Installing QXGA screen on T60p

[pianowizard]

pianowizard is the resident qxga wizard around here.

Please, don't say that! I use a very different method to install the QXGA panel into my T43p. It's simpler and less risky, but also less elegant than the method developed by Troels, catdog and those guys on that Chinese forum.

catdog, thanks so much for the effort and for describing in detail how you did it. At this point, I am not tempted to try it because I am perfectly happy with my T43p (which is pretty much just as powerful as the T60p IMO, and prettier too). But if I change my mind in the future, I will definitely come back to this thread and follow your and Troels' instructions.

[DB2Dude]

I've just placed an order for a couple QXGA panels and will be doing some interesting modding shortly. I also purchased a T61p 14". My intention is to combine the QXGA panel, the T61p system board with T9300 CPU, an advanced mini-dock with DVI (hopefully dual-link with the nvidia GPU on this board), and a 20.8" QXGA LCD (Iiyama Q5311D... same panel as IBM T210).

by the way, what is a good option today for a 250-320GB drive? I'd want quiet, cool, fast, and reliable... at a reasonable price.

One of the panels will go into an R60. Haven't decided whether or not to sell my R60e with UXGA panel so that I might replace it with a T60 for the second QXGA panel.

[catdog]

I've just placed an order for a couple QXGA panels and will be doing some interesting modding shortly. I also purchased a T61p 14". My intention is to combine the QXGA panel, the T61p system board with T9300 CPU, an advanced mini-dock with DVI (hopefully dual-link with the nvidia GPU on this board), and a 20.8" QXGA LCD (Iiyama Q5311D... same panel as IBM T210).

by the way, what is a good option today for a 250-320GB drive? I'd want quiet, cool, fast, and reliable... at a reasonable price.

One of the panels will go into an R60. Haven't decided whether or not to sell my R60e with UXGA panel so that I might replace it with a T60 for the second QXGA panel.

That's great, I just bought a T60 15" XGA and another 15" QXGA to do my second transplant; this machine will be running XP and the T60p will be running vista 64 for my computational work. I thought of getting a T43p but the T60 (core duo) with x300 ATI was $380 on craigslist while the T43p (single core) were $200-300 more expensive. Keep us updated on your dream machine.
PS; i have the WD 320 (before black edition was available) and it runs cool and is fast.

[spacejunk]

I have also installed a T60P with QXGA panel and wanted to update this thread with a little more info.

1) There was a question as to whether a IAQX10S panel would work. I install the IAQX10S and it works so both the IAQX10N and IAQX10S will work with the proper EDID.
2) It's OK to modify other fields in the 128 byte EDID as long as you maintain the manufacturer defined string in block 3 of the detailed timing tab. I haven't change all the fields to test this theory but I think this is the field the BIOS is checking during boot.
3) You will lose the keyboard light because the connector mounting location on the QXGA is lower than the UXGA panel causing the cable to the light to be too short. Need to cut off the cable from the main ribbon cable.

Pretty straight forward swap using the instructions in this thread. I also swapped the UXGA panel in my T43P to QXGA and the T60P was faster because of the fewer steps it took to get the LCD off.

[wild_bill]

I think all of you in this QXGA thread must have Superman eyes, I have SXGA+ and am afraid that even UXGA on a 15" would put these 47 year old eyes into a fiery burnout

[lophiomys]

You should always be able to increase gerneral font sizes via the OS.
Even with big fonts QXGA resolutions would give you the advantage
of very clear and sharp edged character display, which should be more
easy on your eyes, compared to a more "grainy" LCD.

[yak]

Guys, your accomplishments are really great!

But... pics or it didn't happen

[electron73]

UTTER, TOTAL AND COMPLETE SUCCESS!!!! YEAH BABE!
Troels, here is the deal:
Extracted the stock T60P UXGA eeprom data, manually entered it to make the edid editor read it then modified only the clock rate and the height and width of the QXGA and then exported it out and then burned it into the QXGA panel. So only thing modified was the clock, 1600 to 2048 and 1200 to 1536. Did not change anything else and presumably the secret lenovo data got transferred from the UXGA to the QXGA panel.
Fired up vista and thinkpad sign at bios now shows up and the screen is glorious. I am going to upload the bin file when i can figure out how to do that. Thank you again for everything, you really provided all the pieces and am indebted to you. Now i hope my wife talks to me again since i wasted the whole weekend. Best

Addon: can't figure out how to attach bin file, here is the byte table that worked as shown in phoenix edid editor:

EDID BYTES:
0x 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F
------------------------------------------------
00 | 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF 00 30 AE 46 40 00 00 00 00
10 | 00 0F 01 03 80 1E 16 78 EA BD 30 91 54 4F 8B 26
20 | 21 50 54 21 08 00 81 80 A9 40 01 01 01 01 01 01
30 | 01 01 01 01 01 01 29 40 00 30 82 00 32 60 40 C0
40 | 13 00 30 E4 10 00 00 19 29 40 00 30 82 00 32 60
50 | 40 C0 13 00 30 E4 10 00 00 19 00 00 00 0F 00 A9
60 | 43 32 A9 43 28 14 02 00 09 E5 00 00 00 00 00 FE
70 | 00 48 56 31 35 30 55 58 31 2D 31 30 30 0A 00 AC

Which verison of the Phoenix editor did you use?
If I enter this information into an ascii file and open it with phoenix 1.3 I get a warning that "This EDID Structure is not Verion 1 Revision 3". It then changes some of the bytes if you save it back to a different file.

[Troels]

Which verison of the Phoenix editor did you use?
If I enter this information into an ascii file and open it with phoenix 1.3 I get a warning that "This EDID Structure is not Verion 1 Revision 3". It then changes some of the bytes if you save it back to a different file.

Hmm, it must mean that there's a space somewhere in the table which shouldn't be there. Try pasting it all in notepad using a monospaced font such as Courier or Courier New. The first line of the document should contain "EDID BYTES:" without the quotations. Let me know if there's still a problem

[crashnburn]

I've just placed an order for a couple QXGA panels and will be doing some interesting modding shortly. I also purchased a T61p 14". My intention is to combine the QXGA panel, the T61p system board with T9300 CPU, an advanced mini-dock with DVI (hopefully dual-link with the nvidia GPU on this board), and a 20.8" QXGA LCD (Iiyama Q5311D... same panel as IBM T210).

by the way, what is a good option today for a 250-320GB drive? I'd want quiet, cool, fast, and reliable... at a reasonable price.

One of the panels will go into an R60. Haven't decided whether or not to sell my R60e with UXGA panel so that I might replace it with a T60 for the second QXGA panel.

If this can be done on a T61 I'd really consider doing it. Any thoughts / updates on this front?

DB2Dude / Troels / Catdog ?

[spacejunk]

Yes it can. I have built 4 T61P QXGA machines. I listed a few things to watch out for in this thread:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=88859

[crashnburn]

Yes it can. I have built 4 T61P QXGA machines. I listed a few things to watch out for in this thread:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=88859

Wow! I would bug you a bit about guiding me: firstly, which T61 machines too look for and where to get the QXGA LCD

PS: You in Torrance.. ah! near American Honda. Nice place to be.

[spacejunk]

Any T61 14.1" 4:3 motherboard will fit in the 15" T60 chassis. You can get a QXGA panel for ~$100 here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWAX:IT

[jketzetera]

The QXGA-panel you linked to is the IAQX10S model. To my understanding it has a 60ms avg response time while the IAQX10N has a 30ms avg response time.

I would argue that If you are going through the hassle of doing a QXGA-mod, you might as well spend a bit more extra cash and get IAQX10N version.

[spacejunk]

Yes, the link is to the older IAQX10S. When I was looking 3 months ago the only place I found that had the IAQX10N in stock was bigstock.com for $189 (over $200 shipped).

http://www.bigestock.com/detail.php?pri ... rt=1541561

I have built using both types and I think both screens are equally awesome, of course I don't play games on my Thinkpad so never noticed the differences in response time. Up to individual buyer to decide if the IAQX10N is twice as awesome as the IAQX10S based on price. Both are getting harder to find. A year ago I could easily find a new IAQX10N for around $125 but prices have crept up.

[crashnburn]

Thanks spacejunk. So, let me get this straight...

QXGA - From vendor
15" 4:3 Chassis / Body from T60 (not any T61/p)
Motherboard from T61 (Any T61.. or certain ones.. 15" / 15.4" / 14.1" ?)

Do I need special LCD cable / Inverter board etc?

PS: Lets say I order a QXGA LCD and I dont have ALL the remaining right stuff with me - i.e. T60/T61 chassis. Is there some way that I can test its A-okay... as I slowly acquire the parts?

[spacejunk]

QXGA - From vendor
15" 4:3 Chassis / Body from T60 (not any T61/p)
Motherboard from T61 (Any T61.. or certain ones.. 15" / 15.4" / 14.1" ?)

Yes, plus PC card cage and HSF from T61. I would get those from IBM parts for around $40 total

Do I need special LCD cable / Inverter board etc?

Just re-use the LCD cable one that comes from a T60 since they are all the same. Also use the SXGA+/UXGA inverter (42T0079) from a T60

PS: Lets say I order a QXGA LCD and I dont have ALL the remaining right stuff with me - i.e. T60/T61 chassis. Is there some way that I can test its A-okay... as I slowly acquire the parts?

Not really unless you already possess a working T60/T61 you can test with. The most economical way to build this Thinkpad is to buy a complete 15" T60 that has a broken motherboard and/or LCD, you should be able to get one for under $100 on eBay. Then get the T61 motherboard, LCD, and parts. The most expensive part is the motherboard because 4:3 14.1" T61s are pretty rare. Expect to pay upwards of $300 for a new T61 motherboard. Also most broken T60s on eBay come with missing parts (hard drive, optical drive, palmrest, etc...) so you have to source the missing parts also.

[crashnburn]

One thing I am trying to figure out is..

Body, Frame, LCD Inverter - Have to be from the T60 (could it be from the XGA one?)
Motherboard of course has to be - T61 (does it come with the CPU..? Also what model number / part number of Motherboard works)
PC Card cage & HSF (What is HSF??) - From T61
Are all the OTHER PARTS... CD, HDD, WiFi, RAM, etc etc .. All other cards INTER-REPLACEABLE? They could come from T60 or T61?
I am guessing there might be some exceptions.. So please guide on which of these... have to be from a T61, which have to be from T60 and which can be from EITHER of TWO

It would help to know so when I pick up those T60/T61s I know what I need to be alive, what can be dead / broken / gone.

Thanks.

[RealBlackStuff]

You can use a T60 with XGA, but you then need to buy an SXGA+/UXGA inverter separately (42T0079) for the conversion.

[Kamika007z]

Hello All,

I have a T61p 14.1 (4:3) SXGA+ model... I would like to install a QSXGA (or a QXGA), is this possible?

If so, am I thinking through this correctly that since I have an SXGA+ currently, I should move to a QSXGA - or is it just a QXGA?

Any insight with helping me understand this all would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you!!

[Troels]

Hi Kamika007z,

Well, the QXGA panel is 15" so you would need a 15" 4:3 chassis from a T60/p. You can use your T61p motherboard in a 15" T60/p - but it really does involve a lot of work of putting it all together. I have not performed this operation myself, just heard and read from others who have completed this transformation.

SXGA+ = 1400x1050
QXGA = 2048x1536
QSXGA = 2560x2048

The video card will only be able to drive up to the QXGA resolution since it has been decided that this resolution should be a maximum. Quite conveniently, the 2xLVDS interface (signaling to the LCD) is by some sort of industry standard considered to be maximized with regards to clock speeds. Going higher would make the demands for a properly designed PCB layout at the LCD driver board and ensuring that each of the lines in the LCD cable have the exact same (electrical) length.

So in short... QSXGA panels don't really exist*, let alone laptop panels. Monitors such as the WQUXGA IBM T221 exists, but it uses (?) two dual-link DVI interfaces (~4xLVDS) so that it refreshes at 48 Hz.


*) Some medical LCD displays are an exception to this rule.

[Kamika007z]

Hi Troels,

Thank you so much for the detailed explanation!!

I think I'm going to stick to the 14.1 4:3 chasis for now since it's more portable for my needs

Thanks again!