Swapping the touchpad of the Thinkpad T400
I like Thinkpads very much. What’s not to like? Low cost, high quality, durable, serviceable, hackable, and a design that has stood the test of time.
There are many models to choose from and they each have their own fans. I’ve found my sweet spot into the middle aged models. My current collection include a T60, T61, T400, and a X220.
The X220 is the fastest and smallest of the bunch and is the one I toss in my messenger bag to work on a coffee shop or a library. After the X220 the next one in speed is the T400. It is the one I’m currently using the most when at home.
The problem
One thing I don’t like about the T400 is the touchpad. I don’t seem to be alone on that.
On the T400, Lenovo decided to use a touchpad that only supports edge scrolling. After using modern touchpads, I’ve come to find touchpad gestures more natural and faster for my workflow.
Some users have managed to reconfigured their touchpad to disable the edge scrolling, and enable two finger scroll. I haven't. No solution has worked for me.
Laptop models don’t always have the same hardware. As production goes along, the prices and availability of the parts change. This is why Thinkpads also include a machine type identifier. This is a sub-model number to let you know the specific hardware configuration of the machine.
In my case even though my touchpad seems to be a Synaptics one, it seems to be a specific reversion that just doesn’t support gestures.
Solution
Here, one the advantages of the Thinkpads came to my aid. Many of the parts are interchangeable between different models.
I found that the touchpad on the T61 uses the same connector as the touchpad on the T400. However the cutouts on the palmrest are different as the touchpad are of different sizes. Swapping just the touchpad would not be possible without doing some fabrication.
I opted instead to switch the entire palmrest as they are both a nearly the same.
As you can see the only incompatibility is the height of one standoff. This palmrest came from a previous T61 that was scrapped for parts so making permanent modifications to it was not a worry.
The first thing is to remove the screw socket. If the standoff cracks bit is no problem as we are going to cut the excess anyway.
Next measure the height of the original standoff and cut the one on the T61 to the same length. I used a blade to get the cleanest cut possible.
Once the cut is made, insert the screw socket. This time be careful and take your time. A crack in the stand off will be hard to repair. It will not render the palmrest unusable, but you will end up with a bump in the palmrest that bounces when you put pressure when typing.
That’s it. Just reassemble and power the machine. The operating system will detect the new touchpad and display the options it supports. In my case I’m using Lubuntu which has built in generic support for the Synaptics touchpad. To get the most of your Synaptics touchpad, it is recommended to install the dedicated Xserver Synaptics driver. For Lubuntu this driver is located into the package xserver-xorg-drivers-synaptics.
Conclusion
The T61 touchpad is smaller, the badge doesn’t match the one on the LCD lid, and the palmrest is a little banged up. But that doesn’t matter, I’m a happy camper. A spare palmrest swap gave me the touchpad experience I needed to get the most out of this incredible hardware with minimal modifications. That is something you can’t say often with today’s laptops.
