M7-32 and SXGA+/UXGA compatability?

[luns]

Being posessed by the spirit of Dr. Frankenstein, I've been looking over the LCD Service Parts pages and some of the discussions here and have a few questions I hope people here may have experience with.

The 91P6787 cable has been recommended for upgrading 14.1" XGA screens to SXGA+, but I've noticed that this FRU is only given on the T43/p service parts page, while the T40-T42/p page gives different FRUs. Am I correct in presuming that the two are interchangable despite the arbitrarily difference in FRUs?

On a related note, I've looked at IDtech's data sheets for their 15" SXGA+ and UXGA panels (which I realize might not be the ones IBM uses) and they have identical pinouts. I've had some confirmation that certain Dell laptops use the same cable for their SXGA+ and UXGA models, so I'm wondering if the same is true for our Thinkpads. Does the SXGA+ LCD cable work for a UXGA panel? If not, I'd be very interested in seeing both cables up close to find what the difference is.

Lastly, I'm wondering, does anybody have experience with upgrading a T40 with the 32M Radeon 7500 to UXGA? As far as I can tell, the factory never shipped this combination, but the specs for the 7500 say it's capable of 2-channel LVDS at 85MHz which is what the UXGA panels I looked at would need. Dell has laptops with this combination, so I don't anticipate any hardware issues, but I don't know if IBM's BIOS may be artifically crippled to prevent it from working.

Thanks!

[lithium726]

its not a matter of if the adapter can support it, the UXGA screen is a 15" panel, all T40's are 14.1" and i am not sure if there are any 15" T42's with the MR7500, although it is possible i suppose.

the 7500 supports SXGA+ just fine.

Yes, the cables for all T4x series are exactly the same, you just need the correct one for the correct panel. Since all the panels have the same connector (AFAIK) I am going to ahead and assume that the difference is 1) the actual number of connected traces on the ribbon cable or 2) the way it connects to teh mainboard.

I am currently using a T43 SXGA+ (samsung) screen with a T43 SXGA+ ribbon cable on a T40 mainboard with the MR7500, a Dothan (T42 class CPU) 1GB PC2700 (T42 class memory), Bluetooth III (T42 card), T40p w/ BT faceplate and a 60GB, 7200RPM HDD. It is a true frankenpad and a very nice machine

[luns]

Thanks for the reply!

its not a matter of if the adapter can support it, the UXGA screen is a 15" panel, all T40's are 14.1" and i am not sure if there are any 15" T42's with the MR7500, although it is possible i suppose.

I should have typed T4x where I said T40, but the 2373-6YU was a 15" XGA with 32M 7500, and I'm curious if UXGA would work on that. SXGA+ working is no suprise as several models had this combination, but I still don't know if the BIOS image knows how to drive UXGA with the 7500.

Yes, the cables for all T4x series are exactly the same, you just need the correct one for the correct panel. Since all the panels have the same connector (AFAIK) I am going to ahead and assume that the difference is 1) the actual number of connected traces on the ribbon cable or 2) the way it connects to teh mainboard.

Good to confirm the T43/p isn't separate from the pack. The XGA cable is definitely different from the others, being wired for only 1 data channel (4 differential pairs) instead of 2, but I'm still looking for what (if anything) would be different between SXGA+ and UXGA cables.

I am currently using a T43 SXGA+ (samsung) screen with a T43 SXGA+ ribbon cable on a T40 mainboard with the MR7500, a Dothan (T42 class CPU) 1GB PC2700 (T42 class memory), Bluetooth III (T42 card), T40p w/ BT faceplate and a 60GB, 7200RPM HDD. It is a true frankenpad and a very nice machine

Bah, those body parts all came from the same graveyard: I'm looking at scavenging from another county I'm sure it's a nice machine though.

[lithium726]

In that case, i see no reason why it would not support the UXGA screen... If indeed the cable is the same (or even if its different) its just a matter of the chip running 1600x1200, which is no problem for the MR7500. good luck finding one for a decent price though

T4x was never shipped with the 7500/sxga combo either as far as i know, so BIOS support shouldnt be an issue...

[smugiri]

No idea whether the BIOS will be an issue but here is the info on the stuff that you will need. Check out page 267. Sorry to state the obvious again but like @lithium726 mentioned, the UXGA LCD is 15' so make sure you have a chasis that will take it.

I am still waiting for my warranty to expire at the end of this month before I start doing stupid stuff but I have always wanted to do a QXGA upgrade . . .

[luns]

Lastly, I'm wondering, does anybody have experience with upgrading a T40 with the 32M Radeon 7500 to UXGA? As far as I can tell, the factory never shipped this combination, but the specs for the 7500 say it's capable of 2-channel LVDS at 85MHz which is what the UXGA panels I looked at would need. Dell has laptops with this combination, so I don't anticipate any hardware issues, but I don't know if IBM's BIOS may be artifically crippled to prevent it from working.

A30p had the radeon 7500(/7800?) with a UXGA screen, and the same driver is used for it and radeon T4x's. I think the odds are good that it would work.

If it comes down to a matter of the BIOS, I think I could extract the video BIOS from an A30p image and splice that into the T4x BIOS. I'd done this before with the BIOS from a 760ED that I wanted to transplant into my 560E, but I abandoned that project when I discovered the electrical interfaces were different (the XGA panel was LVDS while the SVGA panel was CMOS).

No idea whether the BIOS will be an issue but here is the info on the stuff that you will need. Check out page 267. Sorry to state the obvious again but like @lithium726 mentioned, the UXGA LCD is 15' so make sure you have a chasis that will take it.

Think outside the box: I'm eyeing a 14.1" UXGA panel from Hitachi.

[lithium726]

Think outside the box: I'm eyeing a 14.1" UXGA panel from Hitachi.

how would you adapt that to a T4x interface?

Im really interested to know.

[luns]

how would you adapt that to a T4x interface?

Im really interested to know.

The panel I'm looking at comes from a laptop that's also available with an SXGA+ display, and the same cable is listed for both screens. I'm hoping I can use the T40's SXGA+ cable, hence my asking whether the 15" T4x SXGA+ and UXGA cables are interchangeable despite the different part numbers.

[lithium726]

I am inclined to thing that wont work, if anything becuase the location of the connector for hte ribbon cable wil be different and that cable lies in a very specific way behind the screen.

[luns]

I am inclined to thing that wont work, if anything becuase the location of the connector for hte ribbon cable wil be different and that cable lies in a very specific way behind the screen.

There are standards for these things, and IBM, Samsung, Hitachi, LG Philips (and others) are members of VESA. VESA has had a (voluntary) standard for 13.3, 14.1 and 15.0" panelssince 2001 that specifies the location of the connector and the electrical interface.

The standard is voluntary though, so it's possible that it's not adhered to, and I'm looking for evidence whether it was or not. If the standards were followed, then an SXGA+ cable would work for UXGA and for that matter, XGA and QXGA too. Which brings me back to the question of what difference there is between the SXGA+ and UXGA cables aside from FRU numbers.