Although - or maybe because - I diligently clean my HP nx8220 laptop on a regular basis (sometimes even with Isopropyl acohol), the rubber on my laptop’s touchpad today went into early retirement.
Nothing to worry about, but then… you know there are some things in life that have a 1a priority - and my machine here apparently has that status.
A quick search on eBay revealed no luck in finding the right spare part - and it’s a pity because I recently had another HP nx8220 here where I exchanged some parts with my current machine and somehow missed to change the touchpad as well. Stupid.
So what do you do if spare parts aren’t available and things keep on bugging you? Right - fix it in a jua kali way:
Now where would I be without my Leatherman Wave? Ahh….priceless.
Removed the touchpad from the laptop, opened it, cleaned it, swapped buttons (!), removed the rubber “hole” and reassembled it. Quick fix, took me 15 minutes. Not as pretty as a used & cleaned touchpad from The Bay, but works fine and once I’ll get around a decent spare part, I can still exchange it.
Now, I really have to think about limiting my daily usage to avoid any further damage. Can’t be that I’ve already ruined a keyboard and now this touchpad within a timeframe of almost 2 years. HP Compaq built quality? HP = huge problems, high price. But still the best laptop I’ve ever used. Except for my landlord’s ThinkPad X41 of course. :-)
