Thinkpads Forum

so i bought a t420 pretty cheep a few months ago and i really love it.

although its no longer the same laptop i bought. new ssd, hd, ram, battery, screen, and cpu.


my biggest complaint with this laptop is track pad is aweful (sue me i use the trackpad).

it does not scroll correctly or track correctly.

i have uninstalled, reinstalled and disabled the Symantec drivers and it hasn't helped.

i found a third party driver that helped a little bit with 2 finger scrolling but other then that its still awful.

i already replaced the bumpy trackpad sticker with a smooth one. helped a bit.


any ideas would be greatly appreciated .

Touchpads on the T410 - T430 era are noticeably worse than previous models. There isn't much more you can do to make the touchpad easier to use. However, some people have reported better results by using a smooth aftermarket touchpad sticker, instead of the default rubbery dotted one.

As an alternative, have you ever considered using the trackpoint? With a little practice, many find it much more efficient than the touchpad.

Trackpoint to me makes absolutely no sense at all....cant see how anybody can be satisfied with using two hands to handle the mouse cursor.

My touchpad on my T520 is far better than on my T500, simply because its bigger....

terry_mccann wrote:Trackpoint to me makes absolutely no sense at all....cant see how anybody can be satisfied with using two hands to handle the mouse cursor.

My touchpad on my T520 is far better than on my T500, simply because its bigger....

Well, most people use one hand with the TrackPoint. As for me, my index finger operates the nib, and my thumb operates the buttons just south of the space bar. Try it, you might like it

You are correct. The touchpad is uniformly terrible from the T20-T420 era. I'm a touchpoint user and it always surprised me that so many people can use it at all.

My history spans from T20 onwards and I reckon the touchpad is better from the T430 onwards if nothing more than space... its bigger, it works well. On the T500 or W500 series they are better.

However saying that, I dont care. I always have a mouse with me. Even on the couch or bed, I use a mouse. In cramped conditions (eg. server room), I use the nipple.