T410 Trackpad worn out

[kingweb]

I have had a T410 since December. So my T410 is still pretty new. I also use an external mouse 90% of the time. With just the limited use of my trackpad, it already seems worn out. The textured bumps patter has already worn out near the middle, and it feels completely different.
Is this something that the warranty will cover? Also, even if the warranty does cover it, I am sure the new trackpad will wear out quickly too.

But my main problem with the trackpad is the extremely poor ability to vertically scroll. They give you 2 options. 1. Use the far right edge. 2. Use 2 fingers.
Neither method works very well. 2 fingers is easier for me, but more than half the time, it just doesn't work.
The right edge doesn't work well either.
Honestly I liked the older T400 trackpad much better.

Any suggestions?

[Colonel O'Neill]

You probably have your touch sensitivity set to heavy touch, and consequently, you're mashing the pad.

Did you remember to turn off gesture filtering?

[blackomegax]

My t420 is too new to say anything about wear. I'll update in here in a year, but i use the touchpad almost exclusively.

I have the same issue with scrolling though. But i think it's purely a driver issue. a T60 with generic 2-finger enabled drivers performs better than even a macbook running OSX at it. Where the 420 performs kind of retardedly.

I might try that driver INF on this, at some point, and let you know if it relieves the issue.

[Colonel O'Neill]

Try disabling the Synaptics two-finger scroll and using TwoFingerScroll:
http://code.google.com/p/two-finger-scroll/

Methinks Synaptics intentionally botches two-finger scroll on PC's. Could be worse. Could be ALPS, which just outright sucks.

[kingweb]

Try disabling the Synaptics two-finger scroll and using TwoFingerScroll:
http://code.google.com/p/two-finger-scroll/

Methinks Synaptics intentionally botches two-finger scroll on PC's. Could be worse. Could be ALPS, which just outright sucks.

Interesting, I thought it was because of the hardware being crappy, and not the driver. I'll try that.
What about the physical wear on it? Has anyone else seen this? Again, I don't use it that much and I only have it for about 6 months.

[Colonel O'Neill]

A bunch of people have said the touchpads work flawlessly in Linux, but tend to suck in Windows.

[blackomegax]

As to the polishing, i asked a friend with a pre-optimus T410 and theirs is still like new.

Consult lenovo on having it replaced under warranty.

[kingweb]

As to the polishing, i asked a friend with a pre-optimus T410 and theirs is still like new.

Consult lenovo on having it replaced under warranty.

Did the pre optimus ones not have the textured trackpads?

[Vempele]

T400s and everything that came after that has the textured trackpad. 410 > 400s.

[blackomegax]

it has the same texture. i just added that as a data point of it being a different manufacturing batch entirely.

[ThinkRob]

A bunch of people have said the touchpads work flawlessly in Linux, but tend to suck in Windows.

I can confirm the "works flawlessly under Linux" part. Both my T410 and my T420's pads support scrolling (edge and otherwise) just great.

[rjes]

I have recently replaced my trusty workhorse T30 with a new W520. I bought the W520 two and a half months ago, but didn't use it until a month later when I found time to set up all my software and master Windows 7's 'XP mode'. I am self employed, and the W520 is my main PC. It's on all day, and I probably use it maybe 30% of the time, exclusively using the trackpad. I have used it for less than six weeks. The texture on the trackpad has worn completely away in the centre already. You can still see where the dots were, but can't feel them at all.
Other more minor W520 trackpad issues that I have are with the design. What kind of designer thinks a flush touchpad on a laptop with no noticeable edge feel is a good idea? I wouldn't be surprised if Lenovo added the textured dots as an after thought when they realised that you need to be able to feel where the edge of the touchpad is? If so, that is a very poor work around to a ridiculous design error. The end result will be the same anyway when all the textured dot pattern has worn away (which will probably be in a few more weeks on mine).
A W520 is a serious investment for me, and one which I expect / need to last for many years, like my old T30 did. I find this trackpad wear problem very worrying. It's really making me wonder whether Lenovo was the right choice. I wouldn't have been too surprised to find Lenovo branded Thinkpads not as well built as IBM branded ones. However, to have the surface layer wear off the trackpad in six weeks is a joke. This is the kind of design / quality problem I would expect on an unbranded laptop which you buy from a supermarket. I expected my W520 to be in a completely different league.

While I am at it, I have been trying hard to ignore the rattley fit of the 9 cell battery since the very first time I plugged it in. Every time I pick the W520 up or put it down I hear the battery rattle. This is a £1500 piece of 'high end' hardware, not the piece unbranded junk as the quality of the battery fit suggests. This sounds silly, but if I had had a chance to have a thorough look at a W520 before buying one, and noticed what a poor fit the battery was, it would have probably lost it's place at the top of my wanted list based on this alone. I expect better from Lenovo. At least I can 'fix' this issue by wedging a small piece of closed cell foam between the battery casing and laptop body.

[blackomegax]

Update: my T420's touchpad still has texture.
Though, you can tell the area of use is getting a different tone, but that is entirely 100% just grease off of my fingers, as it is cleanable.
Have any of you with worn pads tried gently cleaning them? In case the nubs are merely buried under a layer of grease.


PS: I've been using thinkpads since well before lenovo even got involved, and my T420 is the highest quality build of them all.

[rjes]

When I first noticed what I now know is wear, I too thought it was grease, and wondered whether my fingers were that greasy. I tried wiping the touchpad gently with a damp tissue, but immediately noticed that it was not grease at all, but the texture wearing away. Once I looked more closely, you can cleary feel that the pad has worn totally smooth in the middle already. You can clearly see where the raised dots were, but can't feel them at all.
I looked at the sensitivity setting yesterday. It was still as supplied when new, which was '2' if '1' is most sensitive and '5' is least sensitive. I adjusted it to '1', which I prefer, but it only requires a slightly lighter touch now than it did before.

[vipstjert]

I have posted a perfect working solution to bring the smooth surface on the touchpad back here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=98352

The result looks like this: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/83 ... e0143.jpg/