Thinkpads Forum

I got a 15" UXGA panel from a R50p I want to swap into an R60e with XGA LCD. I know this is the T6x forum but I figured I would have better luck here with all the QXGA install threads and a few UXGA installs I saw. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any EDID's for UXGA screens (unless I missed them in which case I apologize) but plenty for QXGA. As far as I can tell, I just need to swap the lcd's, use an external monitor, and load the new EDID with powerstrip the same way as the QXGA guides. If anyone knows differently, please let me know. So all I need at this moment is an EDID for a 15" UXGA screen from T6x or R6x series.

Thanks in advance!

Lots of folks here with that screen ... How is the EDID pulled? Powerstrip?

I haven't messed around with powerstrip yet but I assume you can pull the EDID with it since you can use it to flash the new EDID. From what I've read, it needs to be the registered version though. Also, for the record, my UXGA panel is a 15" IDTECH N150U3-L01. I don't know if the EDID's change between panels so I guess I should be specific.

Here's the one for my UXGA IDtech panel which came with my T60p - N150U3-L01:
You might want to change the values at 0x10 and 0x11 with the manufacturer week and year, respectively.
Right now in the above 0x10='01' and 0x11='10'. This means that it is the first week of year 16. Year 16 means 1990+16. So if you LCD is from week 34 of year 2003, it should be 0x10='22' and 0x11='0D' .

Thank you! I'm off to do the surgery now. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Great, please do

Hmm....running into some problems. So when going through powerstrip and using the Update EDID option, the first thing that comes up is my external monitor and it says EEPROM Found SPT2091 in the titlebar of the window, so I click no and have it scan for additional monitors. It reports a monitor found on Port 1 but the titlebar says the same thing, EEPROM Found SPT2091. Is it really the onboard lcd or is it still asking to reprogram my external monitor? Regardless, I tried reprogramming it by unplugging my external monitor before I said ok but it told me there is an error with the EDID file. It says "This file does not appear to contain a valid EDID. Please check it in an edid editor."

So, I went and downloaded the QXGA EDID dat file from the QXGA thread, opened it in a hex editor, and went through and changed all the values so they looked like the ones you gave me for the UXGA lcd screen. I saved it and tried uploading that one but it's telling me the same thing. Right now I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do. Is there any way you could pm me or upload a dump of the actual EDID for your lcd so I can try that instead?

Am I missing something anywhere? For the record, the UXGA screen is lighting up like normal but the picture is all scrambled. It does appear to work though.

Hmm... that qxga.dat file is the exact one that I used on my copy of PowerStrip to update my QXGA panel to 50 Hz, so it should be valid.

It should be exactly 553 bytes long... try this, it's got the data from Troels, in the right format, and it opens properly in Phoenix EDID Designer, which is very, very picky about file length. http://bhtooefr.ath.cx/files/uxga.dat

Hmm, just out of curiosity, what does the following "folder" of the registry currently contain?

"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\DISPLAY\"

If nothing at all is detected in there other than the external display, then something is very odd...

Unfortunately, that one is giving me the same error. However, I opened my edited QXGA file with Phoenix EDID Designer, changed my manufacture dates to the ones on my LCD since I had already changed the data and resaved it. It seems to work now. Go figure. Only problem is, as I feared, I don't think powerstrip sees the EDID EEPROM on my UXGA screen. The first window that popped up was for my external LCD monitor and since the second one it found had the same name in the titlebar, I made sure to unplug it before trying the flash. While it was unplugged, the flash failed saying there was an error or the cable was too long or something. I tried going through the process again and clicked no to both windows that popped up hoping it'll pop up a third one for the UXGA screen but it can't find any more EDID EEPROMs after that. So is my only option the cable method? I'm kind of stumped right now.

To Troels:
Under that entry in my registry are the following folders:
Default_Monitor
IDT0011
LEN4040
NEC61BE
PNP09FE
SPT2091

The IDT is my uxga panel, the LEN4040 looks like the old 15" XGA, the SPT2091 is my external monitor, and the rest I have no idea.

I'm thinking of trying the cable route. Going through my scrap electronics parts right now. I got spare cables from T4x/T5x machines and my soldering skills are more than adequate for the room on the jae connector. Looking over the diagram, do I have to use the BC337's or can I use any NPN transistors? I have lots of different ones from old electronics but I don't see any BC337's from looking over them real quick and a quick search on radioshack's site came up with nothing so doubt they'll have them at my local store. Also, do you think 3V from 2 alkaline batteries would be adequate for power or do I need to go dig up the benchtop power supply to get 3.3V? I assume when you said use 3.3V instead of 5V you meant everywhere in the diagram where it references 5V, correct? Now just gotta find that breadboard.

Got to think of something. "This file does not appear to contain a valid EDID. Please check it in an edid editor." must be because i forgot to mention that this shouldn't be put in manually, since the checksum also must be updated/re-calculated. This is the 128'th hexadecimal value of the EDID which represents this. Phoenix EDID editor updates this, whenever something is modified.

From the registry entries, i'm wondering what IDT0011 is doing there. It should come from the EDID that you tried to flash to the LCD. Since it is in the registry, it means that something must have loaded it into there.
The other devices are monitors/projectors which has been connected to your Thinkpad. As long as windows wasn't re-installed, it is kept there.

I think that the EEPROM is more or less empty on the LCDs that were put into R5x/T4x series. The name in the titlebar seems to come from the current name of vendor+model of the LCD contained in the EDID. For example LEN4040. If it's empty, i'm not sure what the title bar would say.


Could you try http://www.entechtaiwan.com/lib/softmccs.shtm to see if it detects the UXGA LCD correctly, i.e. what is the name of the LCD?

If you don't get it to work with powerstrip, the cable method would also be possible. BC337 are comon in Europe i think... like 2NXXXX designations are comon in the US. A pair of 2N2222 would also be fine. Anything general-purpose NPN would do...

Yes, 3.3V everywhere in the diagram. I'd recommend a fixed output voltage voltage regulator .. like a LE33 or LM1086-3.3 . If the alkalines are new, sure 2 of these might just do the trick, but i'm afraid it won't take long before the voltage drops too much, so that readong/writing the eeprom is either not possible, or corruption occurs. It's hard to say

Sorry, I'm away for the 4th of July Holiday. I'll have to try when I get back. Thanks for all the help and suggestions so far though.

I want to replace XGA in R60e to UXGA from A31p.
I have written EDID in IDTech IAUX14S UXGA from A31p with N150U3-L01 binary file on EPROM Programmer.
After this it does not work on target R60e.
For testing purpose I have connected 15" XGA from Acer notebook and it works!
So, information about panel's vendor checking on 60-series is not correct at least for R60e.
According to datasheet IAUX14S from A31p has 8 pairs of LVDS signals while LP150X08-TLA8 only four ones.
Looks like R60e's cable does not have corresponding data lines or it's mainboard does not support it.

Hi again,
That is indeed interesting!
It must be able to work somehow, here's a QXGA (8 lines too) in an R60e: http://space.taobao.com/bc1ff1e229dbc29 ... 563375.htm

What happens when you connect the UXGA display to the R60e and turn it on? Nothing on the LCD at all, or?
Could you send me the contents of the 15" XGA EEPROM that works on the R60e?

Troels wrote:Hi again,
That is indeed interesting!
It must be able to work somehow, here's a QXGA (8 lines too) in an R60e: http://space.taobao.com/bc1ff1e229dbc29 ... 563375.htm

According to Intel's GMA LVSD manual p/n 315975-001 GMA supports resulutions upto UXGA, not QXGA.

Troels wrote: What happens when you connect the UXGA display to the R60e and turn it on? Nothing on the LCD at all, or?

Absolutely nothing.

Troels wrote: Could you send me the contents of the 15" XGA EEPROM that works on the R60e?

[/quote]

I'll read it tomorrow.

My UXGA panel does turn on. The picture is all scrambled though. It was pulled from a 15" R50p and is an IDTech N150U3-L01 P/N: 92P6672 FRU: 92P6683 and date code of 04/30. My first attempt at using the cable method failed. I'm not sure where the problem was but I couldn't get ponyprog to detect the chip to program it. I'll have to recheck everything to make sure everything is right and all connections are solid. Might just be easier to try building it from scratch again.

For the record, that program you linked earlier did detect the UXGA screen when it was hooked up. It identified as an IDT0011 I believe like the entry in my registry. I am curious as to why it could see it but powerstrip couldn't. I'll probably get another chance to work on it Saturday so I'll update then.

Scrambled as in a lot of redish-grey-blue (or so) horizontal lines?

I've modified that EDID i posted earlier,since it didn't work on 3266fast's IAUX14S either... the following does (corrected with the 4/30 manufacturer date and correct checksum), so use that from now on :
A binary file for the cable method is also available at: http://peecee.dk/upload/download/179939

Not exactly. The colors are correct and it's trying to show the right picture but everything is scrambled into a bunch of horizontal lines. I might have to take a picture to show what I'm talking about.

Ok, finally got around to taking a couple of pictures and reading the edid info from the xga and uxga lcd's using that edid viewer program.

Here's the xga edid: http://www.filefactory.com/file/ahde1dd/n/xga_rtf
Here's the uxga edid: http://www.filefactory.com/file/ahde1dg/n/uxga_rtf

And here's a couple of pics of what shows up on the uxga lcd: http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/3808/dscn0144.jpg and http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/1918/dscn0145pam.jpg

That's what a plain windows desktop looks like on the uxga lcd.

I wonder if the panels aren't compatible, even though other R50p panels (*cough*QXGA*cough*) are?

The IDTech N150U3-L01 from R50p should be compatible (with T60 at least). I installed one to a T60p yesterday, and was quite surprised to get it working right away, without updating edid.

maro98 wrote:Ok, finally got around to taking a couple of pictures and reading the edid info from the xga and uxga lcd's using that edid viewer program.

Here's the xga edid: http://www.filefactory.com/file/ahde1dd/n/xga_rtf
Here's the uxga edid: http://www.filefactory.com/file/ahde1dg/n/uxga_rtf

And here's a couple of pics of what shows up on the uxga lcd: http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/3808/dscn0144.jpg and http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/1918/dscn0145pam.jpg

That's what a plain windows desktop looks like on the uxga lcd.

Thanks for the pictures. And yes, that looks bad. You have seen the UXGA panel work on the R50p before, or did you buy the panel from someone with a R50p?
The EDID that you used, which one in this thread did you use?
By opening it in Phoenix EDID designer, the manufacturer defined string and block 2 reads as ";=JL" and "Idtech" for block 3. Finding the same field in an EDID i posted just above is "°2@@À" for block 2, "©C2©C(" for block 3, and this one is supposed to work.


Very interesting, Nihan. I have a N150U3-L01 (week 23, 2005) which doesn't work in the T60p without re-flashing it. The EDID was nearly empty - it doesn't show any image.
Maybe there are differences between what the EEPROMs contain, wouldn't these actually be flashed inhouse by Lenovo or IBM?

Yes, the panel works. It worked fine on the R50p and an R51 that I tested it on. I have been having problems trying to reflash the edid which is probably why it isn't working. The edid I posted is the one it originally came with. Powerstrip couldn't find the edid eeprom to flash it when I had it installed in the R60e and my first attempt at using the cable method also failed. I don't have much free time to work on it which is why I haven't had a chance to rebuild the cable method programmer yet. I'm pretty confident that if I can flash the eeprom the panel will work. The problem seems to be actually flashing it.

I was originally going to put the panel in my old R51 with SXGA+ as an upgrade to hopefully keep me from trying to sell it for a little while longer. Then I happened to get the R60e at a steal of a price because it was supposedly not working. Turns out both sticks of ram were bad so a big win for me. That and a couple of plastic pieces need to be replaced because they are cracked. Unfortunately, I can't stand the tiny XGA resolution as I have been spoiled and nothing less than SXGA+ will do for me anymore.

Ok, well I got around to rebuilding the cable programmer and figured out my problem. I soldered one of the 4 wires that goes to the lcd cable to the wrong pin the first time. That's what I get for not double checking my connections. I backed up the original data and flashed the new file that was last uploaded here. I hooked the panel back up, crossed my fingers, and hit the power button. The same thing as before is happening. It looks exactly like in my pictures.

So I got to thinking, maybe it isn't the lcd but the system itself. I happen to have another R60e but the problem is it has a bios password on it. It wasn't much of a problem since it still booted up so long as I didn't need to change anything in the bios.....until I pulled the cmos battery one day. Now since the time and date got reset, every time I boot it up it needs the bios password in order to set the date and time which I don't have so I can't get any further than that. Regardless, just for process of elimination purposes I tried hooking it up to that system, and guess what? It works!! I'm using the same cable and inverter for both systems so the problem has to be with the system somewhere.

Now if I could find someone to help me remove the bios password on the system it works with, I can sell the one it doesn't work on and keep the other. Anyone have any suggestions?

Ah ok... i thought the cable was "semi-working", i.e. sometimes causing errors to occur, so i thought the EDID might just have been corrupted. But great to hear you got the cable working

Does the XGA LCD work as intended on the R60e without the BIOS password ?
I honestly don't know why the UXGA would work as intended on one R60e, but not on the other, unless the board is broken, but then the XGA LCD shouldn't work much different.

For the fun of it, and if you suddenly find a lot of sparetime - could reflash it back to the stock R50p UXGA EDID which it came with, and see if it still works in the BIOS PW'ed R60e? I must admit that this EDID seems to contain a lot of information compared to the QXGA stock edid

Yes, the XGA works fine on the non passworded r60e with the same cable and inverter. It's the screen the laptop came with. I have to admit, it's also got me confused. Why would the XGA work but the UXGA not work in one R60e, and then both screens work in the other R60e? It just doesn't make sense. If something on the board is broken or burned out or whatever, you'd think it would affect all screens and not just the UXGA. It's a long shot, but do you think maybe bios might have something to do with it? I'm running the latest bios on the machine it doesn't work on. As for the one it does, well I can't get into the bios to check. I might try downgrading a couple of versions to see if it starts working.

If nothing else, at least this proves UXGA can be installed on some r60e's. Maybe there's an incompatibility with some?

The other thing I'm thinking... maybe a damaged capacitor or something, causing it to fail at the higher transfer rates that a QXGA panel needs?

SUCCESS!!!! Just some tweaking left.

So, I got to thinking, maybe the problem is with some of the settings in the edid file? So I extracted the edid data from the XGA screen and compared them to the UXGA data in phoenix editor. I went under the detailed timings section and changed everything except the two fields for the resolution to what was in the XGA file. Extracted the raw data, renamed to .bin, flashed with cable method, booted it up, and now it works! Only problem is that the max refresh rate it will let me use is 27 Hz so you can actually see the lcd refreshing if you look hard enough. I just need to tweak the file in phoenix editor and see if I can get it to 60 Hz and still work.

Thanks everyone for the help up till now. When I finalize the file, I'll post it here for anyone else who might need it. That's if I can get it up to 60 Hz or some acceptable level of course.

Ok, so I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or whether it's a limitation of the integrated graphics or my board actually is damaged, but the highest refresh rate I can get is 46 Hz before it starts automatically resizing to a smaller resolution when it gets into windows or screwing up the picture like before. When I cranked it up to 50, it went from 1600x1200 to 1600x900 resolution and wouldn't give me the 1600x1200 option anymore. I'll need to do some testing with games and video but from the few minutes I've been playing with it, 46 Hz seems to be acceptable.

Anyways, it's past midnight and I'm sick and tired of messing with it for now.

Here is the .dat file for anyone that is interested: http://www.filefactory.com/file/ahe391b ... _final_dat
and here is the .bin file for the cable method: http://www.filefactory.com/file/ahe391a ... _final_bin