T23 lcd Dead Pixel ? NOT !

[Rick the Green]

Hi fellow thinkpadders !

I thought i'd share a resolved issue with my T23's LCD panel. The T23 was given to me 4 years ago, fixed what was wrong with it, put new HD, max out MEM, etc. The thinkpad was pretty much in mint condition except the Lcd panel.
Lcd panel is an XGA (Samsung LTN141XF-L01) and had a lot of dead pixels or at least that's what i thought at the time. They were dark pixels in lots of places, not stuck on any colors or white but dark dots. It went worse and worse over the years. A laptop part's guy in the area told me that all those T2x lcd panel were doing the same and could not find a replacement for me.

Anyway a month ago as i was installing wireless antennas as per Ray's instructions, i had the panel off the lid and close to my workbench light and ... low & behold i could see those supposedly dead pixels If could see those defects with the panel not energized they are NOT dead pixels At first it looked like particle of dust or sand, but how come those find there way in between the layers of the panel ?.

So i took apart the panel (done that many time before, ccfl replacements) and guess what i found between the layers ? Minutes flakes of black paint ! One the layers have about 1/8" of black paint all around the outside perimeter of the layer. Paint deteriorated i guess with usage of the laptop and cracked particles found there way in between the layers . So a careful removal of those with a bit a compressed air, taking care not to put fingerprint or other dust in the process brought me an almost new Lcd panel

So don't discard a LCD panel because of that !!

Rick the

[Majestic]

Thanks Rick for sharing your experience. It may come in handy some day.

[RealBlackStuff]

Hey, that's a new one to me! Good find!