Thinkpads Forum

I can live with the much discussed keyboard of the new Lenovo ThinkPad T series but the TrackPoint kinda sucks. It started to fall of (the plastic piece under the red cap just doesn't hold at all to the laptop and I'm a bit scared to just glue it) and also the performance compared to my good old T43.
Now - I'm not sure - is the TrackPoint part of the keyboard and possible to replace along with the keyboard?
Otherwise, should I just glue it together?
Thanks in advance for advices

Czechnology wrote:I can live with the much discusses keyboard of the new Lenovo ThinkPad T series but the TrackPoint kinda sucks. It started to fall of (the plastic piece under the red cap just doesn't hold at all to the laptop and I'm a bit scared to just glue it) and also the performance compared to my good old T43.
Now - I'm not sure - is the TrackPoint part of the keyboard and possible to replace along with the keyboard?

After reading your post, I took a very close look at the trackpoint on my T400 and they are very solid, and secure. You may have simply received a defective one I would encouraged to you take advantage of the warranty and have it replaced. And yes it's part of the keyboard assy.

I just got a ThinkPad T410 after selling the T420 due to my palm laying half way on the large touchpad while using the trackpoint and didn't like the smaller touchpad left/right mouse buttons.

While the T410 touchpad buttons are a little bigger then T420. The trackpoint keeps rolling off. I though the mouse settings was set very low speed since the mouse wasn't moving fast and I changed to highest. I then realized the trackpoint was falling off. Now this is my 2nd favorite trackpoint while the first Gen IBM ThinkPads eraser head are my favorite.
http://shop.lenovo.com/ISS_Static/WW/EM ... 698_V1.jpg
Middle are my #1 Right my #2.

My T61 has the middle and took it off and stuck on the T410 and the same happened after a few minutes. Not sure what it is with these T4XX models but my T61 seems to be my last best ThinkPad. So does the T400 do the same thing as in the starting thread? It sounded like it.

Here is a few images of me using the T61 and T410: http://patcomps.weebly.com/

All TrackPoints are part of the keyboard on ThinkPad branded notebook computers.
We have had keyboard replacements previously for our T42, T410, X230, etc. and have seen the disassembled keyboards ourselves.

[Edit]: By the way, we did previously use a T42 model, switched its TrackPoint cap onto T410 model, and it worked perfectly...no slippage like you've described. Perhaps you have a defective TrackPoint cap?

Czechnology wrote:...is the TrackPoint part of the keyboard and possible to replace along with the keyboard?

I took the soft top dome off my A30 and it seems to fit fine. Now to get more soft domes. The trackpoint on the T410 felt really soft and could smash it easily. Didn't feel like it was OEM.

Is your cap falling off, or is the trackpoint itself (the plastic part embedded in the keyboard) loose?

If it's the first - probably a defective / slightly torn cap. If it's the latter, and it won't stay after pressed in hard, then it's probably time for a new keyboard.

Soft dome caps harden with use. New and unused ones will feel softer, maybe "mushier".

Non-OEM (non-genuine) soft domes tend to be a darker shade of red. I just bought some. So far noticed no differences in texture, but I have not used them yet.

All this talk about Trackpoint caps got me to bust out my classic dome caps and put one on my X220. I got it as a set of 5 red and 5 gray caps back when I had the 760XD (and that was at least 10 years ago). Now I'm down to 1 red and 1 gray.

It was just the red trackpoint, not the keyboard. Its fine now since I put a genuine trackpoint on it. I orderd 20 classic and 20 soft top trackpoints off amazon.com Thats the only place I could find the classic. Even ebay don't have them unless the bundle 3 style. Lenovo even don't sell the classic, just the soft top or their new chicklit keyboard trackpoints.