Thinkpads Forum

both my left and right palmrests make an ANNOYING squeak/plastic noise when i rest my hands on them -- its the only thing that i dont like about the laptop(2623DDU). are there any fixes? is anyone else having this problem?



please tell me there's a fix!


EDIT: it seems to only be a problem on the 15" t60's (from what i have gathered so far) when you put weight on the palmrests, the plastic piece bends causing it to rub against the edge pieces (in the case of the right palmrest, against the side plastic piece.) causing this annoying sound. has anyone found a fix yet?

Nope, your the first report of that i have seen. But then again, its a new released laptop.

Did you do a memory upgrade?

Maybe take the palm rest off and reseat it?

how exactly do i go about doing that? i am definitely up to try it as i have never had this happen on any of my thinkpads (t23, t40, t42)

I had the same problem on the right hand side only. The area around the fingerprint reader could be depressed and would make the irritating noise. Just resting my hand in the area would cause it to squeek. This was written about in the forums for the older model T series and some solved it with a business card. So I slide a card in the crack just below the palmrest plastic and above the hard drive. I had to cut it down to about a half inch by about one and a half or two inches to make it fit the space. I can't remember the exact size. Hasn't squeeked since. If and when I need to take the palm rest off to install memory or replace the keyboard, I may try to replace the cardboard with a plastic foam padding.

my T40 was doing that when it came back from easyserve...

i pulled off the palmrest and put a peice of paper where i figured the squeek was coming from (where there were two particular peices of plastic rubbing against eachother) and it solved the problem, so i suggest some trial and error with a simple buffer between the two plastic peices.

i just wanted to make it clear that by squeak, i'm talking about at the edges on the left and right palmrest... (ie towards the front of the laptop -- the crack just above the wireless on/off card and on the crack at the far right of the right palmrest... the plastic seems to not be secure in those two areas; i can squish it together and it makes noise. can anyone else verify this problem? what the heck is wrong with my laptop

MaloventEvil wrote:i just wanted to make it clear that by squeak, i'm talking about at the edges on the left and right palmrest... (ie towards the front of the laptop -- the crack just above the wireless on/off card and on the crack at the far right of the right palmrest... the plastic seems to not be secure in those two areas; i can squish it together and it makes noise. can anyone else verify this problem? what the heck is wrong with my laptop

I HAD it on the right side only. I took the plastic cover off, which I believe covers where the HDD is and I added black electrical tape on the edges of that where it was hitting the palm rest. Basically it tighten things up in that area and now it stopped squeaking. If you take the whole palm rest off you can probably use the same method for the other side where it squeaks for you.

Good luck.

I have no squeaks. But I'm not surprised. When I took off the palmrest to replace the keyboard, it was striking what a flimsy piece of plastic it is. In conjunction with the flexing of the palmrest over the PCMCIA/ExpressCard slot, this seems like one area where the famous solid ThinkPad design is not so solid.

I have the 15in model and the palm rest replacement procedure is not like the one described in the hardware manual. In the hardware manual it shows tabs on the palm rests, but my palm rest didn't have any tabs. It's actually pretty flimsy. After replacing it the left had side edge does not match up and I'm getting the squeaking noise near the finger print reader. I'm going to have to take some time and redo it again see what I can do to make it better.

kskim91 wrote:I have the 15in model and the palm rest replacement procedure is not like the one described in the hardware manual. In the hardware manual it shows tabs on the palm rests, but my palm rest didn't have any tabs. It's actually pretty flimsy. After replacing it the left had side edge does not match up and I'm getting the squeaking noise near the finger print reader. I'm going to have to take some time and redo it again see what I can do to make it better.

that is EXACTLY what is happening to me! Please post here if you figure something out -- it's annoying as hell!

just a note to all viewers of this thread that though this is annoying, it does not at all detract from the mind blowing performance of this laptop! i would not trade it for anything!

Ok, I've opened the palm rest up and had a good look around. First there are actully tabs, but they are so small I didn't notice them the first time.

The right hand side not flush with the rest of the case problem seems due to the two wires just under the keyboard, so the keyboard would not go down further. The left hand side does not have these wires and the keyboard is able to go down lower so the palm rest is fush with the rest of the body. The left hand side I really could not see what I could do to make it flush, without rerouting the wires.

The lefthand side sqeaking noise seems to be caused by it rubbing against the hdd access door. I've reduced to a bit by putting some paper in between the palm rest and the roll cage. It's not perfect, but it will do for a temporary solution.

I have very loud and annoying squeaky problem on edge of keyboard bezel and left shift button.

The T60p that I just RMA'ed had squeaky palmrests on both the left and right side. Very suprising for a ThinkPad. I was annoyed by it; I felt I couldn't put my hands down entirely on the rests for fear of the clicking or squeaking.

Oh well.

Sottozero wrote:The T60p that I just RMA'ed had squeaky palmrests on both the left and right side.

I had some squeeks too, very annoying.

However, when I removed my palm rest to add memory, I sprayed some silicone on a cloth and wiped the edges of the plastic. No more squeeks.
A friend of mine who is a composites engineer looked at it while I had it apart. He says the material (while flexible) is very strong, and of very high quality.

archer

Sottozero wrote:The T60p that I just RMA'ed had squeaky palmrests on both the left and right side.

By the way, did you just return it, or order another one to replace it? If so, what did you order?

Thanks,
archer

On the right side mine had a rub/squeak where the palmrest panel intefaces with the HDD door. I just took a little mold release (I'm a plastics geek) on my thumbnail and ran it down the juncture of the 2 pieces while pressing down lightly on the palmrest.

It appeared to have not seated itself properly after adding the RAM upgrade.

So far so good.

If you're going to use a lubricant make sure that you don't use something that will attack the material, particularly in stress areas.

You're not alone. After I removed the palm rest to install my wifi card, I got the same squeak on the right side (right of the fingerprint reader). I've done the palm rest re-install with no luck. Then, after removing it to install my 1GB RAM, things are fine again. There's still some flex (I can push the edge down and it'll bend inwards a bit), but nothing serious.

My annoying issue is actually with my left touchpad button. It squeaks! Especially if I press on it from a top angle (pressing near the top edge of the button). Maybe I'll try some WD-40...

this thread is making me scared to upgrade my memory. I don't think I'd could live with 11 stuck pixels AND a squeeky case

Anyone know if I can access the moving parts of the trackpad buttons once I remove the palmrest? Maybe I can somehow get some WD-40 in there? My squeaky left button is driving me insane! All my friends notice it. I'm at the point where I may want to get a replacement part under warranty.

Just rip the palmrest off, mate -- only takes 2 minutes! The T60 is a bit different to the previous ones (the palmrest covers the buttons a bit) but yeah, the buttons are part of the keyboard.

Thanks Guys for providing answers to the community. I have a squeak from the right side, i.e. the HDD cover. It moves audibly when I grab the open laptop from the right side or push...although the visible movement is somewhere within 1 millimeter...

Will try some of the solutions here...Apart from this...a great machine (The NMB keyboard is not the NMB keyboard from T43 - excellent still...)

astro wrote:Just rip the palmrest off, mate -- only takes 2 minutes! The T60 is a bit different to the previous ones (the palmrest covers the buttons a bit) but yeah, the buttons are part of the keyboard.

The issue is with the left touchpad button. The buttons are integrated into the palmrest. So once again, I removed the palmrest (I'm a pro at it now after installing wifi card and 1GB RAM). Here's what I did next:


1) I removed the four screws that are holding the touchpad down to the palmrest.


2) The buttons are held in place by that thin rod that tucks under the little metal tab circled above. GENTLY (and I mean GENTLY!) push the rod down and outward. The button just falls right out.

I WD-40ed the metal C-shaped rod that sits underneath the button. So far, so good!

(sorry for posting here... I didn't think my issue was important enough to deserve it's own thread)

Ah -- I originally thought you were talking about the trackpoint buttons. Stupid brain.

Great pics, mate. Love your work.

GoofyG28 wrote:I WD-40ed the metal C-shaped rod that sits underneath the button. So far, so good!

Nice Work! Great photos and explanation. Now your ThinkPad is even more Custom...

Now uh.....duh....where's my can of WD 40 & my favorite hammer...

My experiences of the squeaky kind were slightly different... my left palm rest was squeaky while the right was quite ok. I fixed it by slipping a piece of cardboard in there. I even suggested this to the reseller whom I got my T60 from.

But, the squeaky palm-rest has so far been the least of my problems. I found out today that you can't use any generic RAM to add to the stick already present. I had bought an Archers 1GB stick (AV-2667-1G-S-0620), but it refused to work. Wouldn't even boot into Windows. It'd work by itself, but never together with the other stick. Found out from the reseller that certain generic RAM sticks had compatability problems when used together with the original sticks. Got a Kingston stick which worked ok in the end.
Second problem was that the LCD cable had come lose while on the journey home. I'm surprised that such a thing could happen on a Thinkpad. Went back to the store, but guy there couldn't do a thing. Service centre only opens again on monday, so I can either wait till then or try to fix it myself. The manual looks pretty straight forward though, so I may just try it myself.
ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/pc/pccbbs/mo ... 448r01.pdf
Will I be voiding any warranty if I do try to fix it. Apparently, I'd only need to remove the keyboard in addition to the palm-rests to check the LCD cable.

AssPenny wrote:Nope, your the first report of that i have seen. But then again, its a new released laptop.

Did you do a memory upgrade?

Maybe take the palm rest off and reseat it?

i posted about this about a month ago; I have learned to deal with it.

Mandrake wrote:

MaloventEvil wrote:i just wanted to make it clear that by squeak, i'm talking about at the edges on the left and right palmrest... (ie towards the front of the laptop -- the crack just above the wireless on/off card and on the crack at the far right of the right palmrest... the plastic seems to not be secure in those two areas; i can squish it together and it makes noise. can anyone else verify this problem? what the heck is wrong with my laptop

I HAD it on the right side only. I took the plastic cover off, which I believe covers where the HDD is and I added black electrical tape on the edges of that where it was hitting the palm rest. Basically it tighten things up in that area and now it stopped squeaking. If you take the whole palm rest off you can probably use the same method for the other side where it squeaks for you.

Good luck.

How bout some pix? I tried silicone spray as suggested in this thread, but to no avail...

bump

Warning: Some people might not like this post.

A safe lubricant that won't attack the plastic (and won't turn into gooey like WD-40) is readily available. Just run the tip of your finger on the side of your nose where the nostril meets the face. Unless you just washed up, there should be just enough on your fingertip for a small lubricating smear. I learned this trick many years ago from a pro photographer. He used it to lubricate the pressure plate on his 35mm cameras to minimize friction and make it easier to pull the film through. The ThinkPad plastic is formulated to not be damaged by the oil that comes from our skin.