Thinkpads Forum

Hi guys,

I have the two machines listed above in the title and I noticed that the screen in the T61 seems MUCH brighter than the screen in the Z61m. Is this normal or is there a setting that I am missing?

I have them both set to max brightness (level 7 one the Z and level 15 on the T).

I have the brightness setting in the BIOS on both machines set to "HIGH".

Would there be a driver that could cause a brighness issue? Or perhaps the colour mangement profile?

What am I missing? Or is this just the way of the world? Two different screens?

I used ot think the Z61m had a great screen, but the since using my T61, it just looks dull in comparison. The T61 is much brighter and nicer to look at!

Z61m: 15.4in 1680x1050 LCD, 128MB ATI Radeon X1400
T61: 15.4in 1680x1050 LCD, 128MB nVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M
Both use the identical screens, but have different graphics cards (and drivers).
Perhaps a driver update may help?

Read a bit more about various LCDs here

Hey RBS!

Yeah well thats what I figured, I have all the lastest drivers and updates from Windows Update and the Lenovo System Update utilities. The screen resolutions are indentical. But I wonder if the the T61 uses a different backlight or a different kind of panel altogether. I have no idea why but the the Z61 is definitely much dimmer than the T61. I wonder if this is a vista issue?

As I say I have all the latest drivers and updates for both windows and the system. I will do some digging, in the meantime if anyone has any ideas or suggestions they would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

SF

Over time, LCDs become dimmer, but those are fairly recent machines.
Perhaps the difference is between XP on one and Vista (Aero?) on the other?
On XP you could try and activate Cleartype, perhaps that improves it?

Both screens are made by LG/Philips and are probably interchangeable. If you feel so inclined, see if that makes a difference...

It's the XP machine (T61) that is significantly brighter.

The Z61m (which is running Vista) is the one that is dim in comparison. It's really odd. Is it even possible for this to be a software issue?

Is it possible for a backlight to partially die? God knows, maybe it's just two different panel types or something. The resolutions maybe the same but the manufacturer and backlight might be different.

With a bit of luck, you could try swapping the hard disks, and see if there is a LCD difference purely based on Operating System.

RealBlackStuff wrote:With a bit of luck, you could try swapping the hard disks, and see if there is a LCD difference purely based on Operating System.

Hrm, that's not a bad idea...BUT...the systems are quite different are they not? They definitely have different graphics cards (ATI vs nvidia).

As for the rest of the stuff I dont know. Dont want to break anything (software/drivers etc)...

If I had another harddrive I'd consider doing an install of XP on the Z61m just to give it a go...but I cant risk trashing either of the main installs on the machines as I use them daily.

If you have partitioning software, you could install XP on the Z61m in another partition, and have a dual-boot machine.

You're right, I forgot about the graphics drivers.
Take an image of the T61, then uninstall the graphics drivers (back to VGA). Put that HD in the Z61m and install the ATI drivers (they might even be native to XP) and see if there is an improvement on the LCD.
When done playing, go back to VGA, put the HD back in the T61 and restore the image. Back to where you started.

Z61m (WSXGA+) and T61 (WSXGA+) lcd panels are manufactured either by Samsung or LG-Phillips, you could've distinction there, although both have same luminous, 200 nits but still from different manufacturers.

Whatever the case is, in my experience the more one compares lcd panels the more dissimilarity one will find.

ryengineer wrote:Z61m (WSXGA+) and T61 (WSXGA+) lcd panels are manufactured either by Samsung or LG-Phillips, you could've distinction there, although both have same luminous, 200 nits but still from different manufacturers.

Whatever the case is, in my experience the more one compares lcd panels the more dissimilarity one will find.

Yeah I was lookin in the HMM for the laptops and noticed there are different types in circulation. Who knows...it is what it is.

Go to Parts Lookup page and do a search on that Service part number afterwards. It will tell you about the lcd manufacturer(s).