Thinkpads Forum

About 3 months ago, I spilled water all over my T510. Everything worked afterwards, except for the trackpad and fingerprint reader. The trackpad was not even seen in BIOS. The fingerprint reader lit up, and I could turn on the laptop by sliding my finger over it, but it would not log me in, and was not detected in the OS. I removed the pamlrest, and the wires going to the motherboard had been corroded when I spilled the water.
Yesterday, I got my replacement palmrest, with trackpad and FPR included. I replaced the old one with the new one, and I checked in the bios. The trackpad was shown, along with the TrackPoint. Both were set to "Automatic". When I booted into Debian, neither the trackpad nor the trackpoint worked. I tried Windows, and it was the same. Here is what I've tried:

Palmrest Disconnected:
Trackpoint: works
Trackpad: does not work (duh)

Palmrest Connected, Trackpad Disabled in BIOS, Trackpoint Enabled:
Trackpoint: Works
Trackpad: does not work (duh again)

Palmrest Connected, Trackpad Enabled in BIOS, Trackpoint Disabled:
Trackpoint: Does not work
Trackpad: Does not work

Palmrest Connected, Trackpoint and Trackpad Enabled in BIOS:
Trackpoint: Does not work
Trackpad: Does not work

Palmrest Connected, Trackpoint and Trackpad Disabled in BIOS (I don't know why I included this):
Trackpoint: Does not work
Trackpad: Does not work

I have tried cleaning everything around that area with denatured alcohol, and still nothing.

About my T510:
Type: 4314-2NU
CPU: i5-M520
GPU: NVIDIA NVS 3100M
RAM: 4GB DDR3
OS: Debian Testing and Windows 7 (both user installed)
HDD: 500GB Seagate Hybrid and 250GB WD Blue in UltraBay

The only mods I've done to it are replacing the palmrest and adding the UltraBay HDD adapter.

Looks like I'm having the same problem as http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=105637 but I would really like to be able to use my trackpad.

I suspect a short circuit caused by the water has damaged the system board. I have a T43 with a similar situation, where all the parts (keyboard, trackpoint, touchpad, etc.) work OK when attached to a different machine, but the touchpad doesn't work on the damaged system board. And when connected, it will prevent both the trackpoint and keyboard from working. I've been using the T43 like it is for a couple of years, with the touchpad physically disconnected.

So there's not much I can do? This sucks.

You can replace your system board...

Or buy a parts machine from e-bay.

Sounds like some system board damage to me.

I thought about buying a new motherboard, but it would be hard to find one with the same configuration, right?

I don't think so.

See if you can open your machine and identify the FRU# for your motherboard. Then search for that part on feebay or other sites. It's what I would do. I do not know if you can pull the FRU from the BIOS (assuming you can access the BIOS).