ThinkPad X1 Carbon - Loose Clickpad?

Hi guys, just received my X1 Carbon today.

Does anyone else have an effect in which if you tap the clickpad it feels slightly loose?

It may just be the design, but I find it a bit odd. The clickpad doesn't feel firm to me.

Anyone else?

Normal or odd?

 

I was just about to post about this! I received my X1C today, and the track/click pad is very loose, and makes a noise with any kind of moderate tap. Very annoying!! If it is the design, it is a frightfully stupid one. One of the instantly noticeable flaws I came upon, and one high up on my growing list of system irks. It's as if the glass pad was not mounted properly. I have never seen a track/click pad designed this way. Weird.

 

Exactly what I am experiencing.

I have a friend at Lenovo keeping an eye on it, so I'll let you know if there are any updates as to if it's a manufacturing issue or design.

 

Not to drag you into a full in-depth review but, what are some of the other complaints that you have so far?

 

FIX FOR LOOSE CLICKPAD

The clickpad is loose due to a screw not being screwed in tightly enough inside the unit. Follow the steps below to fix your problem.

1) Reboot the laptop into SETUP to first disable the battery. (Don't want to get shocked working on it!)

2) Turn the laptop off and flip it over so you can see the bottom, now remove all seven screws.

3) Open the laptop lid up and remove the keyboard/clickpad... a little force, but not much is needed.

4) Once the keyboard/clickpad is detached from the unit make sure to unplug the ribbon cable connecting it to the motherboard.

5) On the underside of the clickpad there should be 4 or 6 screws securing it, make sure they are all tight than test the clickpad out again.

6) Reasemble the computer by plugging back in the ribbon cable, clicking in the keyboard, and replacing the screws.

7) Boot the laptop up using an AC Adapter into SETUP to reenable the battery.

Done!

*Note I am not responsible for any damage or loss of warranty you may cause to your machine.*

 

Awesome! You've tried this and it works? Hopefully it works for everyone else; it seems like it will be a pretty widespread issue.

 

Yep! Repaired mine last night. It really made a world of difference.

 

So we are supposed to open up the "flagship" machines we have been waiting a month on to repair them? No thanks. If mine comes in defective(which that clearly is) it will be going back.

 

Thanks for the writeup. After completing it, are there signs that you may have voided the warranty or not?

 

I probably wouldn't return it... the fix is simple and let me tell you, this machine is AMAZING! Most likely a factory worker rushing on the production line. Don't stop it from you having an amazing machine like this.

As for the warranty... I will check with Lenovo.

 

I just ensured with a Lenovo tech rep that this should not void the warranty by doing it yourself. But I might just take it in to get it repaired from a local service provider under warranty.

Does anyone have any experience doing this with their Lenovos in the past? Any feedback would be great.

 

Received my X1C yesterday and I have the same loose feeling on the trackpad. It works fine but it seems to rattle just a little when you touch it or click with it.

Not sure what my plan will be (live with it, get it repaired at some point, DIY). We'll see.

 

I feel the material under the touchpad is so thin and the click is coming from this area. Because when i carry it in the middle by the edge and release then i hear the click. I hope it is just couple screws but not a design flaw...

 

Sheeeehhh! I bit the bullet and fix various "fit and finish" problems on T4XX and T/W5XX, but seeing DIY advice to fix a premium notebook makes me fuming angry. (Of course, not at the advice, but the freaking expensive object.)

And "loose clickpad" is not the only sign of low quality.

No way. I am not so desperate.

 

So I got my X1C today and I am experiencing some "looseness" but I'm not sure it's unintentional. Are you guys referring to the slight amount of give that the trackpad has when its pressed on, before it engages the actual click? That part seems okay to me but what is driving me crazy is the "tap" noise that this makes when you tap on the trackpad. It reverberates through the entire chassis and is pretty loud and obnoxious.

Anyway, I opened up the machine to see if there were any screws to be tightened but everything is tight and looks great in there, so I'm pretty sure it's by design. I just wish the clicking sound was more dampened.

 

Since the X1c are in high demand I guess the people at factory have to rush to keep on contingency times.

My thinkpad edge s430 has some minor build quality issues, such as a mark on the screen (came off when I kept wiping it), hairline scratches/cracks in the track pad and a warped display bezel. Now these issues aren't great considering it spent a month in the factory (they apparently was missing a part) but it's not the flagship so it didn't matter so much.

I'd like to send it back for it to get fixed but knowing how PC companies handles things it would be "repaired" by some monkey and the laptop would actually come back worse.

But since it appears that the trackpads are similar in both the S430 and X1c (looks like the same size) and well my trackpad isn't lose, in fact it's a little stiff.

 

I got my X1c today and my trackpad is severely loose on the bottom right corner. It wasn't too bad until about the 5th click and now it appears to be coming apart. I'll take a video and I am going to perform the repair.

Pre-repair:

Lenovo X1 Carbon Loose Trackpad - YouTube

 

That looks like horrible quality! Please post back after you perform the fix, I hope it helps.

 

Wow, it looks like it's protruding quite a lot on the right side... I would definitely open it up and see if the screws are holding it down tightly.

 

received mine today.No loose trackpad. Ordered 8/16 i5/8gb/128 .

mine did not come with an internet dongle. -_-

 

Took the laptop apart, this is no case of poor assembly. This is a terrible design. There is a single button, suspended under the lower middle portion of the trackpad by a flimsy piece of sheet metal. My sheet metal isn't all that straight and the gab between the trackpad and the sheet metal is too large, allowing for the slop. I tried putting one of those small keychanged size reward card things under need and it improved it considerably but then keyboard frame and lower frame no longer sat flush against each other at the trackpad. Very dissapointed. I'd like to see a video of someone without this problem...

 

Oh no...This reminds me of when Blackberry release the "Storm"...People had tons of issues with the "click screen"....They took it apart and put pieces of paper under it to give it a more solid feel....I hope this isn't the case with this laptop.

 

LOL! I was one of those people. I loved my Storm but wow, that was a poor design decision. Fortunately, the Storm 2 fixed this with having 4 buttons all around instead of one center button.

I haven't noticed nearly as bad of an issue with the X1 Carbon trackpad except that it has a slight wobble when touching it. But it's in for repairs right now for that very same thing. I hope they can fix it.

 

That's what made me think of it...

 

I haven't disassembled an X1C to see what you're referring to (and none of the units I've played with have had any problem so far as I can tell), but this also reminds me a lot of the 2006-2008 MacBook design issue wherein the trackpad button wasn't supported enough to overcome manufacturing tolerances -- on some units (all three of mine), there was enough give in the support that you could press down what felt like all the way without actually triggering the button. Easy enough to fix (shimming it with a business card), but annoying all the same.

 

Lenovo is looking into this issue: Re: ThinkPad X1 Carbon - Loose Clickpad Fix - Lenovo Community Maybe X1 Carbon owners with this problem should post their experience there.

 

My X1c was sent it for trackpad repairs, I will report what the repaired unit looks like.

 

I sent mine in for the same repairs. I got the matte finish trackpad, and the ends were not aligned properly. It was loose and causing double click events.

 

i just received mine minutes ago.

entire front edge of trackpad is loose. it is a matte finish and yet totally smooth trackpad though -- the same as the one i had played with at J&R here in manhattan.

may i ask the good folks here what the correct number to call at Lenovo to send it in please? i'd rather send it in (even though i have on site service) since it is more likely they have a clean working area with all the right tools for Lenovo, than a tech coming here, after fighting the subway!

also: what did you tell the person on the phone after you called in? in my case, i need the trackpad to not wobble in the front, but the surface of my trackpad is fine.

so: kindly share the correct number to call please, as well as what to tell them.

Thx in advance.

 

My trackpad is not loose at all. It works great. However, after clicking, during the rebound, there is a faint metalic buzz. I'm not thrilled with that. I don't think this is the same problem, right?

 

I am on the fence about doing this fix or sending it in as I can't really go without my laptop right now.

If someone tries this, could you make a video or take pictures for this thread? That may make me a little more (or less) comfortable with the fix.

:thumbsup:

 

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/x1carbon_hmm_0b48811.pdf

Lenovo Partner Portal | Lenovo Service Training

 

Thanks! I'll give this a thorough read-through when I get home from work!

 

you think they would test the machine before shipping..guess not

 

I would not use this advice. Opening the X1 Carbon and trying to service it yourself could introduce additional issues. Lenovo could void your warranty. I would recommend having your machine serviced at an authorized warranty service center.

 

Not sure I would characterize it as advice. I simply answered the request for a video. It's up to the user whether to use that or not.

 

It seems odd that an experienced mod across three or four Lenovo forum sites wouldn't add the context or warning and fully inform the customer, BEFORE they do something like crack the case and void a warranty.

By providing the link it seemed you were implicitly approving of the activity, so I though it was fair to warn the customer of the potential ramifications.

 

I've seen a number of people have reported Lenovo told them doing this repair yourself would not void the warranty.

 

I was thinking worse case scenario. What if you strip a screw head? What if you get in there and pinch a ribbon cable or something?

I'm not sure how Lenovo handles the peripheral issues that could come up. I advise avoiding them if possible.

The only reason this is coming up is because of the extreme lead times on these machines. If the lead time was a few days or you had a store down the street, you would not be resorting to cracking the case open and fixing it yourself. Especially for a manufacturing line quality control issue.

Oh well, another horse beat to death.

 

Yes, certainly we'd have none of these talks if lead times weren't so horrendous.

 

You are absolutely correct. Took mine apart. Bending the little metal bar slightly fixes the problem for now, but what a shockingly bad design. Also amazed at how delicate the whole thing is. Just a circuit board inbetween 2 pieces of plastic, nothing more.

 

I took mine apart two weeks ago. It's fairly easy, just 6 screws. Also bent the metal bar like paul-home to make it fit right. It has been flawless since. But Lenovo quality control really needs to step up. Can you imagine having to do this with a MacBook Air? Unbelievable.

Another problem I have is the keyboard not fitting exactly right. Some keys are scraping the bezel. There's no way to adjust this. I had to sand down the space bar to keep it from catching on the bezel! The keyboard itself is quite good, but this is such a downer.

I waited for a long time for Lenovo to make a worthy MBA competitor. If anybody could, it would be them. After 20 years of being a loyal Thinkpad fan it pains me to say this but I think Apple has won.

 

Guess I'm joining this group with my X1 Carbon Touch, manufactured March 2013.
Seems they haven't fixed the problem in production?
Is it still a common issue since this thread stopped at Oct ,2012?

Slightly tapping on the clickpad with hearing load tap sound and the pad bounces up and down. My X220T definitely doesn't do it.
In fact, I think the whole bottom edge the laptop isn't tightly screwed enough which is causing the problem.
I'm hesitating if I should fix it myself or send it back to retailer or Lenovo's warranty?