Thinkpads Forum

The power button on my T410 seems sticky and I have to either press it relatively hard, or I have to hold it in order to get any response.
I have two keyboards and swapping it does not seem to fix it so I don't think it's the keyboard. The one I swapped to is nearly unused.

Any ideas?

So I swapped back to my original harddrive (the one that came with the laptop) and I noticed that it still had the problem (so probably not OS related). I also noticed that the button worked fine when turning the machine on or off, and it only seemed sticky when sleeping and unsleeping.

Is this sticky-button behaviour normal then? My friend said his T430s does the same thing.

It does not sound normal to me at all. Mine presses in distinctively and operates as you would expect.

The button is integrated in with the keyboard. You could try pulling the keyboard and cleaning it. Otherwise, I would consider replacing the keyboard.

But I find it odd that both of my keyboards do this, as well, the button works fine when I'm turning the computer on. Is it more sensitive when the machine is not powered on?

I'll try cleaning the port that the keyboard connects to but so far it doesn't seem like a keyboard problem. Do other people's thinkpads react instantaneously when pressing the power button to sleep/wake?

I believe this is normal. On all the ThinkPads I've used (X200s, X60 tablet, R60i), the power button reacts instantly when the machine is either completely powered down or sleeping. However, when the machine is running, the power button must be held down for a fraction of a second before it responds. This is true both for the power button integrated in the keyboard, and for the power button on the X60 tablet's display bezel. It's probably designed so one doesn't accidentally turn the computer off.