Thinkpad T42 Replacement Screen Issue

[uberamd]

The backlight died on my T42 XGA LCD (1024x768 resolution). I ordered a new LCD (SXGA+ 1400x10XX resolution) to replace it. I got it all screwed in, however when powering it on the screen image is severely distorted. Very very severely. The bottom right quadrant of the image displays in the top left of the lcd, the bottom left quadrant shows up in the top right, etc. It is impossible to use.

So to troubleshoot, I removed the LCD and plugged the LCD cable into a old 15.4" widescreen 1280x800 Acer LCD I had lying around, and boom it worked. Clearly it didn't work 100% since the T42 cannot output at a widescreen resolution, but the image was clear and workable.

So I am torn. Is it a defective LCD? Or, can you not take a T42 that originally had the 1024x768 screen and put a SXGA+ high-resolution screen inside?

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

[ajkula66]

Welcome to the forum!

When going from XGA to SXGA+ on a T4x unit, you must also replace the LCD cable and inverter with the correct ones, since these are resolution-specific.

You should count your lucky stars for not blowing a fuse on the motherboard with that Acer LCD experiment, though.

Hope this helps and good luck..