T40: Touchpad-less palm rest

[oaaltone]

I don't use my touchpad, and I saw a picture in a Japanese review of the T40 without the touchpad. Did a little searching and discovered that for $9.10 (FRU # 91P8399), I could get the palm rest without the touchpad! Now it looks like the X31. Here are some pictures: before and after.

Thought I'd pass it on, someone might be interested.

 

[dnuggett]

Not having the touchpad will hurt your resale value in the future. I personally would get it with the touchpad and just disable it if necessary.

 

[oaaltone]

Aha... but I still have the touchpad palm-rest It takes about 5 minutes to swap. Additionally, I use Linux on it and have yet to figure out how to disable the touchpad. Every time my palm rests on it, the cursor moves slightly. Kind of annoying...

 

[Pandaren]

Sweet find!

I don't mind the touchpad, but there have been a few times when I accidently pressed on it, causing my cursor to skip far away from where I wanted it. I know there are people who could definitely use this replacement palmrest.

 

[dnuggett]

Aha... but I still have the touchpad palm-rest

Very nice.... wasn't thinking about that.

 

[mocca]

Yes, it take about 5 min to replace the palmrest. However, I like my T40p with touchpad better (to each his/her own I guess). It look way cooler even though I don't really use touchpad that often.

Mocca

 

[sciencewhiz]

very nice. I like my A21m without a touchpad, and that was one of the drawbacks when I ordered my T40. Thanks!

 

[sciencewhiz]

I finally found this part on this page: http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=psg1MIGR-46474

It's listed as a non customer replaceable part. Does that mean that I have to call them to order it? How did you get a hold of it?

BTW, olliebg, you can disable the touchpad in the bios, which is what I did.

 

[oaaltone]

I'm aware of the touchpad disable in BIOS, and I'd in fact done that as well. For such an inexpensive part, it's worth the clearer look IMO.

You can order the part online right here. I'm not sure why it's listed as not "customer replaceable," as many of the "customer replaceable" parts (ie: keyboard, miniPCI, etc.) require the removal of the palm rest.

 

[sciencewhiz]

Thanks

 

[sciencewhiz]

Well, I got my new palm rest. But, it took me an hour to replace (becasue I didn't have a screw driver small enough)

Looks a lot nicer, now