A few days ago, the trackpad on my T430s started acting very strangely, registering phantom taps and touches whenever my fingertip came within its proximity but without making contact. Usually observed as attempts to move the cursor turning into tap + drag operations.

I’ve worn the little bumps off the center of my trackpad, so I thought maybe that was the problem. (It’s just a sticker, very easy to replace if you like the bumpy texture.) Not exactly. My trackpad was coated in an invisible layer of grime. It still looked clean (black), but after giving it a good scraping and scrubbing, full precision has been restored.