Thinkpads Forum

For any of those who have a rattling or flexing at or around the 'Esc' key on a T61, you can take one of the thin rubber/thermal pads off of a discarded heatsink (I used a rubber pad on the top of an old T61p heatsink) and place it on the aluminum plate at the very top left of the keyboard bezel. Make sure to slide the pad 'all the way in'. Next, just install the keyboard as you normally would, and viola! No more flexing or rattling at this area. Also, CPU/GPU load and idle temps didn't seem to change at all with the addition of the pad.

Yep. Any thin flat piece that will provide extra support is good. I used it first on a T60, which had a very unsatisfactory keyboard feel compared to my T42, and it did wonders (I placed a few such strips in strategic points). Since then I've done it on a few other Thinkpads, and it always reduced the flex/rattling.

I like this particular method because if you replace the keyboard, the pad stays in place. If you use a piece from a credit card or metal, you would probably have to glue or tape it. Else, hope it didn't move around underneath.

I agree. I use the tiny flexible rubber magnets that are often put at back of papers that people want to hang on their fridge. They already come with glue to hold them to the paper, so they stay firmly attached to the backplate.