My X301 is now Multitouch!

Today, my new X301 palm rest arrived, after a 2 week wait on a special order from IBM. The parts were shipped directly from the US and cost me $77. It was definitely a worthy upgrade as I am finally able to replace the poor Alps touchpad on my X301 with the new Synaptics multitouch touchpad. My tracking is now sensitive and precise, unlike the sluggish Alps touchpad. I strongly suggest this upgrade for those who use touchpads on their X300/X301. Two finger scrolling FTW!

 

Interesting.

:yes:

 

When the X300/X301 was launched last year, the most disappointing aspect is the inclusion of an Alps touchpad on a premium device. Alps touchpads are still very poor in comparison to Synaptics, hence I was much relieved when I discovered that Lenovo began offering multitouch option to the X301 recently, thus providing this upgrade opportunity.

 

I just realized that my X301 that I just ordered came with the multi-touch touch-pad ! Cool, if this thread never came up, I probably wouldn't have even realized it has it. Does the Multi-Touch pad feel different then the regualr Alps pad, or is it the same, and just more precise ??

 

Humm, my Dell has an Alps touchpad.....

 

Part number ?
Link ?

cheers

 

Nice… now does the trackpad have warranty since it's a genuine part?

 

Part number required is 45N5570.

 

Hi Chrixx,

Can we ask which reseller you purchased from? The ones I found so far say they carry the 45N5570 but then the fine print says "guaranteed compatible with 45N5570".

Thanks,

 

Very interesting, thanks for sharing! My sisters Macbook has a Multitouch touchpad as well, and I really like scrolling on it. It feels very natural

I wouldn't mind purchasing a new palmrest to get this feature. From IBM parts in Denmark, the price is DKK 339.20. I'm interested in hearing where you purchased yours from.

I see in the X301 hardware maintenance manual that there are two palm rests, the 44C4872 and the 45N5570. Is it so that the first one is the Alps and the second is the Synaptics?

 

Crud....Y'all are talking about the trackpad. I thought someone had found an aftermarket mod.

 

Is 2 finger scrolling the only multi touch support? Or can it recognise more?

 

1. The touchpad feels the same as the original Alps version.
2. The touchpad supports all multitouch gestures supported by the Synaptics driver.
3. 44C4872 is Alps non-multitouch, 45N5570 is Synaptics.
4. I ordered mine off IBM parts in Australia. They charge $15 for freight per order, but it was alright for me as I had several parts on order.

 

Nice! I wish they made a t400 palm rest that didn't have the touchpad.

 

I would like to add that I too anecdotally feel like Alps = bad touchpads. I had a Dell E6500 that had the absolute worst touchpad ever, and it was an alps. I would go synaptics all the way and from here on out, I will research what brand of touchpad a laptop has before buying it.

 

chrixx - great info.   thanks for posting!

one thing to note for anyone swapping palmrests on the X300/X301, one of the 11 screws are hidden underneath the plastic sheet in the battery tray.   please be sure to remove this screw before attempting to remove your palmrest, otherwise you'll break something in the process.   fyi.

 

Found a movie describing how to replace the palmrest:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-72396.html

 

I have x301 with Fru No# 44C4872 which is Alps non-multitouch as per the above quote. Is it possible to make it mutitouch with the help of latest Alps drivers? If synaptics touchpad is multitouch then why doesn't Lenovo mention it anywhere on the website? Does x301 from lenovo still come with both the touchpads and what you get is purely luck of the draw and you cannot order what you want? Chrixx, I haven't tried the synaptics touchpad. As you have a first hand experience on using both the touchpads Is there a major difference between the two or Is it cosmetic? Would you suggest going for the synaptics touchpad ? Thanks

 

The Synaptics touchpad is specifically listed as a multitouch option by Lenovo, so it is not a part you get by random. It has to be an option when you purchase it. The Synaptics touchpad is more responsive and accurate. It also supports native multitouch gestures, which the Alps doesn't.

 

I am sorry chrixx but on the Lenovo US website if you configure it online it is clearly mentioned
UltraNav (TrackPoint and Multi Touch TouchPad) with Fingerprint Reader . How can one know if you are buying x301 through retailers or ebay etc. whether x301 comes with multitouch or not? Do you know from when Lenovo has been incorporating multitouch trackpad on x301 by default? How much would it cost in US dollars for a replacement? I could not find the part on the lenovo online store. Thanks

 

Which driver did you use in windows 7 its going crazy keep loosing hte trakpoin and touch pad corntols...
iT KEEPS picking up the pad as an alps pad and it definatley ain that...

Any pointers...

 

I used the standard Synaptics UltraNav drivers from Windows 7. You can also try downloading those from Lenovo.

 

when you said multi-touch, I thought you meant the tablet style two finger multi-touch. ...

false advertising i'd say.

 

it's two- and three-finger multi-touch just like a tablet.

 

however that's finger multi-touch on a touchpad not on the actual screen like the tablet.

 

it's still called multi-touch.

no one claimed it was on the screen.   that was your mistake.

 

multitouch can refer to the LCD or the Touchpad....

 

Ok, i see. My bad.

 

@ chriss

When i use the lenovo driver it picks it up as alps touchpad and locks the system up.

When using the synaptics driver you loose use of the middle tab on the keyboard for scrolling this is correct yes ?

 

reinstalling the UltraNav driver should be all that's needed.   i did that on two X301s recently when switching from Alps to Synaptics during testing and it worked fine.

 

I'm fitting the palm rest to a x300 I don't see why that should pose any problems. ?
also using windows 7 64bit, the driver i'm using is the 6egy02ww.exe

 

zomi - the only potential issue is whether or not the BIOS will allow the authentec fingerprint reader to control power-on passwords.   if you use the FPR for power-on, please report your findings.

 

Have played with it some more,
If i download the ultranav driver and install, it installs it as an alps unit and I loose use of the pointer etc...
I can install the synaptic drivers but then i loose use on the middle button for scrolling...
Really need use of the middle button for scrolling with the nipple as thats what I mainly use for browsing....
If I manually point to the lenovo driver I can install as a lenovo point device and i have use of the middle button etc... but I loose the multi touch functionality...

And ideas...

 

Just an update even if i restore an x300 using x301 restore dvds' the machine still picks up the synaptics pad as an alps one and greys out its functions .
Any ideas I can;t explain it, really need the lenovo drivers to work as I can use the middle button on the keypad for the trackpoint.

 

it's possible that the synaptics won't work on the X300 using lenovo's drivers.

 

Yes I have come to that conclusion too.. after messing with it so much.

Any odeas how i modify the synaptics driver to enbable middle button scrolling, more of a trackpoint user so really need that.
That with the multitouch would be nice.

 

I recently purchased an X301 with a palm rest P/N 42X5083. Neither the Lenovo site nor Google seems to have any information as to whether this one is multitouch or not?

(I don't actually have s/w access to the system yet... it arrived with a blank HDD and I'm waiting for an OS license to arrive in the mail!)

Is there some other way to tell what I've got?

 

i thought you meant multi touch screen..haha

 

Anyway, for what it's worth, its turns out to be an ALPS. Now to see if I can find the better one on the cheap!

 

why bother, the multitouch touchpad feature on the X301, T400s is really bad... i don't even use it.

 

did you know

synaptics touchpads are PS/2. So technically you could get any touchpad working on any notebook.

I found the datasheets for this but lost them again... they are on the website somewhere.