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Tutorial for Replacing CCFL Backlight on Thinkpad 600s

Older ThinkPads from the 300, 500, 600, 700 Series, iSeries, Transnote etc.
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JHEM
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Tutorial for Replacing CCFL Backlight on Thinkpad 600s

#1 Post by JHEM » Tue Sep 14, 2004 9:09 pm

Compliments of Dale, a poster on ibm.ibmpc.thinkpad:

http://personal.bellsouth.net/d/r/drseng/ThinkpadCCFL

Regards,

James
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#2 Post by RRHODY » Wed Sep 15, 2004 5:06 am

James,
An excellent lead. Other than the name Dale, he's not going to get his "fifteen minutes of fame" without further identification. He deserves an ATTA BOY for providing these instructions.
What's his address? I'd like to thank him for his efforts.

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#3 Post by JHEM » Wed Sep 15, 2004 8:32 am

I asked Dale for additional personal info and a valid addie when I asked his permission to post his URL to the forums.

While he gave permission for the quote, no additional info was forthcoming. I guess he's shy.

Regards,

James
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JimmyD
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Backlight Or Inverter Board ?

#4 Post by JimmyD » Sun May 01, 2005 8:10 am

Does anyone know how a backlight can be "tested" prior to install ? And
an Inverter Board test for an output to the Backlight ?
I'm in the position to attempt an LCD repair.
Thank's for any reply's, jimmyd

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#5 Post by Laptop_wizard » Wed Jun 01, 2005 7:49 pm

I don't get it, how can you dissasamble the lcd with out destroying it?

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#6 Post by carbon_unit » Wed Jun 01, 2005 10:47 pm

I did one in a T20 with a 13.3 display and it was very similar to that. I thought "This is easy".8)
Recently I did a T22 with a 14.1 display and it was no where near that easy. I was successful but I will never do another one of those again. There were no screws and gold housing. I had to completely disassemble the LCD assembly to change the bulb. The bulb was the first thing to go into the plastic frame and all the glass and diffuser sheets went on top of it.
I hope the 15 inch displays are easier to work on.
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#7 Post by JiveBologna » Fri Aug 05, 2005 9:26 pm

Well, I just tried this fix according to the instructions, and it still doesn't work for me.

Some back story first though: I have a Thinkpad 600E 2645-4AU. The LCD panel works, but it's only visible if I angle it in the sun just right. So it has to be the backlight, right? I started by first replacing the inverter with an identical part from eBay, and that did nothing. So my next step was to try replacing the CCFL. I ordered part MS20205 from Moniserv, and soldered it according to instructions. I just tried plugging it in for a test run before cramming it back into the LCD panel housing and screwing everything back together, but it won't light. :oops:

Any ideas? Is it possible I got two bad inverters in a row? Is there something I'm overlooking? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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#8 Post by JHEM » Fri Aug 05, 2005 11:55 pm

JiveBologna wrote:Any ideas? Is it possible I got two bad inverters in a row? Is there something I'm overlooking? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Have you checked the display closure switch?

Regards,

James
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#9 Post by JiveBologna » Sat Aug 06, 2005 9:49 pm

JHEM wrote:Have you checked the display closure switch?
That sounds like a possibility... how would I check that? It looks fine to me from the exterior, but I'm not really an expert with Thinkpads. Thanks!

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#10 Post by beeblebrox » Mon Sep 26, 2005 3:52 pm

I did change the CCFL several times, on a T20 (bought a new, but broken LCD on eBay) and a 570e.

Piece of cake, open all latches on the sides, but only open the display slightly on the side of the CCFL.

It takes 5 minutes, and you are done.

Yellowish LCDs suddenly turned into bright white screens again. Wonderful!

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#11 Post by Poju » Tue Oct 25, 2005 5:37 pm

I took tube from broken scanner for my 770, it was about 3cm too short and when brightness is way up it looks little weird in lower corners, but i don't mind, didn't cost anything :)

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#12 Post by Lomax » Tue Nov 01, 2005 1:46 pm

I have just successfully replaced the backlight in my 600X with a LG LP133X5 LCD panel. The matching tube from lcdpart was MS20205 (not MS20275 as stated on their website).

Upon opening the panel to perform the replacement I discovered that the failed backlight probably wasn't caused by a faulty tube, instead one of the leads from the inverter had come loose due to a bad solder join at the bulb end.

I had already ordered the replacement tube so I decided to go ahead with the replacement anyway as any 600X will have seen a fair few years of use and CCFLs dim considerably with age.

It turned out CCFL replacement on this particualr type of panel was not as straightforward as I had hoped. In fact, I had to remove the entire metal frame, cut open the paper/film backing and separate the internal layers of the LCD to get to the reflector channel which contains the CCFL. The reflector channel had to be removed from the LCD assembly to get the old tube out which required a lot more force than I felt comfortable using (it was attached to the back of the LCD assembly with strong double-sided tape).

After freeing the reflector and removing the old tube from it I noticed it had indeed been slightly buckled during removal but having come this far I pressed on. The new tube was slightly thinner than the old one (by about .5mm or so) but the silicone spacer rings still fit reasonably well and the reaplacement was just the right length. Soldering the inverter -> CCFL leads was an easy job and reassembling was a lot easier than taking things apart.

I was certain something had become damaged during my rather heavy-handed tinkering but turning the machine on revealed a wonderfully bright and defect free screen. And no trace of the annoying flicker that plagued it for some time before the backlight packed in completely.

My only complaint (apart from the worry of breaking things) would be that the colour of the light from the new tube is a bit on the green side - but this can be tweaked with software I guess. Also, I can just make out some slight unevenness of the light, probably caused by the buckles in the reflector but this is no biggie to me.

I hope you find this info useful.

Lomax

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#13 Post by jeffcrilly » Sat Nov 05, 2005 8:49 pm

I'm probably going to want to do this sometime w/ my T22.

If anyone has any pictures of what it looks like inside, that will be appreciated.

This is a SXGA+ model, fwiw, but I suspect they are same across all T2x models.

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#14 Post by carbon_unit » Sat Nov 05, 2005 9:12 pm

I don't think it is the same across the Txx models. It depends on who made the panel and which model the panel is. The T22 xga panel may be different than the T22 sxga panel.
Some are fairly easy and some are a bi*ch.
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Backlight and Monitor

#15 Post by badi00ab » Wed Feb 08, 2006 12:55 pm

Hello,

I have a simple question. I have monitor problem with my thinkpad 600x. It goes ALL BLACK as soon as i turn it on; however, the machine works fine with an external monitor. How would i know whether i need to change the backlight or the whole monitor? Can anybody, if possible, tell me how to check this problem? Thanx...
Regards,

Barro

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#16 Post by Chris Thorne » Sun Sep 03, 2006 7:32 pm

Lomax wrote:I have just successfully replaced the backlight in my 600X with a LG LP133X5 LCD panel. The matching tube from lcdpart was MS20205 (not MS20275 as stated on their website).

Upon opening the panel to perform the replacement I discovered that the failed backlight probably wasn't caused by a faulty tube, instead one of the leads from the inverter had come loose due to a bad solder join at the bulb end.
I just did the identical job.

As with Lomax's panel, the CCFL tube in mine was still illuminable, and the failure was due to a weak (and tiny!) solder joint on one end. That had induced flicker and eventual apparent tube failure.

I too installed the MS20205 tube, wanting to ensure long life. A few notes on the job:

This is a tough, tough project to do well. Budget many hours of your time, and price those hours versus outright screen replacement costs. The screen shown in the tutorial looks difficult to take apart, but the LG unit is a monolith.

I have come, after years of wrestling with computers and other machinery, to regard design-for-disassembly to be one of the key indicia of engineering acumen, one which is not appreciated until something must be taken apart to be repaired or maintained. The engineers at LG fail that test miserably. This screen by its appearance was designed to be built fast and cheap, and to be thrown away when the CCFL burned out (as are so many other modern artifacts clogging the landfills unnecessarily).

If you do do this job, one thing which Lomax did not mention but which bedevilled me was the presence of two white hold-down tabs which project from the plastic LCD frame out over the reflector-tube assembly. It is not possible to remove the reflector assembly with these tabs in place. The tutorial, for a different LCD, shows similar tabs, but the tabs in the tutorial have visible screws. The LG screen tabs do not. It turns out that the tabs are not fixed to the frame (as they appear to be) but have hidden snaps underneath. A twist with a sharp blade tip under the tab edge pops them off. Again, poor serviceability design from the LG engineers.

I did not completely remove the screen stack from the plastic frame when taking out the reflector. (I echo Lomax's warning about the strength of the adhesive under the reflector itself). I found it best to partially remove the screen stack, leaving the frame connected along the edges where the row and column ribbon cable connectors wrap. The risk of damage to the connectors would be high, I think, if removing them.

The old inverter connector wireset was removed from the old tube and soldered to the new one. You will want a good quality silver solder and a needle tip, and a clip heatsink to protect the tube.

It is extremely difficult to get the screen stack back into the frame once the reflector-tube assembly is back in place. I had to *very* carefully bend up the reflector's upper edge using the tip of a hobby knife blade to allow the screen to seat back in. If I were doing this again, I would prebend the upper reflector edge upward by at least a 30 degree angle.

I have not noticed the greenish hue which Lomax experienced. I do see a quite bright zone on the right side of the screen, where the reflector assembly is. It is bright enough to wash out the contrast in the right slider bar of a maximized window. This is probably due to reflector distortions from the reassembly. But I'll live with it.

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#17 Post by The Spirit of X21 » Sat Feb 17, 2007 8:58 pm

I just replaced the CCFL in a 14" T22. I agree with carbon_unit that it was much more complicated than this example 600 tutorial. Luckily, I succeeded and the owner was quite happy - especially with the cost savings.
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Re: Tutorial for Replacing CCFL Backlight on Thinkpad 600s

#18 Post by systemBuilder » Wed May 01, 2013 12:13 pm

If somebody is repairing or replacing a backlight today, consider using an LED-backlight kit, these kits have gotten very cheap and they produce a brighter display, which is an upgrade :

http://www.iccfl.com/index.php?cPath=168
http://www.lcdparts.net/led.aspx

Note that with some (most?) kits, you lose the ability to change the brightness of the display, it's at 100% brightness, all the time.
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Re: Tutorial for Replacing CCFL Backlight on Thinkpad 600s

#19 Post by [gadget] » Thu May 02, 2013 12:21 am

holy necrothread, batman

here's another one:
http://www.xccfl.com
(not sure of its relationship with iccfl)

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Re: Tutorial for Replacing CCFL Backlight on Thinkpad 600s

#20 Post by sdfox7 » Sun Nov 25, 2018 10:40 pm

It appears the original link is dead (I was not able to connect successfully), so here is the archived one:

Thinkpad 600E LCD CCFL Replacement

http://web.archive.org/web/200503260331 ... nkpadCCFL/
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Re: Tutorial for Replacing CCFL Backlight on Thinkpad 600s

#21 Post by GunslingerThink » Thu Mar 05, 2020 3:17 am

What does it mean if backlight goes blinking and then turns off completely after system is powered on? Is that a problem with CCFL or invertor?
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Re: Tutorial for Replacing CCFL Backlight on Thinkpad 600s

#22 Post by RealBlackStuff » Thu Mar 05, 2020 4:21 am

Most likely it's a broken CCFL, that works for a few seconds till it heats up and conks out.
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