HP ZBook Firefly point stick -- how do I disable it? I'm getting unwanted "drift" behavior

[gkline]

My ZBook has a point stick in the middle of the keyboard and I really don't use it. Lately I've started to have a problem where my mouse cursor begins to drift... usually upwards. I kept having to fight it with my touch pad... until I finally realized the culprit was that point stick. I touch it and the drift stops... for a moment. I find sometimes I have to press it firmly and move the mouse pointer around a bit to get it to stop. Then, sometime later it start to drift again.

I'm not sure it's a hardware problem, as there can be long stretches where the drift isn't happening. Then one day--drift. And then it's repetitive until it decides to stop. I could not find an explicit setting for it. When I disable the touch pad, the point stick is disabled. And in the touch pad panel, I don't see a "point stick" separate option noted anywhere. In the DEVICE MANAGER, there is no item under "Human Interface Devices" labeled as "point stick."  This is what the manual calls it, Is there some other name?  

[gkline]

I ended up in a situation where inexplicably, the mouse pointer began to drift and I could not stop it using the point-stick as I was able to do before. It was a major usability problem, as it would make selection of buttons very difficult (focus problem). 

I rebooted into the BIOS to see if there was some way to disable the point-stick input device, but I could not find it. However, I noticed right away that there was no mouse pointer drift. I was able to use the point-stick as well and not instigate it. That leads me to believe that this isn't a hardware problem, but a driver issue of some kind. The point stick was fine... and I'd not updated anything. Corrupted data file of some sort? 

Anyway, I am trying to locate any software updates for human input devices and see if I can refresh the drivers.

[DGroves]

HP ZBook Firefly (What Gen or Mobile Series?) this model has numerous revisions  Gx  or the XX Mobile series

usually the bios will have a setting to enable/disable the integrated mouse trackpad or touch pointer

a drifting pointer that always moves off center in the same direction on it's own indicates a defective/failing pointer and most systems have the pointer embedded as part of the keyboard meaning you need to replace the keyboard/track pointer as one unit

if the unit is still under the HP 3 year warranty contact them to open a warranty case

[gkline]

Thank you for your reply.

My exact mode: HP ZBook Firefly 15 G7 Mobile Workstation (8WS03AV)

My ZBook warranty is up.  And in fact, last year I'd had it serviced, which included replacing the keyboard because one key had popped off. So, just one year. I have isolated the problem to be caused by keyboard pressure. If I press the "G" or "H" keys adjacent to the point stick (not touching the point stick), it can cause the pointer to start drifting. So, not even touching the pointer. I have to wonder if dust/debris getting inside is causing the contacts of the pointer to short out.

So there's no way to disable the pointer itself, without disabling the whole keyboard??

[DGroves]

not assigning blame  here seeing as i cant actually see you using the keyboard, but i have seen some people who are quite hard on keyboards and they cause keyboard hardware issues due to their typing style

if your one of these people then you will have to replace the keyboard each time you have this issue

and if you are not excessively hard on a keyboard, ....it may be as you stated that debris may have found it's way into the keyboard either way the result is the same,...... keyboard replacement

last, i took pains to specify that the pointer is part of the keyboard and as such keyboard/pointer needs to be replaced as a unit,