t400s: palmrest with or w/o FPR?

[damorg]

Hello All,

I have a t400s that has developed cracks in the palmrest and I am looking at replacing it.

Currently, I have the fingerprint reader but do not use it so I was thinking about getting a palmrest w/o FPR.

Does anybody know if the non-FPR palmrest will fit over the FPR or does the FPR have to be removed if I want to use a non-FPR palmrest?

Thanks for sharing experience/insight.

Dan

[Harryc]

The FPR is build into the palm rest, so there is no 'fitting over' if you remove the palm rest with a FPR and put a non-FPR palm rest in its place.

[blackomegax]

you can disable the FPR in bios, too.

[damorg]

Thanks for clearing that up! I appreciate the info.

[krayzie]

I don't think you can even order the fingerprint reader palmrest part cuz I called IBM parts the other week and there is no stock in North America for the new FRU. The old FRU (presumably prone to cracks) is quoted at $375CAD lol!

Once you replaced the old palmrest with the new one without the fingerprint reader, the fingerprint option automatically disappears from the BIOS settings.

Mine has no fingerprint reader and no cracks here. T400s built in Feb 2010. Good luck!

[blackomegax]

Not from lenovo anyway
http://compare.ebay.com/like/2006318175 ... r&_lwgsi=y with
http://cgi.ebay.com/New-Palmrest-IBM-Le ... 3a691e3392 without

400s uses a different part, i think, but the pricing should be comparable.

[krayzie]

Okay so I ordered a new palmrest shell from eBay for my T400s. The transplant of the electronics takes a bit of finesse. First of all, the trackpad circuit board at the bottom is held on by glue, and I had to use an automotive plastic trim tool to slowly pry the board off and then remove all the remaining glue residue. I used 3M carpet tape I got from Home Depot to affix the board onto the new palmrest. The rest is pretty straight forward - the trackpad buttons are held by 2 screws, and the fingerprint reader is held by one screw and a metal bracket. The black plastic piece covering the trackpad electronics is also double-side taped. The final detail is the tiny square magnet (for working with the hall effect sensor on the LCD lid) under the right trackpad button, and you will see it once the trackpad buttons assembly is removed, the magnet is held on by a small double-side taped black plastic piece (use a flashlight to locate it), use a tweezer to remove.

Probably easier to buy the entire pre-assembled part from IBM but $$$.

[ssd_thinkpad]

For all these detailled user reviews like yours I love thinkpads.com