Thinkpads Forum

I just got off the phone with Lenovo ordering a replacement keyboard for my T400. I wanted a new one as the current one is showing some wear on a few keys here and there, and the trackpoint buttons are discolored. (Really I was looking for things to replace before the warranty is up on the 24th ) I didn't think they would like that explanation, so I told them it was "flexy".

What are my chances of getting a decent keyboard out of this? I have read some threads from 2009 about keyboard problems, and replacements still being affected. Now in 2011 is there still a possibility that I will get a flexy model? I didn't specify any FRUs since the poor guy had a hard enough time getting all of my info. (40 minutes to be exact ) I would think that they would not still be sending out the "weight-saving" one, but I wanted an opinion from someone who has ordered recently.

It's unlikely.
But as with everything with lenovo it's a roll of the dice.

blackomegax wrote:It's unlikely.
But as with everything with lenovo it's a roll of the dice.

It's unlikely that I'll get the crappy keyboard? If that's the case than that's great.

Yeah. being a discontinued FRU.

Cool. Thanks a lot. I'll update when I get it, it's suppose to come on Monday but I won't be home anyways.


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I'm back to using my original Chicony "flexy"; donated my solid-backed ALPS to my dad's T60. For some reason, it no longer feels flexy under normal typing whereas it used to when new. Might be all the times I've dropped it, though.

Colonel O'Neill wrote:I'm back to using my original Chicony "flexy"; donated my solid-backed ALPS to my dad's T60. For some reason, it no longer feels flexy under normal typing whereas it used to when new. Might be all the times I've dropped it, though.

That again, lol.

Yeah my T400 has been through a lot. Other laptops would've long up and died.

I agree. That's why I will never own anything over than a ThinkPad, unless they take a turn for the worse someday. I love the youtube video where the guy in the business suit closes his running thinkpad and throws it across the room just to prove a point, and then proceeds to walk over an collect it, open it up and resume working. I'll have to go and find that now.

Heh. I still think Lenovo should make another 35mph crash test video. The X1 ceiling drop was close, but lacked epicness.

I agree about the drop video - we should have been able to see the system fall in slow motion (just because everything looks cooler then), and we should have been able to see the competitor's system fall, just for comparison's sake.

Thats the thing I like about thinkpads - even when they do not live up to the expected high quality, they still outperform and outlast their competitors.

Yeah the other one was totalled. The ThinkPad from a trebuchet looked better than that.

Colonel O'Neill wrote:Heh. I still think Lenovo should make another 35mph crash test video. The X1 ceiling drop was close, but lacked epicness.

Just watched them now. They were both awesome, but the 35mph one was better. (Was that a T61 or a T500?)

Here's the video I was talking about. (The guy's an idiot though, his password is "runtime3" lol.)

Well, I got the keyboard. It is FRU 42T3241 and from what I understand, a Chicony. I was hoping for an NMB as that is what I am used to, but this keyboard is actually really nice. The keys are less wobbly when the corners are pressed unlike an NMB, and the coloring matches that of the bezels much better. (The NMB is slightly more gray) As suggested it is a model with a solid backplate. One thing I have noticed is that it is slightly louder, almost an echoing sound coming from the keys as I type this. Oh, another thing. I have gotten used to using the soft-rim style TrackPoint cap, and just now I tried the default grippy one. The soft-rim is much better. It is so much harder to move the cursor across the screen, and I can see my finger getting fatigues much faster. Overall an excellent keyboard though.

I thought the wobble on the NMB made it easier to hit a key at an angle. The ALPS mechanism is really rigid but only really accepts straight downwards presses.