Need help with T410s trackpad

This trackpad is driving me crazy. I just got my T410s. First thinkpad for me. Love the keyboard of course. Will probably be able to live with the average (at best) screen.

But the trackpad:

1. first of all the buttons don't work. I'm sure there's something obvious I haven't enabled. Honestly this one doesn't bother me that bad cause I can just tap.

2. The scrolling as it's currently set up is TERRIBLE. Both one finger and two finger scrolling are super jumpy if and when it engages which is rarely does. Usually I'll try to one or two finger scroll and it will do nothing (well in the case of one finger scrolling it will just move the pointer). And when it does realize that I'm trying to scroll it's extremely jumpy and unsmooth, sometimes even jumping in the wrong direction.

I don't think I can deal with this and am considering eating the restocking fee from the reseller I bought it from.

ebg

 

If you have the preload software from Lenovo, go to Control Panel\Mouse and there you can find settings. Try to play with them. Especially the ones in the last menu UltraNav... I find the settings really exhausting.

 

I already did that, with the maze practice and all that stuff. Didn't help.

ebg

 

Hit Fn+F8, are both the touchpad and trackpoint enabled?
Now that you've got the Fn+F8 window open, click manage settings.
Go to Buttons, and make sure enable buttons is checked.
Go to your touchpad settings (under the Ultranav tab) and try adjusting the speed of scrolling.

Also, what software are you scrolling in that it's jumpy? Sometimes it can be a software issue.

Also, what don't you like about your screen? I find most screens are vastly improved by monitor calibrating (assuming you're running Vista or Win7)

 

I have already decreased scroll speed to 1 - and yes, that helped alot. But it's still very erratic and extremely annoying. And terrible. Just much less terrible if that makes sense.

Software - Google Chrome. When I saw your post, I tried scrolling in IE8 - same behavior.

Screen - I already made these changes ( forum.thinkpads.com • View topic - T410 display enhancement) without much improvement. Screen has the exact problems I feared (but was in denial) from reading some posts on various thinkpad boards: here at NBR, lenovo forums, and thinkpads. Bad contrast, blueish hue.

As far as the trackpad goes, maybe I'm spoiled by a macbook pro which I also own, which is extremely sensitive - you can go veeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry slow and the two-finger scroll responds perfectly - not one line at a time - but a perfect linear correlation to what you are doing with your fingers. But even considering that comparison, the T410s, or mine anyway, doesn't go one line at a time. It does whatever completely unpredictable thing it wants to each time.

And the screen - I'm comparing to my same macbook, which I see just isn't fair (or anywhere close) side-by-side.

But before you say - hey guy, just use the macbook you seem to love so much! I don't love it. I just want a comparable windows machine. I don't care for OSX that much. And I have a windows home server which you need a windows machine to run properly. And I want to use quicken for pc cause quicken for mac is a joke. And I just like windows better cause I've been using it for years and am used to it.

Oh well. I'll probably eat the restock fee and get a viao z - as long as I can find out what people plan to do when their warranties wear out and the proprietary SSD fails in those machines. My wild goose chase for the holy grail of business machine build quality (and keyboard) for everyday consumer use comes to an end. (I've already been through an X201t too, if you can believe that).

I wanted to believe.

ebg

 

Yeah, when I say calibrate, I mean a real calibration using a piece of hardware. Know any photographers? IMHO, any calibration that isn't done with hardware is a waste of time. Bluish hue is part of an LED backlight. It can almost entirely be alleviated by a hardware calibration device like an Eye One Display 2, but to completely get rid of it you need something like a ColorMunki (uses a different technology, but I'll say for my money the i1 D2 makes enough of an improvement that I'm not shelling out for a ColorMunki). If you happen to live in the Tidewater area of VA, you can try mine. Don't believe in the difference? Look at this thread - http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=88247 - look at what the guy said in the first post, then look at what he said in his post at 1:21am after I sent him a profile I made on my x201 (which isn't going to be as good as a profile made on his computer, because every individual monitor is slightly different, even the same monitor changes over time).

Did you get the mouse buttons working?

On the scrolling, my Thinkpads are smooth in IE but choppy in Chrome. So, let's start with what works for me and ignore Chrome for now (Chrome stinks at full screen 1080p flash anyways). Open IE, go to Tools, Internet Options.
Go to the advanced tab
Go down to "enable smooth scrolling" and make sure that is checked. It's the last option in the "Browsing" category.
FWIW, my scroll speed is on 4.

I'll tell you what I like to do for scrolling though is use the trackpoint with my left hand (I'm right handed) - just hold down the middle button and use that little red dot in the middle of your keyboard to do your scrolling, fingers never have to leave the typing area.

 

Thanks for the reply! Very interesting even if I'm perhaps too far gone.

I didn't know there was such a thing as hardware calibration, so no I hadn't thought of that. I am admittedly hesitant to spend more $ on more hardware at the moment though. Like I said I'm probably going to eat a hefty restock fee.

I check the IE setting and it was already on smooth scroll.

I don't know. I read the very interesting post you pointed me to and maybe the "artificially boosted screens" you mention are exactly what I want. If that's what my macbook is, then that's what I want, just on a PC.

And I wanted to ask - the last guy on that thread mentioned that his mac leads to less eye strain. I've noticed that too - that my new T410s makes my eyes tired and gives me a slight headache (I never get headaches). You seem to be somewhat of an imaging expert...what causes eye strain and did your hardware calibrations correct any eye strain you may or may not have noticed on your pre-calibration x201?

ebg

 

Eyestrain is such a personal thing. I never get it, but I know people who do. A big thing that causes eye strain is an out of spec perscription (especially regarding astigmatism), but given that you say its on one computer and not the other I was imagine it's something along the line sof contrast and sharpness of the text. Did you try doing the Windows 7 ClearType calibration thing? Once upon a time there was flicker that you couldn't perceive but would cause eyestrain, but that doesn't really exist any more. Anecdotally, people who wear eyeglasse when they use the computer seem to get it more.

I'm having a hard time figuring out why with the same settings, in the same software, your scrolling isn't smooth. There's only one last thing I can think of - have you installed all the windows and lenovo updates?

BTW, a hardware calibrator is something you should buy if you plan on doing any serious photography on any computer, good screen or not. And on top of that you should have a printer profile made too (or get a profile from whatever professional printer you use).