Thinkpads Forum

I just purchased a refurbished T60P 15" type 2007-YS3. After using it for more then 30 minutes, it looks like the brightness isn't the best. The white is greyish/blueish at maximum brightness (7). I compared it to my T60 type 2007-73U and my T61 type 6464-4YU and the screen is definitely not as bright. My T42s are also bright.
I contacted the seller as I have a 90 days warranty and he told me that they are all the same greyish tint.
Does it seems normal or is there an adjustment that can be done?
Here is a link to the pictures, you will see what I am talking about :
https://picasaweb.google.com/lemmerde/L ... directlink

I would say the brightness of my T61 is in between your 2 screens.

I happen to NOT like a bright screen, as it feels like I am looking into a lightbulb.
The only time I like a brighter screen is when I am doing photo editing, and the amount of white on the screen is MUCH less than when using an application like Excel which is almost all white.

I just had 12 of this exact model in my office, they looked bright and beautiful, but one thing I did notice is the ATI fireGL seems to change the look of the display. When I get back to the office I'll look at the settings to see if it can be tweeked. Compared to a generic VGA driver the colors look richer and more lifelike, but might be a touch darker.

If you want to experiment, try switching to a generic video driver and see if it changes, or look for settings in your ati control panel. I happen to notice this because I booted up the systems from a harddrive that didn't have the ati drivers, then when I installed a drive and loaded all the latest drivers, I noticed a difference.

Again just to be clear on this, the screen looks better with the ati drivers, but might be a touch darker.

Here is a screenshot from one of them, but you can't really compare pictures taken under different conditions, but here it is nonetheless.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/777/img0351im.jpg

Interesting thread

Now I will not have any answers, just going to add my own .02

I recently sold to another member here a T60 14" SXGA+ screen, brand new, well recently refurbished/replacement by Lenovo I guess. When they got it they noticed right away that it wasn't as bright as their old screen, and that the white wasn't all that white and it was the same as what your pictures depict.

I offered to make it right with this other forum member, and I was able to, but during this time I was able to do my own comparisons with around 7 or 8 other T60 SXGA+ 14" screens I had available at the time.

So I set up 2 screens side by side (in a bare bones system bootable with some test drives I had), and compared the brightness between them. Powered by A/C and brightness on 7. I kept the brighter one there, and replaced the other with the next one to test. And kept going until I had gone through them all seeing how bright there all were.

Things to note about all of these 1) all screens had been replaced by Lenovo at one point in time and were sitting in inventory 2) all were in a completely assembled LCD assembly 3) all of these assemblies had a VGA cable that was in "used" condition 4) all of these assemblies had an inverter card that was in "used" condition.

So when considering these were all refurbished/replacement screens by Lenovo and had hadn't been used since being replaced, a couple were pretty bad, then some a bit better, then a couple others were certainly bright. But quite a few resembled system 2007-YS3 in your pictures.

So I'll add my own question to this mainly because I am curious - what causes this? Is it the back light in the screen itself, or the vga cable, or inverter, or ??

Very interesting point about how all "new" screen are not the same. I hope that some one will be able to explain as I don't know if I should keep my T60P or not.

I only see one screen and it seems pretty white as I can't compare.

TuuS wrote: Here is a screenshot from one of them, but you can't really compare pictures taken under different conditions, but here it is nonetheless.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/777/img0351im.jpg

Obviously this appears to be the reason lenovo dropped the ips screens. They do seem to age. Currently I have only one, so I can't do side by side comparisons, but as I stated, all the ones I had looked the same.

I did do some testing on the one I had and when I booted from a harddrive with generic vga drivers, the screen looked whiter then with the ATI catalyst driver, but the Control Panal has settings where you can adjust the brightness, as well as the color settings. I think it just defaults to a warmer more comfortable brightness as defaut settings.

Although I do think a bright screen is nice, I also don't like to look at a screen that hurts my eyes because the white is too bright, so I think this is a good thing.

I suggest you try tweaking your settings and see what you think.

The main cause of 'weaker' light/brightness is an aging CCFL.
Eventually these will start to turn pink, all the way up to almost red, and then die.
Replacing the CCFL will bring these screens back to 'normal' life.
There are different quality and brightness CCFLs, so check thoroughly when you buy replacement tubes.
These are some of the major suppliers: http://www.lcdparts.net/ and http://www.ccflwarehouse.com/
I prefer the latter. I think they make better CCFLs and also have cheaper shipping charges.
Some polarizers also turn yellowish over time. However, these can also be replaced.
In my experience, IDTech and TMD (Toshiba) screens seem to retain colors best and longest, followed closely by BoeHydis (Hyundai). YMMV.
I'm not a fan of any Hitachi or Samsung screens, LG Philips are acceptable middle of the road.

How hard is it to replace the CCFL bulb? Are you sure it will take care of the screen brightness? The screen is a LG Philips LP154W02 TL06.

RealBlackStuff wrote:The main cause of 'weaker' light/brightness is an aging CCFL.
Eventually these will start to turn pink, all the way up to almost red, and then die.
Replacing the CCFL will bring these screens back to 'normal' life.
There are different quality and brightness CCFLs, so check thoroughly when you buy replacement tubes.
These are some of the major suppliers: http://www.lcdparts.net/ and http://www.ccflwarehouse.com/
I prefer the latter. I think they make better CCFLs and also have cheaper shipping charges.
Some polarizers also turn yellowish over time. However, these can also be replaced.
In my experience, IDTech and TMD (Toshiba) screens seem to retain colors best and longest, followed closely by BoeHydis (Hyundai). YMMV.
I'm not a fan of any Hitachi or Samsung screens, LG Philips are acceptable middle of the road.

Backlight replacement is NOT for the faint at heart.

While a new CCFL will most certainly make the screen brighter, chances of ruining the LCD during the process are fairly high.

Been there, done that and chose to leave it to professionals. YMMV.

lemmerdeur wrote:How hard is it to replace the CCFL bulb? Are you sure it will take care of the screen brightness? The screen is a LG Philips LP154W02 TL06.

See my post here about CCFL replacement: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=88991
Please not that it is about IDTech LCDs (such as used in A31p, T43p and others).
Personally I refuse to work on Hitachi, and am rather leary of Samsung. Have not come across LG Philips yet.
A new CCFL will definitely improve brightness.

I posted a similar question and the fix for me was to go into BIOS and change the Display setting from Normal to High.
Do this before going into drastic measures like changing the CCFL.

OMG! I just was thinking the same thing. I just ordered a T61 8889-02U and noticed the screen brightness, clarity and colors were above and beyond better than my T60 2008-VEP.

I just assumed that the T61 had better LCD/LED tech for the screen than the older T60 series.

Can anyone confirm that the T60 screen is as bright and rich as the T61?

I never noticed how dim my T60 is and now wonder has it been dimming over the years gradually and I didn't notice or was it always as dim because of old tech for the screen!

Both your T60 and T61 have the same screen, a 14.1" SXGA+ in 4:3 format.
The difference might be in the manufacturer of the LCD and in their age.
It's mostly LCDs from Samsung and LG-Philips, where the latter has the better screen (in 14.1" size).