(I recommend using a small plastic-knife for this). You just need to rotate the keyboard towards yourself, then disconnect the cables by lifting up the small black connectors. Be careful, as there are two cables connected. Here you see two of them:Īfter unwinding all the screws, you can remove your keyboard. The part of your keyboard below the keys can be moved up, then you find different screws to unwind, six in total. You can download it for the W540/T540 here: The “hardware maintenance manual” shows you how to do this.

1/4 Remove the Keyboard, the Keyboard bezel and add the new Touchpadįirst you need to remove the keyboard and the keyboard bezel. Let me explain the steps to put it into a W540. It took around two weeks and today I got it. I ordered the one in the picture below from here: I decided to order that one and to try it in my W540. Some weeks ago on Ebay and on other sides the new W541-Trackpad appeared, for around 70$. The Trackpad is just crap if you use it with the Trackpoint. But with the W540 it’s impossible without a mouse. And before the W540 I never used a mouse. So I was deeply disappointed with Lenovo. Not even a “We don’t know” or “Sorry, we can’t answer this yet”. But I never got a response: Twitter Lenovo forums (see this thread: ) etc. So I contacted Lenovo if they support that part for the older machines. But for sure I don’t want to buy a new machine just to get the buttons back. And the model looks completely the same as the W540. In the newer W541-model, Lenovo brought the hardware-buttons back.

But still all the other problems are here, that big single button is so annoying and – not mentioned yet – it’s also very noisy. I solved that last issue by disabling the Touchpad in the Bios. When I want to select items in my presentation, those items are suddenly moved by accident as the “big button” thinks I’m using the Touchpad, but I’m using the Trackpoint. I often create Powerpoint-Presentations for my talks in the train as I travel quite a lot. Also you need to move your thumb very far to the left/right to do a left/right-click. This happens because you only have that single big Button. 50% of your left-clicks are a middle-click by accident. I own a W540 and as a hardcore-Trackpoint-user it’s really a pain not to have the hardware-buttons. Lenovo has replaced the hardware-buttons for the Trackpoint with a big Touchpad.

Lenovo thinkpad red button replacement