Thinkpads Forum

After carrying around my T60 for a while, I open it up and there are the criss crosses of the trackpoint. It's only leaving a smudge right now, but I am worried about it affecting the LCD over the long term. Does anyone else have similar experiences?

14" or 15" model? I have the 15" unit, and I haven't noticed anything.

lol, this is supposed to be an Apple only problem

How is this an Apple only problem? Powerbooks don't have Trackpoints although I can see some keys leaving smudges.

No, it really doesn't damage the lcds. It just barely touches it to begin with, depending on, good or bad, carrying habits...You may notice it. If you carry it with the arm-crossover, i.e. you put your hand at the top of the LCD when it is closed and point it down towards the ground while the rest of your lower arm is across the LCD running from hinge to top.

If it bothers you alot, you can either put a sheet of thin paper between the Keyboard and LCD when it is closed or a ShaggyMac or similar protector.

I haven't noticed this much at all.

This happens all the time on my R40. After 2.5 years, it hasn't done anything to the screen.

Almost 3 years on my T40 and the trackpoint mark, while it could be annoying, has not damaged the display at all.

14". Quite annoying. This is carried in a sleeve. Rather normal usage, I would expect.

Oh-oh, that does sound like what happened to my old Toshiba:
After about 1 year, you could see the outlines of the keys. After 1,5 years it was really getting annoying.

I think this has to do with how you transport the laptop, after about 1,5 years I changed my carrying bag to a more stable one whereas in the first additional luggage tended to press against the laptop. With the more stable bag the outlines didn't become worse any more.

BUT: As I am also just thinking about getting a new Thinkpad, I was under the impression that the Thinkpad design (especially the display) is much more stable and thus should not get in contact with the keyboard.
Am I wrong here?

Obivously the Lid has to be stiff enough not to be twisted.

I really want a laptop this time that is stable and the display/lid is stiff enough not to touch keyboard or Trackpoint when being carried around.

At the moment I got a TP X20 and have not encountered those problems, but of course a 12" display is by nature not as endangered as a 14" or 15".

Toshiba had to replace the panel on my Tecra S1 due to this reason. the trackpoint on that model left a permanent 'spot' on the lcd.

my advice is to get one of these from RadTech (I've personally found the shaggy mac's to be too thick)

http://www.radtech.us/Products/NotebookScreensavrz.aspx

I've seen other laptops that developed one or more rows of marks from keys rubbing. These don't go away.

The TrackPoint mark is oil from your finertip. It shows up from time to time, presumably when the screen is pressed hard in the center or when the TrackPoint erasertop is not fully seated.

Unlike the key-rub, I have never seen a TrackPoint mark that was permanent.

-darren

Hoya,
I have had a screen protector in between most of the time. Obviously it wasn't as good as I thought. Thanks for the link.

darren: I'm glad to hear that, thanks.