T60 - How would I do an LED mod?

[connect5]

I have a t60 with Windows XP that runs surprisingly fast, even on the web. It comes with a 1400 x 1050 flexview display, but it is dim and yellowed. I heard that doing an LED mod can make the yellowing less visible (and I don't really mind it anyways as long as I can see the screen in brighter areas)

But how do I do it? I found this german guy that explains how to do it without opening the display layers so that there's less chance to break it and no dust will get in, but it's hard to understand (since it's in german)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L5mJTr1jjY

I also don't know where to find a kit that would have brightness adjustment and all the status LEDs working, the recommendations on here all seem to be dead links now.
I live in Canada so it'd have to ship here.

[theterminator93]

The only way I know of is upgrading the 15" models by swapping out the original CCFL panel for an AFFS panel made by Hydis - HV150UX2-100. The pinout for the LCD is backwards compared to the original panels, and the best solution is to reverse the connector on the LCD cable by unsoldering it, and resoldering it back on upside-down. There's also a little 14-pin connector on the LCD for backlight power and control that needs to be addressed. https://sites.google.com/site/twisteroi ... -3-t60-t61 shows one possible solution.

RealBlackStuff developed a nicely streamlined process to do this compacted down to a modded cable and inverter, but he no longer does the mod. He may still have a modded cable and inverter to sell, if you ask nicely.

[connect5]

The only way I know of is upgrading the 15" models by swapping out the original CCFL panel for an AFFS panel made by Hydis - HV150UX2-100. The pinout for the LCD is backwards compared to the original panels, and the best solution is to reverse the connector on the LCD cable by unsoldering it, and resoldering it back on upside-down. There's also a little 14-pin connector on the LCD for backlight power and control that needs to be addressed. https://sites.google.com/site/twisteroi ... -3-t60-t61 shows one possible solution.

RealBlackStuff developed a nicely streamlined process to do this compacted down to a modded cable and inverter, but he no longer does the mod. He may still have a modded cable and inverter to sell, if you ask nicely.

So there is no way to swap the ccfl with LED in the current panel I have? I have zero interest in paying $300+ for a HV150UX2-100 on a laptop that's over a decade old, and the current panel just needs a new light and is IPS.

[TPFanatic]

You can. You would likely buy an LED conversion kit like from iccfl. You replace the CCFL tube with a retrofit LED strip and likely replace the inverter with a modified version for the LEDs.

I did a retrofit on a T500, I made some mistakes that damaged the LCD and I found the modified inverter to have poor grounding that caused misbehavior of the status indicator lights. I wound up reinstalling an original CCFL-lit LCD because I could not stand to look at my poor result.

[connect5]

You can. You would likely buy an LED conversion kit like from iccfl. You replace the CCFL tube with a retrofit LED strip and likely replace the inverter with a modified version for the LEDs.

I did a retrofit on a T500, I made some mistakes that damaged the LCD and I found the modified inverter to have poor grounding that caused misbehavior of the status indicator lights. I wound up reinstalling an original CCFL-lit LCD because I could not stand to look at my poor result.

Is the one from iccfl good? And do you know any foolproof method with text written instructions? The video is hard to understand and I don't want to damage the expensive screen.

[TPFanatic]

Negative. iccfl is just an example of a vendor I know, but I think I bought my kit on eBay. I remember having to break open the corner of the LCD where the ccfl tube lived to extract it. I disassembled the LCD more than necessary and got dirt infiltration between the layers. It was unclear how to orient the LED strip and whatever I did was suboptimal, I got glowy lights at the bottom of the display with noticable dimming toward the top. Maybe with more practice I would work my way to a better result, but I never tried again.

[Robsa990]

I would not recommend LED modding the 15 inch flexview panel if it's the LP150E05 (A2-K1) as it will introduce an annoying pattern across the bottom of the screen.

Here are a couple of pictures I took 2 years ago when playing around with a sacrificial one (it was already broken as seen on the right hand side)

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

[unixed]

Just replace the the CCFL backlight with a new one. Search the forum for how to do that with minimal panel disassembly to prevent dust ingress. A few forum members have posted howto's, the latest is by RBS iirc. It is hard to get flawless results by simply replacing the CCFL with an LED backlight, just search the X61 forum to see the effort members have gone through to try and achieve that.

[zoltan87]

Not sure whether you have already come to a solution on your project, but I thought I will link one of my threads here, where I detail my experience how LED modding one of these T60 Flexview screens was for me:
https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.p ... %2FFrankie).

In short, the results can be incredible (not just much better brightness, but also better colours, contrast and every other screen quality really), BUT to achieve optimal results without damage, dust contamination, light bleed around the edges/corners, wavy background, light uniformity issues, is EXTREMELY difficult. I would say without practice, as a first try, it's impossible. I had two of those Flexview screens, and none of them turned out to be perfect after modding. As a matter of fact, the one that was worse just got destroyed by me a few weeks ago, after I tried to disassemble it and fix the issue it had: a darker right side on the screen, where a damaged/bent part of the backlight tunnel slightly protruded in front of the LEDs, causing a vertical darker area on the right edge of the screen. So now the screen is completely broken. It's painful, as these screens are quite rare now, and can be really expensive too.

Also I have no idea what (if any) good LED kits are available for the T60 now. The kits I bought for my machines were made by a guy called Xiphmont, who put an enormous effort into every detail of his kits (proper colour temperature of the LEDs, functioning LED indicators on the inverter, PWM free dimming, and insanely high max brightness, far better than even many modern screens). Unfortunately he seem to have completely disappeared, so those kits can't be sourced anymore. I wish there was a more modern thread/video with some currently available LED conversion kits, I really do wonder how good or bad they perform.

[RealBlackStuff]

HOW TO replace a CCFL/Backlight in your LCD
The 15" LCD in question was used in A3x and T4x models.

As mentioned before, I no longer do the LED-mod.
I did sell the LED-strips plus their (cut out) control-panels from two broken HV150UX2-100 screens.
Don't know if or how the buyer applied those.