Just to confirm - Thinkpad X1 Carbon Generation 3 touchpads are compatible with this model, and make for an amazing upgrade.

Use the plastic tool as seen in the picture (pry at the hinge side) as on the nearside of the laptop are some plastic scoop brackets, so prying at the front will be a lost cause and may cause damage.

Even the weirder of their models is still amazingly engineered, this was so easy to do and finding parts - not only of the same model but compatible newer parts - was an absolute breeze! Was able to upgrade my laptop during my work lunchtime, and still have time to actually eat lunch!

On my Carbon gen 2 there was a 5th screw, located just shy right of the two screws to the left in this picture (you can see a recess where mine was). It seems like gen 2 touchpads have this screw, however if you're upgrading to a gen 3 touchpad this screw will be omitted, so don't panic if you end up with 1 screw left over!

Can’t see an updated guide, and this one worked perfectly fine. Used to replace the buttons on a knock-off DualShock 4 from AliExpress. Construction was largely the same, only devoid of a screw anchoring the battery cradle. Would argue this was an extremely easy repair!

If you’re planning on a full disassembly (e.g. full shell replacement) this is the best guide to help.

Guilhem's point is crucial - the ribbon connectors wider wings must be only a miniscule fraction away from the connector, or you'll get the flash screen of death. This is well worth checking especially as the later stages of manipulating the ribbon through the silver ring (if doing a full shell replacement) can make you feel like you're damaging the ribbon cable. Also check to make sure the black clip is fully closed, otherwise even the smallest movement during reassembly will pull it back out.

Let’s face it, you’re replacing it with a CompactFlash card or CF - MicroSD adapter at this point.

In my experience, on a Mac I used Disk Utility to completely erase my MicroSD, and replace it with GPT table and a single, max size partion formatted to exFAT. I tried leaving it as it was, hoping the iPod restore process would just wipe it, but no - lazy me got error 1432.

I’m not a fan of double MicroSD adapters running JBOD, so I went for a single CF->SD adapter. I was surprised to see this mini IDE connector has no clear orientation! Mine worked with the fancy label bit up, and the blank/writable bit facing down.

My advice, do not unplug the drive ribbon! What I found worked better was to keep it connected, remove the sheathing around the drive (my adapter is entirely plastic, so figured there’s no short-out danger), and very gently pull the mini IDE connector out. Careful not to apply force or bend the connector. Wiggle until you got a sight of the connectors, then a gentle pull and the drive is free!

In my repair I was replacing the battery with a ‘Camron Sino’ branded replacement. The battery is packed almost identically to the original battery, however there was more of a bulge where the cables are wrapped in. This annoyingly meant it would not fit in the recess. If you do the CF adapter swap, it would appear to be slightly smaller. This meant a bit more wiggle room for the battery, and was able to get it all together.

Step 2 & 3 people and the guide comment about prying up in the gap. Well the Apple engineer went full specialist mode on the one I had, because there was no gap. In my situation, I resorted to using my smallest precision flathead driver head to pry up a very small recess, then jammed a spudger into the gap. This does cause some slight warping on the panels, but I couldn’t easily see another way. How this repair is rated moderate is beyond me…

In my ‘repair’, I managed to do the above on the side away from the clickwheel connector. I pried it up, and gently wiggled it free from the space. That way you don’t need to go prying at the connector, at cost of causing some scrape marks on the inside of the casing. Rather have internal scrapes than needing to replace the clickwheel!