this recieves signals from the pointer stick on the keyboard.
  • Take your pair of scissors and make a cut across the smaller 4 lined section, approximately 1cm from the end. This will cut the pointer stick connection from the motherboard, and ensure the ribbon cable still correctly fits in the socket.

As you can see, the ribbon is divided into two parts, with a small and large section. The smaller section is what we’re interested in - this recieves signals from the pointer stick on the keyboard.

Take your pair of scissors and make a cut across the smaller 4 lined section, approximately 1cm from the end. This will cut the pointer stick connection from the motherboard, and ensure the ribbon cable still correctly fits in the socket.

Step 5

  • Success! The modified keyboard ribbon cable is now ready to be re-fitted in the socket, and the pointer stick has now been permanently disabled. No more wandering pointer!

Success! The modified keyboard ribbon cable is now ready to be re-fitted in the socket, and the pointer stick has now been permanently disabled. No more wandering pointer!

As ever, follow these instructions in reverse order in order to re-assemble your device.

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                                                                                      6 other people completed this guide.

Author

                                      with 1 other contributor 


                    Laurie McKinlay

Member since: 04/23/2018

362 Reputation

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Brangor Garbagio - Jul 5, 2020

Reply

No option to disable the AccuPoint in my version of Ubuntu, so this should work a treat. Thanks for putting this guide together. :)

That worked great, thanks again. :) I didn’t cut the ribbon cable, but cut the tape between the keyboard and accupoint cables and slid out the accupoint one. Tomayto tomahto, really.

Lina Yara - Jan 19, 2021

Reply

It works!!! We have suffered for many years with that issue, switching off the touchpad with the FN+F9, but this stopped working for a some reason. We tried everything soft-wise, but the old drivers kept returning, and the accupoint kept drifting. At some point it was enough, and we decided to go hard way-your way, but it was quite easy! Just to mention: to unlock the ribbon cable, you need to push the grey lockers against the arrow, towards yourself if you are positioning the laptop as on the picture. We had a struggle with that at first, resulting in the keyboard stopping to respond, but then we did it right. Now, everything is fine! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

anonymous 2612 - Mar 5, 2021

Reply

Thank you so much.

This fixed a really annoying issue

poseido - Jan 16, 2022

Reply

Great, thanks!

Seems to be a very common issue… I use windows, and it’s possible to deactivate it via software, just open the tool form the menu on the bottom right side (where the clock is) and look for the touchpad like app, then look for accupoint section and disable it.

I suffer also from once-in-a-while unresponsive trackpad. it stops working fro a few seconds (buttons do work) and if i frenetically move my fingers over it, starts working again for a couple of hours… any clue? I’m thinking on retiring this laptop due to it, but it has been a very good companion…