Vertical lines on LCD on T41. Replace? Upgrade?

[jack b]

Hi all. I suspect this has been done before, but couldn't find it, so here goes...

I have a T41 2373-SG1, and I have vertical lines appearing on the screen. First a red line appeared, a centimetre in from the left edge, then a yellow one about 10cm in. They are one pixel wide, and go all the way across. They persist over reboots, even if allowing the machine to cool, and are not present on an external display. I assume this means individual lines of subpixels are not being driven, and so are stuck on.

edit: I've been messing with the GIMP. The stuck rows are two subpixels each, R and B for the red line, R and G for the yellow one. The other subpixel works.

Is there any point opening it up and reseating connections? Or is this a component failure thing. If it is I guess I have to replace the LCD assembly.

I have measured the diagonal as about 14", so I guess I'd be looking for a new 14.1" screen. Is there anything else I need to look out for? I have an 802.11 a/b/g card, does that matter? I believe the antenna is in the lcd assembly. I don't have bluetooth. Is anything country specific to the UK?

What about upgrading the screen? The thinkwiki says 1400x1050 screens were also used in T41s. I only have the 32MB Radeon Moblility 7500 though, can this drive a bigger screen? I guess I'd need a new connection cable too. Is there a good upgrade guide somewhere?

edit: I found this: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=67443, which I should probably have found before. It says SXGA+ is possible, but makes the GPU run hot. Anyone know how much hotter? or what kind of impact it has on lifetime (heavy use, some gaming)?

Thanks for your time
Jack

[virge]

I have two LCDs with vertical lines and reseating the connectors made no difference. I think you are right in that it is a failure in the panel itself.

As for stressing the GPU, I don't have any quantitative data, but I haven't had any problems running higher resolution panels. Then again, I don't do anything graphics intensive.

[sjthinkpader]

The TFT LCD column drivers are mounted on a flex circuit then attached to the glass. Single pixel wide bright lines are usually the column drive detaching from the flex circuit or the flex circuit detaching from the glass.

Time for a new LCD.

[jack b]

update: one of the lines has gone, and the other is right at the edge of the screen, so for now I'll just live with it. When I have some more free time, I might look at fitting an SXGA+ screen.
I guess it's fairly simple, just follow the HMM? or do I need to update any software/firmware stuff?
Doen anyone have figures on GPU temps for a radeon 7500 with SXGA+? with the XGA screen it runs at about 40-45C, most of the time, probably more with gaming. If it's much hotter I could use some more agressive fan settings.

Thanks for your help virge and sjthinkpader.

Jack

[sjthinkpader]

The 7500 will run hotter with SXGA+ since there are more pixels to process. You may want to find a long fan even the 7500 is missing heat spreader top found on 9000 and 9600.