So I called Lenovo the other day and asked for a new track pad since mine was noisy as all heck. An entire new keyboard bezel made it to my door within a week. However, the part, dated April 2014, was still noisy.
Video of the original noise: here
RIDICULOUS.
So I saw 4 screws on the back, and proceeded to disconnect it from the bezel.
A video of the noise from the trackpad itself is here
MUCH QUIETER!
I concluded that the noise was coming from 2 sources:
1 - Lenovo messed up the palm rest design. The back of the trackpad sheet metal was hitting the magnesium palm rest, creating that clanking sound.
2 - The trackpad design itself was undamped, creating a secondary vibration whenever pressed.
FIX:
(Disclaimer: I take no responsibility if anyone follows in my foot steps. This was meant more to shame Lenovo into seeing what ONE engineer could do in ONE day, and still doing nothing despite the hundreds of complaints filed by loyal customers.)
1 - Add damping material between the back of trackpad and the palm rest. I had a hot glue gun handy, so I spread some rubbery glue on the backside as shown here. I imagine thin foam tape to also work. (note: Do not add too much material, as the pad should not rise above the bezel at any cost. Otherwise it might start damaing the LCD.)
2 - Add some damping material into the spring retainer clips. Myself, I dabbed some hot glue in there. Anyone with damping grease, that would work better. Location of the clips are here.
End result:
Video taken from same camera, same distance/settings as above here.
Much better! I enjoy using my laptop a lot more now.
Lenovo, you could have fixed this with 5 cents worth of tape and grease a year ago.
Shame on you. Stop ruining your brand with this nonsense.
PS
How about some drivers to make the virtual mouse buttons work properly in Linux? Those of us who "do" would love to scroll a webpage one day.
