T410 keyboard and trackpoint problems!

Sup folks!

Once again I have to ask your for your opinions regarding issues Ive faced with my laptop.
As some of you might remember I had problems with R400 that I bought in sep/oct 2010 and after having some build quality problems with it Lenovo agreed to replace it.

It was replaced with T410, which I like alot, despite its loud fan and somewhat disappointing battery life and lack of lid roll cage it has potential in it (and despite some minor palmrest flex all over the front of the laptop too)
After all, I got it for "free" as replacement, better specced, faster, lighter and slimmer, cant complaint much about its strong sides !

However, I started to experience annoying bug's with it - first thing I noticed was that middle trackpoint button was stuck at times and making clacky noise at those times, stuck not like not moving and inoperable but more like making clacking noise like it catches something, tho there is nothing to catch, so Id blame faulty middle button mechanism. That I can live with, not a problem, tho annoying to see it on brand new machine. Its there from the day one.

Second thing was jumpy cursos with its own mind - it can jump while typing into different row, like when you accidentally hit trackpoint cap. And Im sure its not my palms hitting trackpad - it happens even when hands are off the keyboard and laptop itself.
Third was - whenever I hit v/b/n letters beneath it it windows will register a click, like if I have pressed trackpoint itself! Obviously not a windows or driver issue! It has happened too often already, at first I though that Ive hit trackpoint accidentally, but no, its those keys that when hit harder that register the click. Not hammer hard, mind you!

Also theres the known occasional unresponsive trackpad for second or two after pressing some keys on keyboard, annoying driver issue I suppose.

Recently I have started to experience trackpoints hypersensitivity - it will press-to-select with the lightest touch and no software tweaks would help it.

Needless to say that trackpoint itself is impossible to remove, unlike on my previous R400 where it literally fell off when I turned laptop upside down, on my T410 I cant remove the cap, if tried one could ripp the keyboard apart! So naturally I cant replace original trackpoint cap with more precise cat tongue!

At first, I googled, found info about jumpy cursors/stuck trackpads issues and did everything - reinstalled Ultranav, un-installed Ultranav and replaced it with Synaptics original drivers, which lacked some of Ultranav features but worked fine for some time with its own quirks and bugs.
At the end I removed all mouse drivers but generic Win7 ones and it worked semi-fine since there was no Trackpoint's press-to-select feature available anymore and only basic features of standart trackpad remained.
I want my Ultranav back!
I even formated the entire HDD to do clean Win7 install and to no avail - the problems came back just like before with jumpy cursor/self activating clicks and vbn keys serving left-click functions !

So, what I wanted to ask - how easy is Lenovo with replacing keyboards+giving free factory restore DVD's to someone experiencing such problems? I didnt make my own Lenovo OS restore disks naively thinking that clean install will fix all problems, it didnt.

What Im also concerned about is how should I handle this? Ive had problems with local IBM service before with them avoiding to admit that theres somethings wrong with laptop and refusing to fix it. I want to be safe that when I go to service center (if they refuse to send me parts by mail/courrier) that keyboard and OS DVD will be waiting for me there.
I guess Ill need to give them a call and see if they will believe my words or will insist on carrying laptop in and seeing themselves and only then ordering parts. That would suck because it takes 1-2 days for parts to arrive to service center!


Resume - faulty keyboard, horrible trackpad and trackpoint, subpar ultranav drivers and jumpy as hell cursor - had to edit text while I was writing this due to cursor jumping around and selecting text on its own!

Thank you for reading this !

 

@Veer...you seem to be having real problems with every machine you lay your hands on! Maybe you need to consider taking a break from ThinkPads... What you reported about the T410 problems is a bit startling. Did you get the relevant drivers through System Update?

I don't think Lenovo causes too much problems anywhere if you request for a replacement keyboard - though you may need to book a service call for your request to be honored. I have no idea about the free factory restore DVDs. I would always either clean install the OS or use an image I have saved from when I was happy with the way the machine operated.

Btw, did your T410 come with whatever Lenovo means by "Enhanced Experience" (one presumes of the OS)?

 

*Just experienced stuck and self-selecting touchpad and cursor again*

Yeah, mine came with EnhExp, however, I found that either I got laptop that only bears the sticker and not the factory tweaks itself or the EE is utter marketing nonsense, because my boot times are equally slow at 55 second both when it was Lenovo OS and now when I have clean Win7 install. Shutdown times are equally slow as well, between 15-20 seconds, dont remember exactly.

I did everything by the book - system update took care of all my updates. Still it didnt help.
R400 when I had ran less or more decent with factory XP installed, not so much with self installed Win7, seemed like Lenovo's ThinkVantage were to blame on that one.

Needless to say that two laptops Ive had a chance to install Win7 and all drivers recently were Edge 15 and B560 and both simply worked with no problems, except for keyboard structure flex/rattle on Edge 15 everything on those 1/2 price budget laptops worked flawlessly during my time with them !
Talking about paying premium and getting more for the money !
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PS. Tired of Windows 7 buggs that Ive had on both TP's, just want that keyboard to be fixed and put Linux and have dual boot. Seriously, Windows 7 seems so sluggish despite having 3Gb of RAM, 7200rpm HDD and 2.6Ghz i5 CPU! Not what I expected from powerful computer ! Tried PuppyLinux and that RAM OS flies!
I just want it to work and have only things I require and at the same time remain fully functional and not limited and bloated like Windows 7 is! You cant remove everything/disable things without fearing about something freezing in future or failing to work!

 

As long you're in warranty then Lenovo should be able to give you a replacement keyboard if you're experiencing problems with either keyboard or trackpoint. Keyboard replacement is normally a 5 minute job, as long you follow the T410 Hardware Maintenance Manual then it shouldn't really be too difficult to do.

Factory Restore DVD's are hit or miss, Lenovo may charge you for this since ideally you should perform this before you do anything with the system - unless you're either very confident on what you're doing or have a replacement drive leaving the original intact.

It's quite strange you're having problems with Windows 7 on your T410, my ThinkPad R61e with a Core 2 Duo T8100, 7200RPM HDD and 4GB DDR2 RAM boots up around 30 seconds with a clean install and it doesn't feel any way sluggish. My T61 gets in around 17 seconds but it has a SSD so that doesn't count!

With a clean install you can be selective on what utilities you want on the system, don't assume you need everything from System Update. I'm only running Power Manager on my systems, I don't run the others such as Access Connections, Toolbox etc. On average I have around 41 processes on my ThinkPad which is approximately half that on a Lenovo factory image, my Uncle's X201T with "Enhanced Experience" had around 95 processes in the background which was monstrous!

 

Yeah...very strange that you are having problems with Win 7. I have clean installed the OS on my machine a couple of times now and each time things have been fine. Btw, Win 7 Pro on my machine flies! I think there may be a problem with your keyboard - but on the other hand, you say you've had problems with Win 7 on the T410 earlier too, which is what surprises me.

Edit: About boot and shut down times - I think - based on my personal experience - that for HDDs boot time and shutdown time ranges between 30-50 seconds as Hearst555 points out in his post. Of course, much depends on the kind of stuff you put on your machine. For faster boot and shutdown times perhaps SSD is the way to go for you.

 

Thats why I wiped the HDD clean and didnt even bother to leave Lenovo recovery partition intact, I wanted Win7 to be clean from the start with no Lenovo software bundled to it, yet still it boots at the same 55 or more seconds!
Meh, could it be the problems with 64bit Win7 not liking two different RAM modules, because in mine it is 1Gb 1333mhz module and the other is 2Gb 1067Mhz module, which is kind of odd!

 

Just called them, IBM said that I will have to wait for parts to arrive if I go myself and leave laptop at their repair center.
So I was advised to email them about the problem and will be waiting when they order parts and call me to go to their service. I also mentioned about OS installation, hopefully they will agree to install factory OS for free when I go to replace keyboard.

 

Got a call from IBM today informing me that it does sound like keyboard problem and that they will order one ASAP. I will go to IBM service center and get it replace this friday
They also ordered Win7 DVD's for me, they didnt have 64bit version in stock so I will get mine delivered to me within week or two. For free, thats good !
Ok, will report back this friday regarding keyboard status!
Thanks folks!

 

Little update:
Picked up the keyboard today and replaced it myself.
So far working good, hope it will stay that way when I restore OS with Lenovo DVD when it arrives.
Thanks folks!