Upgrade t43 xga screen to sxga (or other)

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dedmeet · #1 Post by **dedmeet** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 8:17 am

Hi,

I did search the forums, and although there are some post regarding upgrade of screen, I am still none the wiser after reading them.

So, plainly my question:

I have a T43, the one with the intel 915 display card and the 15" xga screen.
Is it possible to replace the screen with a sxga (or other) that would give me higher resolution than 1024x768? Would the system bios still be locked to 1024x768, or would it detect the higher resolution screen and allow the higher display ?

Some background (for those who would just ask why I just don't get a whole new one)
This is a corporate laptop, and the only way I can get a laptop upgrade, is to get a Dell, which I don't want. I had to beg last time to get the thinkpad.
The only hassle I have with it is the limited screen resolution. If I can upgrade that, I would be very very very happy. I would be able to get the company to pay for the upgraded screen, if it is cheaper than buying a new Dell.

Any suggestions ?

#2 Post by **underclocker** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 8:58 am

Yes, you can certainly upgrade to a SXGA+ and most likely an UXGA 15" unit.

I'm not sure if any T43's actually came with the 900 series chipset and SXGA+ (although I'd be surprised if some CTO's did not), but R52's certainly did (1860-4QU, for example). T43's and R52's use the same base system board on some units.

You can find a complete LCD assembly on eBay (cover, antennas, LCD, hinges, etc.) for very reasonable prices these days. The swap is fairly straight forward.

Your only decision is SXGA+ or UXGA.

Welcome to the forum, as a demonstrated ThinkPad lover, you'll enjoy it.

dedmeet · #3 Post by **dedmeet** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 9:30 am

underclocker wrote:.......

Your only decision is SXGA+ or UXGA.

Brilliant, nice straight forward answer

SXGA+ - 1400 X 1050
UXGA - 1600 X 1200

I think I will try for the UXGA, if I can find any, and get my boss to buy it. If not the SXGA will also do nicely (anything but 1024x768 will be good at this point)

off to ebay I go......

dedmeet · #4 Post by **dedmeet** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 5:17 pm

Hi,

My boss has ok'd the screen upgrade, so I have been looking around for one.

I am very very worried about getting the wrong part, as I only have once chance it doing this right. Wrong part bought, and my boss will not allow me to try again....

Found this : http://www.sparepartswarehouse.com/IBM, ... N7046.aspx

The link above describes an LCD PANEL, 15 SXGA+

However, the list of compatible models for this part, under T43, does not list my model number which is 1871.

So from that I can deduce that this screen will not work with my model.
Can anyone confirm if this is true.

Better yet, can someone maybe send/post a link to a screen they know will be compatible....

TIA
Lucas

#5 Post by **richk** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 5:48 pm

Other places call that number a 14.1" panel, so I'm not sure ir it is the right size. If it is a panel, it doesn't include the cable. The SXGA+ cable is different from the XGA one. Also, replacing the panel in a screen assembly is more "picky" work than some things. The first time I did it, it took longer than I expected. Also, they are fragile.

dedmeet · #6 Post by **dedmeet** » Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:40 pm

Hi,

Thank you for the response. You help is highly appreciated.

I think I will go with your suggestion of getting the whole lid assembly.

Your comments on this one from ebay...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0131040939

TIA
Lucas

Moderator edit: Shortened URL

#7 Post by **richk** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 5:03 pm

I am assuming you really do have a 15" XGA screen. The screen on eBay is correct for your machine. It will still take you longer than 10 minutes. If I were in a race, I could maybe do it in 10 - 15 minutes, but I have replaced many. You need to remove the keyboard and the touchpad/keyboard bezel. Then there are 6 more screws (4 on the back and 2 inside. It is a lot of money to pay for a screen, but cheaper than a new UXGA machine. I use a 15" UXGA screen on my laptop and really like it, but many people think the printing on my machine is too small. Make sure it is what you want. Also, if you were buying a new machine with that screen, you would be getting a high-end graphics chip, and you probably have the basic one. It will certainly drive the new screen and will work fine for office applications, but will not perform as well for games or full-motion video. The only tool you need is a good phillips screwdriver, size 00.

dedmeet · #8 Post by **dedmeet** » Sat Jun 30, 2007 6:07 pm

Hi,

Yep, I most defenately have a 15" XGA screen, says so on the machine spec which came with it in the box.

I used to use a laptop with 1400x??? (can't recall now exactly what it was) about 1 year and nine months ago, which was replaced by my thinkpad. A mistake was made and the XGA model was purchased, so I had been stuck with it for a while now. I recall that I needed higher than 1400x???, that time ago, so you can understand my frustration by now to be 'downgraded' to 1024x768

I am not in need of a more powerfull graphics card. I use my thinkpad exclusively for code development, and I don't really play games (no time, I rather tinker away at my linux based projects)

As for the price, well my boss is happy, as it will cost less than a new laptop, and no-one else at work think thinkpads are 'worth it', they are all Dell junkies, and I again don't like Dell's. I specifically chose the thinkpad for it's linux compatibility, and because it is so light, compared to their big fat chunky (and cheap looking Dell's)

I am very happy with it, and now happier that I can upgrade the screen.....I even had a dream the other night about it ! (sad but true)

I missed out on the screen on ebay, hope it (or another) gets listed again. As mentioned, my boss had agreed to the buy, but I still gotta get him to actually give the money....I think he is waiting for the new IT budget to start next month or so, but I now know what too look for.

Once again, many thanks for your help, will post once I got the upgrade sorted

dedmeet · #9 Post by **dedmeet** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 7:49 am

Hi

Upgrade my screen to uxga today.

As mentioned, very easy to do, easiest mod i had done to date, took about 15 minutes.

I am now getting 1600x1200 res, but ran into an oddity. My screen runs off to the right of the physical display, by exactly a quarter in size of the whole display.

Any ideas ? Can't get to my expanded windows scroll bars, close buttons etc.

Temetka · #10 Post by **Temetka** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 4:49 pm

This sounds like a sensing issue.

I have some LCD's at the house. They have a button on the front that when pressed will re-sync the video signal. Since you don't have that option there are a few other things you can try.

1. Remove the LCD and make sure all the cables are properly aligned and installed correctly.

2. Make sure your drivers are upto date.

You didn't specify what OS you are using. If you are using linux then you reconfigure xorg and manually move the screen to the left a bit. I believe that the ATI driver might allow you to do this as well within in Windows but am not too sure about that.

How is your color saturation and window performance?
Other than everything being shifted to the right a little bit everything else is ok?

dedmeet · #11 Post by **dedmeet** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 5:18 pm

Hi,

Thanks for the response.

Think i did not get the problem described correctly....

The display starts perfectly at the left (that is left of physical screen), but spans past the physical display screen....

this happens all the way from bios boot screen, inside bios menus, all the way through to the os desktop displayed (i use linux btw), so the issue is not drivers related. Think overscan, but exactly 1 quater and just to the right.

Does this make any sense ?

Well, since my post, I have been playing with bios settings, and I switched off the quick boot (to diagnostic), now after the memory is counted, and it says video bios shadowed, i end up with just a blank screen, no boot. Tried to boot from a cd, no go.

I am gonna put back the xga screen and see what happens.

I have also noted my bios is quite dates (1.19). Latest avail is 1.29. Same with embedded controller (have 1.03, 1.05 is latest).

Gonna update that, see it it helps, but as I cannot boot now, I am a bit lost.

dedmeet · #12 Post by **dedmeet** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 5:35 pm

ok, i put the xga screen back, but still no boot after diag bootup screen.

Any ideas, getting worried....

dedmeet · #13 Post by **dedmeet** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 5:48 pm

ok, found reason for blank screen, it was the bluetooth adaptor.

I pulled it, started system up, worked, plugged it back in, booted up, and it still worked, GREAT.

Might just needed to be re-seated

Now to put back the uxga screen

#14 Post by **richk** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 6:00 pm

Upgrade the bios to the latest version and hit F9 to load defaults.

dedmeet · #15 Post by **dedmeet** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 6:21 pm

Ok, not sure how i got to the last conclusion.

It would seem everytime i plug back in the touchpad socket (the small one below the keyboard), then the system hangs.

Last bios post message was 'Mouse Initialized'

So, I am gonna keep it unplugged, update the bios, and then see if it helps.

Need to get out of the diag boot method.

dedmeet · #16 Post by **dedmeet** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 7:59 pm

Hi

Updated to latest bios and controller code, no effect (appart from the blank boot, that is now fixed)

I have attached image to show my issue.

The grey line shows where my physical screen ends. This is like this everywhere, bios, console bootup, and even the bios update utils.

Is it possible I need another cable for the lcd ?

http://pictures.homelinux.net/screenshot1.jpg

Edit (2009): As time moved on, my web address changed, but the images are still available.
For anyone who still read this thread (one never knows), replace all links to the images given in my posts with:
http://www.dedmeet.com/images/thinkpad/ , so in this post you would use http://www.dedmeet.com/images/thinkpad/screenshot1.jpg

#17 Post by **richk** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 10:10 pm

Did you just replace the panel? Based on earlier posts I thought you wer going to replace the whole assembly. The 3 resolutions (XGA, SXGA+ and UXGA) all use different cables

Temetka · #18 Post by **Temetka** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 2:59 am

Odd,

it almost looks like a row of bad pixels.

Weird, I have never seen that before.

So like the person above me asked, did you replace the panel or the whole LCD assembly?

EDIT: What OS are you running?

dedmeet · #19 Post by **dedmeet** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 4:37 am

richk wrote:Did you just replace the panel? Based on earlier posts I thought you wer going to replace the whole assembly. The 3 resolutions (XGA, SXGA+ and UXGA) all use different cables

Hi,

I replaced the whole assembly.

dedmeet · #20 Post by **dedmeet** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 6:01 am

Temetka wrote:Odd,

it almost looks like a row of bad pixels.

Weird, I have never seen that before.

So like the person above me asked, did you replace the panel or the whole LCD assembly?

EDIT: What OS are you running?

Hi, ok, looks like I am still not getting my problem accross.

The image given in previous post - Those are not dead pixels, it is a line I drew in using a paint program, to show at what point the physical screen end, to try and show what part of my desktop is not visible.

below are some more images, taken with actual camera, might make issue clearer :

1. This is the thinkpad bios post screen, notice the 'Intel Centrino' image top right if off-screen. This is the same as when os (linux) is loaded, which tells me this is not a driver issue, but I may be wrong.

http://pictures.homelinux.net/21072007.jpg

2. This one is the boot option after blue access button was pressed. Notice the window runs off to the right, off-screen

http://pictures.homelinux.net/21072007(001).jpg

3. this is firefox, expanded. Notice the window runs off-screen to where the 'invisible' part of my desktop is, so i cannot get to the scroll bars etc.

http://pictures.homelinux.net/21072007(003).jpg

4. finally, the desktop. compare with image from previous post. the pysical screen ends, but desktop keeps on going, as designated by the grey line I had drawn in that previous post.

http://pictures.homelinux.net/21072007(004).jpg

Hope this helps to show my issue.

Did some searching on web, and I did come across some people with a simmilar issue, this one in particular looked promising.

http://languor.us/node/65

I tried using xvidtune, but any adjustments say that the new modeline is not possible on my display. I think it has to do with the fact that it tries to change the refresh rate.

I am fast running out of ideas....

Troels · #21 Post by **Troels** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 6:53 am

Could you run a program like PC Wizard to determine, what the screen is detected as?
http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

When the program is launched, click the "Video" icon -> "Monitor Type" and check that it seems correct, with the correct detection of display type and part no.; it should say N150U3-L01 or very similar to this, somehwere.

What happens when you change resolution to something lower in display properties?

Edit: Ah, you're running Linux? Hmmm...

dedmeet · #22 Post by **dedmeet** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 7:04 am

Troels wrote:Could you run a program like PC Wizard to determine, what the screen is detected as?
http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php

When the program is launched, click the "Video" icon -> "Monitor Type" and check that it seems correct, with the correct detection of display type and part no.; it should say N150U3-L01 or very similar to this, somehwere.

What happens when you change resolution to something lower in display properties?

Edit: Ah, you're running Linux? Hmmm...

Today I will backup my linux partition, and restore xp from the recovery disks, then I can run the tests as asked.

Will get back to you as soon as that is done.

This will also allow me to determine if Linux is the issue here. Although I prefer linux, I do acknowledge that these things are sometimes easier to 'fix' in windows, and the related the windows based fix to linux.

I think I might just setup dual-boot for now.

Troels · #23 Post by **Troels** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 7:27 am

Heh, well, i suspect new core hardware like LCDs aren't really updated when it is exchanged.
It doesn't help much either that manufacturers tend to support windows better, which really sucks.

The GMA900 can drive QXGA directly, but i don't like it ONE bit that there are two different BIOS updates available for the integrated and discrete graphics.

#24 Post by **tomh009** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 12:34 pm

First, the physical pixels are what they are and they cannot be changed. So assuming that you are running at native resolution (easy to tell if you are not -- the sharpness is greatly reduced), then one of the following two cases will apply:

1. You have the 1600x1200 display panel, but the system thinks the display is greater than 1600x1200.

2. The system thinks the display is 1600x1200, but the physical display panel is actually 1400x1050.

So what does Linux report the display resolution as? If you display (for example) a 1500x1100 pixel image at 100% magnification, does it fit completely on the physical display, in both dimensions?

Temetka · #25 Post by **Temetka** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 5:00 pm

The pics posted helped clear things up.

I would check all the cables. Is there a different inverter you are supposed to be using with this LCD?

weirder and weirder....

dedmeet · #26 Post by **dedmeet** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 6:52 pm

tomh009 wrote:First, the physical pixels are what they are and they cannot be changed. So assuming that you are running at native resolution (easy to tell if you are not -- the sharpness is greatly reduced), then one of the following two cases will apply:

1. You have the 1600x1200 display panel, but the system thinks the display is greater than 1600x1200.

2. The system thinks the display is 1600x1200, but the physical display panel is actually 1400x1050.

So what does Linux report the display resolution as? If you display (for example) a 1500x1100 pixel image at 100% magnification, does it fit completely on the physical display, in both dimensions?

Hi, good idea, so i created the image.

http://pictures.homelinux.net/screenshot4.jpg is a screen grab of this, 100% zoomed, and the gimp window maximized.

When maximized this also runs off-screen exactly at the 1300.5 mark on the measurement bar.

Hight is perfect.

Resolution is set at 1600x1400, which is the panels natife res. The part of the screen visible is clear and perfect. As a test I set it to 1280x1024. As expected the display of text etc was not clear at this res, but also it ran off the physical screen.

very weird.

xvidtune shows current modeline as :

"1600x1200" 162.00 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 +hsync +vsync

dedmeet · #27 Post by **dedmeet** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 6:57 pm

Temetka wrote:The pics posted helped clear things up.

I would check all the cables. Is there a different inverter you are supposed to be using with this LCD?

weirder and weirder....

Checked cables 3 times now, even had old xga screen back on, just to see (it of course worked fine)

not sure about inverter......

dedmeet · #28 Post by **dedmeet** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 7:30 pm

does anyone know if Lenovo/IBM would actually be able/willing to help if I post a question to them direct ?

Figure they might know what the issue is

Troels · #29 Post by **Troels** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 7:58 pm

If it's still under warranty, i don't think you should ask them.
No one has asked you, but you know that changing the screens void the warranty?
If it's out of warranty i don't see any problem calling or writing them, but i have a feeling NONE of the supports will help you, only the persons who are higher up in the department, or actually did some design on them have a clue of what you're talking about.
I mean, this is far from a standard question, just like they can't answer how to DIY outfit a T40 with a WWAN antenna, although it might be possible.

You might want to write to DB2DUDE considering his last post could sound like he has tried playing around a lot with this,
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... pgrade+lcd

dedmeet · #30 Post by **dedmeet** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 8:12 pm

Troels wrote:If it's still under warranty, i don't think you should ask them.
No one has asked you, but you know that changing the screens void the warranty?
If it's out of warranty i don't see any problem calling or writing them, but i have a feeling NONE of the supports will help you, only the persons who are higher up in the department, or actually did some design on them have a clue of what you're talking about.
I mean, this is far from a standard question, just like they can't answer how to DIY outfit a T40 with a WWAN antenna, although it might be possible.

You might want to write to DB2DUDE considering his last post could sound like he has tried playing around a lot with this,
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... pgrade+lcd

I was aware I would void the warranty. To get rid os the 1024x768, well, it seemed worth it.

I contacted DB2DUDE via pm. Hope he is still around, as the issue he described sounds the same. Old post (2005), hope he is still around.

Gives me some hope that the issue is correctable.

Upgrade t43 xga screen to sxga (or other)

Upgrade t43 xga screen to sxga (or other)

worried about getting wrong part

comments on this one..

great

upgraded to uxga

display issue

still blank

yippeeee

was not the bt

bios updated, no effect

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