Replacing palmrest after installing RAM (14.1")

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bmfyxpp · #1 Post by **bmfyxpp** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 6:57 pm

For those accustomed to opening up their Thinkpads, this may be elementary, but it might be helpful if you're not one to mess with the casing of your laptop. An IBM onsite technician and I puzzled over this for nearly twenty minutes before figuring it out...

As you probably know, the slot for installing additional RAM in the T60(p) is underneath the touchpad, which requires removing the palmrest assembly. The manual suggests that you:

1. Remove five screws from the bottom of the unit.
2. Remove the palmrest by squeezing it on both sides.
3. Pop in your RAM.
4. Put the palmrest back and replace the screws.

Sounds easy enough. Step 2 is a little tricky, since squeezing the sides of the palmrest won't actually do anything-- the palmrest doesn't exactly flex. But digging your nails under the palmrest near the bottom of the keyboard should get it to pop off. Do it gently, as the touchpad and fingerprint reader are part of the palmrest assembly, and plug in to the motherboard.

It's step 4 that's the nightmare.

I struggled for nearly an hour to reinstall the palmrest, to no avail. Sometimes one side would snap in, but the other wouldn't. Eventually, bits of plastic started to break off, which you can chalk up as a testament to my clumsiness if you want.

I finally gave up and summoned an onsite technician to install a brand new palmrest (I figured that extra warranty would come in handy). The technician had never worked on a T60 before, and tried unsuccessfully for quite some time to get the palmrest back in place. Finally, he said, "The keyboard is blocking the palmrest."

That's the trick. You have to lift the keyboard slightly in order to put the palmrest in place. There are four screws at the bottom of the unit that hold the palmrest. A fifth, center screw holds the keyboard. Removing that screw (as per the manual) allows you to move the keyboard around. It just needs a slight lift for the palmrest to pop into place. Check to make sure that the edges are all aligned properly. Also, make sure the area around the trackpoint mouse buttons is popped snugly in place. Otherwise, the mouse buttons will feel loose and jiggly. Finally, check that the arrow keys are pressing properly. If the palmrest is too flush against the keyboard, it can actually cause the arrow keys to get stuck when pressed.

Hopefully, others have had an easier time of it installing extra RAM. I for one am glad I got a 1GB stick, because I'm never opening up the palmrest again.

Caveat: my T60 is a 14.1" model. I have no idea whether the palmrest on the 15" model is much different. I can't even promise that the cases of other 14.1" T60's are identical to mine-- it's possible there's a flaw in the construction of my T60 that made it so frustrating for me.

ajazzman · #2 Post by **ajazzman** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:09 pm

Thanks for the post! It is mind boggling that they would make it difficult to add RAM.

Zarkon · #3 Post by **Zarkon** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 8:04 pm

I'm part of the "palmrest is a pain to reattach" bandwagon, and I have a 15" model.

Instead of trying to align the side tabs like it tells you to in the guide, I found it easier to fit the palm rest along the long edge on the front of the laptop instead, then apply pressure from above to snap the tabs in place. When I tried to align it with the tabs, I would always have a piece in the front that didn't fit and a gap formed. I didn't have to fiddle with the keyboard, though.

JHEM · #4 Post by **JHEM** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 9:53 pm

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-62808

Regards,

James

bmfyxpp · #5 Post by **bmfyxpp** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 2:49 am

JHEM wrote:http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-62808

Regards,

James

Unfortunately, that's what I was looking at when I was trying to replace the palmrest. If anyone's had luck using the method described in the link, my hat's off to them.

deforest · #6 Post by **deforest** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 2:38 pm

Do you have the tabs on both sides, up by the keyboard?

When I put mine back together I only saw the left hand tab. I looked for the right hand tab, but didn't see it nor did I see where it would have gone (nor any sign that it broke off). The pictures indicates that it wraps around the right side, but I don't see any place it would have gone.

Still it took a while to position it so that it would go back into place.

A few days late I looked at my t40 and it has the tab on the right hand side that wraps around.

dbertoni5000 · #7 Post by **dbertoni5000** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:33 pm

I added a 1GB SO-DIMM to my T60 and the entire process took something like 10 minutes. I didn't have any problems removing the palm rest or replacing it, although I think the instructions in the manual are not very clear.

bmfyxpp · #8 Post by **bmfyxpp** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 5:08 pm

I was missing the right-hand tab as well. Interestingly, the new palmrest that the onsite tech brought with him was also missing the right tab. That might be part of the problem...

Mandrake · #9 Post by **Mandrake** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 7:04 pm

I smell sticky. (well not me personally

)

jeremivw · #10 Post by **jeremivw** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 7:21 pm

The Admin was right on. The documentation is fine. Actually, it's better than most.

I didn't even print those instructions (just looked online before shutdown) and did it in 5 minutes, guys. Seriously.

Maybe you're not all super-geeks like me, but that was, by far, easier than I had anticipated and heard (here mostly). I had all my micro tools out, static mat, the works and it only took 5 more minutes than the little bottom 1-screw doors on the Ms (so, 6 minutes)...but those didn't have a ROLL CAGE!

Seriously, it was cool to get to see the inerds, too. Very nice construction IMO. I didn't even have to unplug any of the palm device cables (too small). I just held it up w/ one hand and installed my 2nd GB stick with the other. Palm rest went right back on (loose) but I made sure it was lined up and shut the LCD, turned it over and put the screws back in. Perfect fit to my amazement. Back over and on and F1...2048MB!

Maybe some of the different keyboards have slightly different dimensions accounting for some of the difficulty on other machines? Dunno...

Mine is an Alps.

donking! · #11 Post by **donking!** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 11:28 pm

I just replaced a Chicony keyboard with an ALPS keyboard and didn't have too much trouble getting the palmrest off.

I also didn't have a tab on the right. So that corner lifted up pretty easily. It seems like that side was designed to be released when removing one of the screws. That gave enough play to pop the other side off.

It was more tricky replacing the palmrest. I had to get the front part lined up right and it really snapped in there (which is scary the first time since I didn't want to force anything and didn't know for sure I was doing it right).

Also the ALPS keyboard did not sit down flat as readily as the Chicony. The front edge wanted to pop up a little. Not sure why there was this difference. This made replacing the palmrest slightly more difficult.

But overall, I'd say it was fairly straightforward.

*

On a related note, people have been commenting about how fragile the palmrest seems over the PCMCIA/ExpressCard slot. Once you get the palmrest off, it is a remarkably flimsly piece of plastic.

For the most part the roll cage supports it, so this doesn't matter. But there's about a 1/8 of an inch cut out in the roll cage at the PCMCIA/ExpressCard slot, which allows the flex of the palmrest that people have been observing. Not sure why they didn't extend the roll cage to support the palmrest there. Or reinforce the palmrest itself at that spot. Does seem like a small fault in the design.

bmfyxpp · #12 Post by **bmfyxpp** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 1:27 am

Perhaps the right-side tab is on the 15" models and not on the 14.1" models? If memory serves, donking! has a 14.1" model, as do I. And I thought I had broken off a piece...

donking! · #13 Post by **donking!** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 1:39 am

That's right, I do have a 14.1" model.

deforest · #14 Post by **deforest** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:30 am

I have the 15" in t60p 200794U, and it doesn't have the tab on the right hand side.

darrenf · #15 Post by **darrenf** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 11:42 am

For the record, I had no trouble with the 14" palmrest. I didn't look to see if there was a tab on the right side. The 15" palmrest was a lot harder to hook along the front edge (where the 5 screws used to be in the T4x) but I had no such problem with the 14".

-darren

fullauto · #16 Post by **fullauto** » Sun Apr 02, 2006 2:02 pm

donking! wrote: For the most part the roll cage supports it, so this doesn't matter. But there's about a 1/8 of an inch cut out in the roll cage at the PCMCIA/ExpressCard slot, which allows the flex of the palmrest that people have been observing. Not sure why they didn't extend the roll cage to support the palmrest there. Or reinforce the palmrest itself at that spot. Does seem like a small fault in the design.

The plastic overhang (which is paper-thin) over the PCMCIA slots is way more than 1/8th inch on the 15" T60 models.

But geesus, didn't you think the internal build quality was over the top?

Impressive.

BTW, when I replaced the plamrest, two of the slots (punch-outs) in the palm rest that are located along the front of the laptop seem to be more open than before. I can't remember exactly so maybe that is the way it was.

I checked pictures around the net and it seems the T60 does indeed have two conspicuous openings in the palm res (to the left and right of the TrackPad buttons).

So donking, glad you switched?

Cassirer · #17 Post by **Cassirer** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 9:42 am

just in case anyone is interested or it is helpful ... here is a video of installing DIMM and removal and replacing the palmrest

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-61357

darrenf · #18 Post by **darrenf** » Fri Apr 21, 2006 11:24 am

fullauto wrote:The plastic overhang (which is paper-thin) over the PCMCIA slots is way more than 1/8th inch on the 15" T60 models.

This is a gripe of mine. I pick the laptop up by that corner about 30% of the time and if it wasn't for the PCMCIA/ExpressCard slot door it wouldn't have much strength. This has kept me from installing a PCMCIA card reader (which I kept installed all the time on my T42p) because it would keep the door open and take away the strength in that corner.

-darren

Replacing palmrest after installing RAM (14.1")

Replacing palmrest after installing RAM (14.1")

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