T450 clickpad (with buttons) in T440/T440s/T440p

[kilou]

Hi,

The new T450 clickpad brings back dedicated buttons for the trackpoint. It seems the dimension of the new clickpad (with buttons) is the same as that of the T440/T440s/T440p. Is it then possible to retrofit a new T450 clickpad in a T440/T440s/T440p laptop?

Thanks

[ZaZ]

Kind of hard to say at this point being that they've not been released.

[kilou]

Suppose it physically fits (dimensions, wire etc), is there any other reasons why it may not work (BIOS, software etc)?

[ajkula66]

BIOS might or might not get in the way, depending on how it was set up in the first place.

It will be a few months before someone actually gets the parts and attempts the swap. Until then, all we can do is speculate.

[siya-u]

The new touchpad is sold on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/251805759114?_t ... EBIDX%3AIT

The seller claims that it will fit to T440 models. I asked him for instructions for replacement, he will email me the document.

[ZaZ]

Interesting. They show it working in the T440s. There's only eight left. Get 'em while they're hot.

[siya-u]

The seller sent me some pictures about touchpad replacement. You have to disassemble the whole laptop in order to install the touchpad. The keyboard bezel is the key; and all the parts including the system board have to be disassembled.

It seems very complicated to me, but possible. I'm about to replace the TN screen with an IPS one on my T440s, so my priority is screen replacement for now. In the following weeks, I may try the new touchpad replacement.

[600X]

Sadly, the smaller version for the X240 is still quite expensive. But quite tempting nevertheless.

[pianoprodigy]

I ordered one for my T440p as I despite the clickpad without the buttons. I don't relish the thought of disassembling the laptop to swap it though. siya-u can you forward me the photos you were sent? pianoprodigy at gmail dot com

Thanks!

[camerongray]

Good news!

The touchpad for my T440s arrived today and I have just finished installing it.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBtMUwpcLbo

Photo: http://imgur.com/SCotlGg

The hardware
Feels fantastic, especially the buttons which have a nice, solid feel. The touchpad itself feels pretty good as well, it is hinged at the top and clicks at the bottom (like a MacBook does) which makes it much quieter than the original one.

Installation was fairly easy although it did require the motherboard to be unscrewed and moved to the side to access a pair of the screws holding the touchpad in. The new touchpad didn't include a cable so I needed to transfer the one from my previous touchpad, thankfully this can be easily done.

How does it work?
I can confirm that it works great under Linux (Arch in my case). Everything seems detected and working fine so all I need to do now is configure it to my liking. The only caveat was that I needed to put "options psmouse proto=imps" in my /etc/modprobe.d/psmouse.conf as per the instructions here: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php ... 4#p1497694.

Because this is a new piece of hardware there is limited information about it online, however some people already have the 3rd gen X1 Carbon and there is quite a bit of information about that for use under Linux. Therefore if you have issues, look up the same issue with the 3rd gen X1 Carbon.

As far as Windows goes, I have only briefly tried getting it working under but I was not yet successful, I uninstalled my current drivers but the updated ones refuse to find any Synaptics devices. I wouldn't give up hope though since I haven't tried that hard to get it working and due to it working under Linux, the hardware itself clearly works so it's just a software issue.

TL;DR - Everything works perfectly under Linux, can't get it working under Windows but haven't tried very hard (probably just needs some driver tweaking)

[siya-u]

camerongay, can you try with these drivers?

http://driverdl.lenovo.com.cn/think/download/driver/7448/UltraNav[n10gx25w].exe

[pianoprodigy]

Thanks for the e-mail siya-u

Good to see camerongray got it installed and working at least on Linux. I'm sure he will be obliged to do some more testing for us as siya-u requested.

[camerongray]

camerongay, can you try with these drivers?

http://driverdl.lenovo.com.cn/think/dow ... gx25w].exe

Good news, that driver works! For some reason earlier the laptop was not seeing the touchpad at all and the driver was refusing to install. It possibly just took quite a few reboots to kick it into working. With those drivers all the buttons work, including middle button scrolling!

[camerongray]

Quick update, I have written a blog post on how I set everything up including the config I used under Linux: http://camerongray.me/2015/02/fitting-p ... pad-t440s/

[siya-u]

I'm glad those drivers worked for you cameron..

I've also purchased the new touchpad from ebay. I'm now waiting for my new IPS FHD screen and touchpad to arrive. Then my T440s will transform into a Frankenpad

I was using an X301 for a few years and recently bought the T440s for a replacement to X301. At first, I was very dissapointed when I realized how hard using new buttonless touchpad-trackpoint combo on T440s is; it was a horrible experience! Physical trackpoint buttons are the must-have feature for a ThinkPad, so I hope with the new touchpad my T440s will be able to return to her roots at last...

[edivad]

Very good news.
The touchpad of the t540 series are the same?

[siya-u]

The clickpad has arrived today.

I've just installed it without pain; the process is relatively simple and took approximately 20 minutes. Before hardware installation, I installed the correct Synaptics drivers as I mentioned in the post above and restart the system in order to disable the built-in battery via BIOS. Then I removed the keyboard, base cover, SSD, internal battery and trackpad ribbon cable plug (which is connected to the system board). Then, I removed 7 screws that hold the system board in place, so I was able to tilt the system board in an angle that I can reach 4 screws of the trackpad. The two screws on the right were already exposed when I removed the internal battery, but two on the left lie beneath the system board so anybody should tilt the system board in order to unscrew them.

No ribbon cable is included in the package so I had to transfer the old ribbon cable to the new clickpad. This is also easy but requires patience and intensive care, because there is a risk that you can damage the ribbon cable if you apply excess force. Just be gentle and patient.

As soon as I plug the ribbon cable to the clickpad, I installed it to the bezel and reinstalled everything in reverse order. I plugged the power cable and voila! The new clickpad is in action and I have the physical buttons and middle button scrolling!

Just an easy and inexpensive way to upgrade your T440s to T450s

PS: I was unable to set smooth scrolling feature. Also I need to find a way to use middle button to open a hyperlink on a new tab in Chrome. It was possible with my X301 but there is no setting on this new clickpad's config section. Any help is appreciated

Edit: Found a way to use the middle button as middle click. Just download and run a small application named TPMiddle

[yesimnathan]

I just installed one of these in my T440s today. Installation was much easier than I expected. It's working great except for the middle click scrolling. I followed the advice from camerongrey's blog post but I'm still not able to get middle click scrolling functioning under Linux.

[pianoprodigy]

Mine must have gotten lost in shipment. The Ebay seller sent me another one.

[yesimnathan]

I was able to get the buttons working with the middle mouse click scroll (in Arch Linux) with the following udev rule

Code: Select all

$ cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/51-trackpoint.conf 
Section "InputClass"
    Identifier "evdev pointer catchall"
    Driver "evdev"

    Option "EmulateWheel" "1"
    Option "EmulateWheelButton" "2"
    Option "Emulate3Buttons" "0"
    Option "XAxisMapping" "6 7"
    Option "YAcisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

EDIT: Ended up finding this gem which works quite a bit better!

[sudurais]

@siya-u,

Could you please email me the document to sudurais<at>gmail.com

I've ordered mine as current one completely stopped working.

camerongay, can you try with these drivers?

http://driverdl.lenovo.com.cn/think/dow ... gx25w].exe

[siya-u]

This picture shows 4 screws that attach touchpad to the keyboard bezel. To reach 2 of them on the left, you have to tilt the system board.

http://i.hizliresim.com/4LVDXp.jpg

[RealBlackStuff]

What a load of time wasting!
Why don't you just remove the keyboard-bezel/palmrest, instead of taking the whole laptop apart?

[siya-u]

Keyboard bezel and palmrest are unified with the chassis, just like Apple's unibody chassis. There is no way to remove palmrest or keyboard bezel separately.

[pianoprodigy]

I finally received mine yesterday. I have installed simple things like memory and swapped hard drives in a laptop, but this was obviously quite a bit more involved. Those of you estimating 20 minutes must be far more experienced than I am! I think it took me about an hour and 20 minutes to get everything apart and the new part installed using the instructions on the Lenovo site http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/product ... s/PD029254. I finished the install this morning in 30 minutes or so and prayed that I got the ribbon connectors in there securely. I'm not sure why Lenovo recommended removing everything that it did because it didn't appear to be necessary. The fan module appeared to be secured with thermal paste and had to be pried off. It seems the fan is a touch louder now than it was before (not that it was quiet before). Otherwise, I installed the drivers before the installation and everything appears to be in working order!

Initial impressions are that the swap was well worth the effort. My hands have to get used to it a little more, but the dedicated buttons are so much better than the annoying clickpad which often didn't even recognize the clicking input. The clickpad always felt as if it had entirely too much play. The buttons now have a satisfying click that is more appropriate and actually I find better than those on my T420s.

[larrykl]

Received my T450 touchpad from the same Chinese vendor today. I hated the old touchpad with virtual buttons for so many reason: LOUD, entire surface is a button and hard to push for the thumbs, the little bumps on the pad were horrible... felt like I had my finger on a hair or some debris whenever I'd touch that area of the pad, missed clicks for no reason, missed clicks because thumb was not in just the right spot, etc. So, when I heard the T450s touchpad worked in the T440s, I had to give this a try.

The install took a lot longer than expected. Taking off the back cover was the most difficult part. You should make sure you have plastic wedges to help pry open the cover edges. Plus, you need to remove the keyboard in order to lift the motherboard high enough to get to the screws to remove the old touchpad. Just had to remove the hard drive and internal battery otherwise. Also, it was hard to tell how to loosen the ribbon cables. Make sure you lift the plastic tab before you tug on them. The ribbon cable from touchpad to main board is a bit too long with the new touchpad so it will probably get a kink when you put the internal battery back in over it. Here is the order I'd do it in:

1. Keyboard removed
2. Back cover removed
3. Hard drive removed
4. Internal battery removed
5. Disconnect small white connector to motherboard to allow it to be lifted
6. Disconnect ribbon cable between touchpad and motherboard (both ends)
7. Lift motherboard, unscrew 4 screws holding in touchpad and remove it.
8. Connect ribbon cable to new touchpad and insert it back into chassis.
9. Follow these instructions in reverse order, 7 to 1 to complete.

My touchpad was recognized right away with no driver changes, all buttons worked and middle button scroll worked. UltraNav settings showed a middle button. This worked until I tried a Lenovo update which installed a new driver and then the buttons stopped working. So, I downloaded and installed the driver that other people have recommended and things started working again.

Was it all worth it? YES YES YES. Hated the old touchpad and this new one works great.. as people have said, like a macbook in that it only clicks towards the bottom, hinged near the buttons. No more clicking the entire surface. The tactile feel of the pad click and physical buttons is great!! My T440s feels like a new machine! I recommend it for anyone who hates the mistake that was the virtual touchpad buttons!

Good luck!

[ragesalmon]

Hey all! I just installed the new touchpad over the weekend. I can get the buttons working, but I'm having a few issues. For one, using camerongray's method of setting up the physical buttons broke the two finger scrolling. Is there a way to set up the touchpad such that

1) I can use two finger scrolling while using the physical buttons
2) I can disable using the touchpad to move the mouse and just use it for scrolling and clicking

I can contribute anything you need.

[bblumberg]

Hi everyone,

I received my trackpad with buttons and in the process of installing it, managed to break off the little flap that secures the ribbon to the motherboard. Is there any way to recover from this other than getting a new motherboard?

Thanks

Bruce