Thinkpads Forum

Hi all - this is pretty simple but I figured I'd share it anyway. In my other post I asked what to do about a squeaky palm rest on my T60 Widescreen, and some of you suggested tightening the palm rest screws. When I tried that I noticed that they were already quite tight, so I actually tried loosening them up a bit...Surprisingly, that seems to have substantially reduced the creakiness of the palm rests (particularly on the right). So if tightening hasn't worked, you might try loosening the screws a little bit to see what happens.

Now a question if anyone knows: is there any danger in having the screws too loose? I am pleased that it reduced the noise, but if this could cause problems I don't want to leave them like this. They started out quite tight, so I loosened them up significantly and then tightened them to the point where the screw driver stopped turning easily. So in other words, as soon as I got to a bit of resistance, I stopped turning. Does that seem like a safe amount of "tightness"?

Thanks all. As always, this forum is a great resource.

what also helps is placing some stickers under the palmrest, especially in the corners. Go to a shop, and buy black label stickers. The creeking is either caused by wrong assembly, or an error in manufactoring, i.e. the plastic is a little too 'thin', so it clashes with the bottom case. The latter can be fixed with a sticker (do not use duck tape, too thick!).

The stock screws are nylon coated. That, rather than friction of the head, keeps them from loosening if they are not screwed on too tightly. You should be safe with those screws not torqued to the max, as long as the nylon doesn't wear out (which is why in theory the screws should be replaced with fresh screws from a screw parts kit when they're removed rather than just put back in).

Hi guys - thanks very much for the responses. I gave what you suggested a try SpaRood, and that also seemed to reduce the noise a bit more. The corners had definitely been creaking. I appreciate the suggestion.

And thanks for the info about the screws - I would rather leave them a bit loose in that case because it seems to help reduce the noise. They were screwed in REALLY tightly by the factory - it seemed unnecessary, wouldn't that put a lot of stress on the joint? At least for my machine, the optimal tightness in terms of noise reduction seems to be to turn the screws right until the point where they don't turn anymore without a bit of effort (i.e. I only screw it as long as it's relatively effortless), in case anyone wants to experiment.

Thanks