How to make T20 old 14" LCD brighter?

[Rahula]

My Thinkpad T20 was manufactured in year 2000, and is still doing very well. However, perhaps through old age, the 14" LCD has got dimmer, even when set to the brightest level and on power. Put side by side, it is as dim as my 1998 Thinkpad 385XD.

Is it possible to replace whatever part inside the LCD to make it brighter, as a "do-it-yourself" project? Can someone who has gone through this route advice what component to buy through eBay, and also point me to some step-by-step illustrated procedure on how to replace that required component?

If some skill is required to open up the LCD, can you suggest a technician who can do it, preferably in the Bay Area, San Jose or San Francisco. The T20 is now worth only about $500 ( as shown by the average selling price of the T20 of this vintage on eBay), I would like to keep the total cost under $100.

I would appreciate your comments or advice. Many thanks.

Rahula[b][/b]

[JHEM]

Rahula,

The short answer to your problem is that the CCFL backlight and/or the voltage inverter card are showing signs of their age.

Both can be replaced relatively easily, the inverter card more so than the backlight, and for relatively small sums.

First thing you would need to do is get a copy of the Hardware Maintenance Manual (HMM) for the T20 and review the steps necessary to perform these replacements.

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.ws ... &loc=en_US

Inverter cards can be found on eBay for as little as $10.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... eName=WDVW

Backlights are a bit more difficult to find but are available from several sources. However, they are very difficult to replace and require disassembling the LCD panel itself, not for the faint of heart.

However, might I suggest that you consider simply replacing the entire display? It's a much easier repair that doesn't require disassembling the display and only takes about 15 minutes in total to swap an entire display/cover assembly.

If you're willing to do a bit of disassembly, you can get new LCD panels on eBay for the T20 for as little as $50. Combine this with a new inverter card and you'd have an essentially new display for around $60 and some labor.

Regards,

James

[carbon_unit]

Here is some info on the backlight. http://www.moniserv.com/doc/ccfl.htm

[Rahula]

Thanks for your quick replies. Having checked out your suggested websites, I now don't feel that confident about opening up my LCD framework to replace the parts. As an old LCD assembly cost about $175, which is about a third of what my old T20 is now worth, I think it is better to stick with the present dim old LCD for another year or so, and then buy a used T42 should I encounter one selling under $1,000.00.

What is surprising is that the 4 year old T20, when placed next to a new Fujitsu S6220, has a brightness of 4 points out of 7 of the Fujitsu's. Can the brightness life can be prolonged if I were to reduce the brightness level by, say, a point or two when using a new laptop?

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