MSI Wind mod turns one trackpad button into two

The MSI Wind has certainly garnered a sizable following, but that's not to say it isn't without its share of problems, and the single, somewhat awkward trackpad button has proven to be a point of contention for many. One enterprising individual has now gone some way towards fixing that, however, with little more than a BIC pen and an Exacto knife. As you can see above, the pen supplies the springs that adds a bit more responsiveness to the now separate buttons, while the knife is used for some cutting that apparently has to be done just right. If you're looking to take things one step further, another MSI Wind forum user also recently discovered that you can order a replacement Synaptics touchpad from none other than ASUS itself which, as most Wind users are no doubt aware, is considered to be far superior to the Sentilic touchpad now included on the netbook. It apparently takes a bit of work to get it swapped in, but most anyone with a bit of modding skill should be able to handle it and, best of all, it only costs $8 (plus $5 shipping).

Read - MSI Wind Forums, "DIY two-button mousepad"
Read - MSI Wind Forums, "The $12 Touchpad Experiment"

[rock99rock @ Dec 4th 2008 2:28PM]

I had no idea it only had one button. Thats nuts! Great mod though-

[Ian @ Dec 4th 2008 2:51PM]

Its 2 buttons, just only 1 piece of plastic that rocks one way or the other.

[rock99rock @ Dec 4th 2008 3:07PM]

Ahh well that makes a little more sense. The 'ol rocker. Thanks for the clarification.

[ijyt @ Dec 4th 2008 2:28PM]

But when the Macbook has no buttons, it's the second coming of Jesus.

[Patriks7 @ Dec 4th 2008 2:39PM]

It actually has 1 button.. the whole trackpad is one.. and you can configure right click in the bottom right corner and left click in the bottom left corner or the usual trackpad stuff on Macs, single tap = left, two finger tap = right..
And it works really well; much better than any trackpad I used on a different computer..

[Bill @ Dec 4th 2008 2:35PM]

It has two switches underneath (left/right), but the bar that you press down on is a single piece that you click on the left or right side. It throws you off because you have no way of knowing which side your finger is on. I thought the trackpad was ordered from MSI, not Asus. Did I read that wrong on the MSI Wind forum?

[Bill @ Dec 4th 2008 2:39PM]

I just confirmed, the replacement trackpad did come from Asus. I've upgraded quite a few things on my MSI Wind and I'm thinking I might do this as well. It was really the only thing that bothered me about the Wind. Other than that, it runs OSX very well :)

[Fusion Fuzo 05 - Mr Professional @ Dec 4th 2008 2:41PM]

ONE word FUGLY mod

[StalematE @ Dec 4th 2008 2:48PM]

That's two words...

[Mobius_1 @ Dec 4th 2008 2:53PM]

That's four!

[Eric @ Dec 4th 2008 2:59PM]

And you realise that the button assembly is then put back on the computer, right? The springs don't stay on the outside.

[bluecifer @ Dec 4th 2008 6:50PM]

BWAHAHAHA

[DWells55 @ Dec 4th 2008 3:37PM]

He's aiming for an induction into the Engadget Troll Hall of Fame.

...what, we don't have one of those? I guess FF just likes wasting his time then.

[dotAaron @ Dec 4th 2008 2:42PM]

This is worth posting but the Core i7 TLB Bug isn't?

Righto :P

[DWells55 @ Dec 4th 2008 3:39PM]

You mean the one that turned out to be false and actually applied to an outdated C2D Conroe?

[SAGExSDX @ Dec 4th 2008 3:32PM]

CRAP! the touchpad is out of stock!

[Richard C. @ Dec 4th 2008 4:03PM]

Woot made it to engadget :D

someone asked why the button just won't fall out

here is a picture of the ideal spring you want

http://epyon.bol.ucla.edu/spring2.jpg

basically one that is equal to the size of the plastic opening and that only adds about 2mm of height

combined with the clips that the button already has, it holds the button in place quite nicely

[Anastasios @ Dec 4th 2008 7:53PM]

When are these netbook manufacturers going to realise that they should put a TrackPoint on there instead of these postage-stamp sized touchpads?

[happy_penguin @ Dec 4th 2008 9:24PM]

Looks like poo poo.

[shawnmos @ Dec 5th 2008 1:23PM]

not worth fucking up my new wind.

[adam lawrence @ Dec 6th 2008 9:11AM]

exactly...

[sam @ Dec 7th 2008 6:55PM]

I own a wind, and i don't think this is news for Engadget. Isn't there some new USB key shaped like a phallus or something you could write about?