Thinkpads Forum

I've had a 14.1" WS T61 for a couple weeks now, and am noticing a few things that -- while not calamitous -- are irritating.

So I'm wondering if other T61 owners have similar experiences. Basically, the issues are all related to creakiness:

- The far left side of the keyboard creaks very loudly, centering around the TAB and CAPS LOCK keys. Pressing on those keys emits a highly audible groan from the chassis. Clamping the left side of the chassis (near the speaker) does alleviate the problem, but yikes.

- Far more minor (but still annoying) are the two buttons under the trackpad. They're also creaky, and it's particularly noticeable when holding them down to drag stuff around on the desktop.

Having read SO much about the almost mythical sturdiness of these machines, the creakiness surprised me. Is this just a weird anomaly on my Thinkpad, or do others have the same problems? Is it worth calling customer service? What is the typical resolution for this type of thing (if any)?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Creaking palmrests and keyboards are fairly common. I fixed a creaking palmrest on my T43 by either tightening or slightly loosening the relevent screws on the underside of the unit. The keyboard screws are marked with a little keyboard sumbol. The palmrest screws are fairly obvious. You'll need a tiny screwdriver, however.

I haven't had any luck in improving my palmrest creaking with playing with the screws. My T61 creaks the worst on the right side, underneath the arrow keys and around the IBM logo.

It hasn't bothered me enough to go to the next level, and introduce some type of spacer material underneath the palmrest after removing it (yet). I would think that would be the obvious next step... I'll report if I ever go that far.

The 15" thinkpads have commonly had some creak in the palmrest, which some ppl fix by inserting something under it.

Not really any creakiness in the 14" thinkpads over the years (in standard aspect at least). And the X-series seem to be the tightest of all in my experience.

I have a 15.4" T61 and notice the creakiness of the palmrest. With the palmrest secured to the base of the notebook, i can actually lift the right corner of the palmrest a bit. The left side is tight and does not move at all. This slight amount of movement of the right palmrest also affects the smoothness of opening and closing the lid, as i believe the lid would close much more smoothly, instead of just the left side latching down securely while the right latch doesnt fully engage the lock, when closing the lid with one hand. I need to close the lid with two hands to engage both the left and right latch at the same time when closing the lid.

I believe shimming the bottom of the palmrest is NOT the answer. Lenovo made the left side of the palmrest tight, i dont know why they couldnt have done so with the right.

pipspeak wrote:Creaking palmrests and keyboards are fairly common. I fixed a creaking palmrest on my T43 by either tightening or slightly loosening the relevent screws on the underside of the unit. The keyboard screws are marked with a little keyboard sumbol. The palmrest screws are fairly obvious. You'll need a tiny screwdriver, however.

I also didn't have any luck with loosening and tightening screws. However, I did remove the keyboard and reseat it entirely -- that solved my problem entirely.