I've got no touchpad

[boudie]

Got my new T40 today from ibm.ca, upon opening the box, I discovered it had no touch pad (model 2373223).
Now as I understood , the specs indicated it had UltraNav which I thought was the Track Point and Touch Pad.
To be honest, I'd never seen one without it. So I'd like a consensus opinion, is this my fault or IBM's?

[G-Man]

You should have got a touchpad. You are lucky, because most of us wanted a T4x without the UltraNav. Just call IBM and they will send you a palmrest with the touchpad. You can easily replace it. If you like the UltraNav you can sell your old palmrest here. I'm sure someone will jump on it.

Regards,
G-Man

[lvlolvlo]

i personally prefer the ultranav over the touchpad, i guess it's becuase the touchpad is in such an awkard place, being lower than the keybaord.

[boudie]

So this could be a good thing?

[meditate2001]

yes, it is great ! once you get used to the point, it is way faster than the pad ! i am soon ordering a palmrest without...looks also better...

[stgreek]

G-Man, are you saying that I can simply replace the ultranav palmrest and not have the touchpad? Or does it simply cover it (more reasonable) and you still see it as hardware, but cannot use it?

[mdarnton]

I thought I liked the joystick more when I got my T41, but now, five months later, I find that I'm using the touchpad much more. Don't decide before you try. As touchpads go, it's the best I've used.

[JHEM]

G-Man, are you saying that I can simply replace the ultranav palmrest and not have the touchpad?

Correct. The palmrest with the touchpad is easily replaced with a blank palmrest, i.e. without a touchpad.

Regards,

James

[ian]

Or does it simply cover it (more reasonable) and you still see it as hardware, but cannot use it?

The replacement palmrest - available ONLY for the 14" model - removes the touchpad - you unplug it - it's gone - it isn't covered up or hidden - it aint there no more - all you got left is the top three buttons and the trackpoint.

[RoadHazard]

Does Bill carry the non-touchpad palm rest? Or do I have to order from IBM?

[G-Man]

Last time he had a few in stock. Email him. By the way the FRU number of the non-touchpad palmrest is 91P8399. IBM's price is $18.25.

Regards,
G-Man

[Moroner]

If you decide to use the trackpoint, you might want to set the pointer speed to fast, with enhanced precision, and the trackpoint to "light touch". Otherwise it can become a bit tedious to navigate a big screen. I once saw a Thinkpad user that resorted to using the index and middle finger on top of each other to overcome that problem

[Kenn]

yes, it is great ! once you get used to the point, it is way faster than the pad ! i am soon ordering a palmrest without...looks also better...

Uh oh! Not to spark personal preference debate here, but between the trackpoint, touchpad, trackball, and mouse, the trackpoint is objectively the slowest (the fastest generally being the mouse) as it's the only method whose top speed is limited by the maximum edge pressure of the mechanism. It works best for applications that require constant, smooth control with a hard coded maximum rate (ie yaw/pitch/roll control in a flight sim), but for "reflex-limited" applications such as cursor control (or fps games), the touchpad will be faster every time.

[Porsche]

The reason I bought a Thinkpad was because of the touchpad. There really isn't anything faster or better other than an external mouse. I waited for years for the touchpad to appear on an IBM laptop (the T40 the was the first for me), and I am really glad for it.

[stgreek]

yes, it is great ! once you get used to the point, it is way faster than the pad ! i am soon ordering a palmrest without...looks also better...

Uh oh! Not to spark personal preference debate here, but between the trackpoint, touchpad, trackball, and mouse, the trackpoint is objectively the slowest (the fastest generally being the mouse) as it's the only method whose top speed is limited by the maximum edge pressure of the mechanism. It works best for applications that require constant, smooth control with a hard coded maximum rate (ie yaw/pitch/roll control in a flight sim), but for "reflex-limited" applications such as cursor control (or fps games), the touchpad will be faster every time.

That is true, however of all the above (including high-end mice) the trackpoint is by far the most accurate. I can get to within 2 pixels of my target from anywhere in the screen, no other input method can get that. Plus, the trackpoint has the MAJOR advantage that you can use the mouse and type at the same time. Try that with a normal mouse and you'll laugh at yourself...

[boudie]

I was thinking I should have made this a poll.
In the end, I guess it's better to have it and not need it
than to need it and not have it.

[Kenn]

That is true, however of all the above (including high-end mice) the trackpoint is by far the most accurate. I can get to within 2 pixels of my target from anywhere in the screen, no other input method can get that. Plus, the trackpoint has the MAJOR advantage that you can use the mouse and type at the same time. Try that with a normal mouse and you'll laugh at yourself...

Your point about typing with the trackpoint is dead-on. I tend to use my right thumb to move the trackpad (while using the left thumb to left-click the trackpoint ultranav) so I can move the cursor and type quickly, but it is much faster with the eraserhead. Unfortunately the imprecision of the device completely takes away any time advantage you'd get from ideal hand positioning.

Regarding the touchpad, it sounds like you've found your ideal pointing device. But I have pretty objective tests and irrefutable evidence that show a standard 100 poll/sec mouse will trounce ANY other device in terms of speed and pixel precision for professionally demanding as well as average users. The absolute speed question is pretty much settled, but on a personal basis, I definitely agree that we should all use whatever pointing device we feel most comfortable with!

Peace,
Kenn

[RoadHazard]

There is no point to argue here. It's up to each person's preference. And the choice of using each type of pointing device really depends on the application you're working on too. For browsing web, I really prefer the trackpoint. The middle scroll button makes it really convenient. But for gaming, I prefer mouse all the way. The touchpad on the Thinkpad is supposed to be very good and a lot of people like it. But I don't use it because I have bad impression from touchpads from other laptops and it's always in the way when I type.

[boudie]

Just following up on this, I finally got through to them and
was told by the very nice person I spoke with that the
parts are not interchangeable between the Touch Pad
and none Touch Pad models and that they have a
different system board and BIOS.
Furthermore when I explained that their site has this model
(2373223) still offered and it states it has a TouchPad,
she said that it doesn't.
Don't you love this sort of thing?
Next step?

[rhema83]

Go bug them. Speak to someone else in tech support. They shouldn't get away with giving you crap support.

On the other hand, I would congratulate myself if I don't have the touchpad. My experiences with it has been less than desirable! Try getting used to the touchpoint. Get yourself a good optical mouse for home.