The Thinkpad 8611 error at power-on indicates the system board does not see the Trackpoint. It may be a bad keyboard, but on a 755CX I repaired all that had happened was the Trackpoint flat cable became disconnected from the system board. The flat cable connector does not seem to grip the cable very well, and I think it worked loose over time. To fix it, remove the top cover. Use a small scredriver to pry off the 3 rubber caps just above the Esc, PrtSc, and Home keys. This gives access to 3 screws. Remove them taking care not to drop them into the system. Now look at the back of the system. Depress 4 plastic latches. Two are reached through small slots at each end of the back, just above two exposed phillips head screws. To find the other two latches, open the connector door. One is just above the printer connector, and the other is just above the large docking station connector. All 4 must be released with a small screwdriver. Open the display to 180 degrees. Now the top cover can be wiggled off. Be careful, or you may crack it. It takes a combination of wiggling and depressing the latches until all are free to get the thing off. Once removed, you have access to the 3 keyboard flat cables and their system board connectors. The connectors are released by pulling the rim forward. The Trackpoint cable is the little one, with 4 traces. Release each connector any carefully reseat the flat cable in the slot. It can be a bit tricky to get the cable aligned in the slot. Tweezers may help. Once seated, push the rim back in place to retain the cable. That should fix the problem. The procedure is outlined with drawings in the Thinkpad 701,755 Hardware Maintenance Manual (HMM) Volume 2 on page 445 (keyboard unit). The HMM is currently at ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/tpvol2.pdf