Hello all,
I’ve had a core ultra 7 155H 13 framework laptop for about a year now. I use it as a daily driver and I love it. As a daily driver, the touchpad gets pretty hefty use. Over time, it got “loose.” Specifically, at the front of the diving board, a gap developed between maximum “up” position and the “top of the click” position. When you touch the pad, it depresses ever so slightly, and you can hear an audible click. However, that wasn’t a mouse click - when you push harder, you hear and feel a second click (like normal). The first click is movement / looseness in the touchpad. It’s quite annoying in my opinion. I’ve seen many posts both here and on reddit describing the problem, and the common advice is to adjust and clean per this post.
Then if that doesn’t work - contact support. I didn’t contact support, but it appears they send replacement touchpads regularly.
I believe this isn’t the fix for the vast majority of touchpad complaints, and this leads to “framework touchpads stink etc.” That post is for rubbing or sticking due to an alignment problem - which could create a preliminary click - but we’re talking about a different problem here - looseness.
The controversial part: Instead, I believe the solution is to physically bend the black touchpad holder bracket because the reason this happens is… that bracket deforms/bends over time in the first place. Remember, it used to work just fine - but then it didn’t. What happened? That bracket deformed from use. The following post talks about a different issue, but the steps are almost the same, and it has a good picture of the part.
Another common solution is to put tape in there. I suggest that’s a different solution to the same problem, but I don’t want tape gumming things up.
With the keyboard open, and before you take that bracket out - you can play with the touchpad to see what’s going on. You can feel the play in the touchpad creating the first click, but there’s no second click because that nub above his finger is still in the main chassis. Now remove that black bracket with the two screws and flip the bracket upside down on a flat surface. Touch the screwholes - I guarantee that bracket has ever so slight of a bend and seesaws on the flat surface. Now you know how much and which direction to GENTLY bend it back. NOT TOO MUCH - you don’t want to flex the touchpad upwards too far. The bracket is quite frail and bends very easily. I was kind of surprised how easy it was to permanently bend - THAT’s the root cause problem. Lastly, see those two wing springy things in the picture? Mine were almost flat. Bend those up - again, very gently. When at rest I left mine at maybe 1/2 a centimeter of gap or thereabouts. I have no idea at what position they started out in, but I don’t think flat is the answer. Reassemble. This fixed the problem for me 100% and the trackpad went back to feeling like it did when I first got the laptop. Unless a new bracket comes with a replacement touchpad, I don’t think getting a touchpad replacement will fix anything. Framework spends $, more waste is created, and you’re not happy.
Framework team: A suggestion. Develop a stiffer, less permanently bend-able black bracket we can purchase and replace the original with. I’m sure the current iteration will deform again over time and I’ll have to bend it back again. It’s quite frail in it’s current form. I think the touchpad is quite good for a non apple machine, but it’s reputation is getting ruined by this flimsy bracket.