Thinkpads Forum

I have an x61t w/ the low res screen and pen input only. I am wondering if it's possible to upgrade it somehow to be like the model with multitouch. So far google has turned up fruitless. Is it possible to buy a screen with that capability and just put it in?

you could probably swap the digitizer or whole screen with something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/13N7205-12-1-LC ... 169wt_1396
keep in mind that the X61 only had resistive (single) touch. http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-Ta ... d-p/175610

mariol90 wrote:you could probably swap the digitizer or whole screen with something like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/13N7205-12-1-LC ... 169wt_1396
keep in mind that the X61 only had resistive (single) touch. http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-Ta ... d-p/175610

that looks good. One thing, do you know if I'll have to do anything creative to get it hooked up? or are all the connectors going to be there and it'll "just work"?

I believe you'll need to swap the entire LCD panel + digitizer, and nothing else. The cables, inverter, etc. should be the same.

Whelp, off to get into a bidding war, then.

So, I won the auction, the screen came, and I've put it in.

Two things:

A: the digitizer pen is trying to "click" constantly now, it tracks the pen movement across the screen fine. I think it may actually be broken though, perhaps just buying a new one will fix this
B: the screen looks...yellower? I'm not quite sure how to describe it, but it doesn't quite seem as bright, and I swear everything has the slighest hint of a yellow tinge to it. I'm guessing this is the backlight being old in this screen, thoughts/suggestions for a replacement?

Edit: just put in the old screen and the pen works now. Incompatible pen or busted digitizer on the other model?

Well, try completely uninstalling and reinstalling any driver related to the digitizer first.

Most likely you have to reinstall windows to get evrything working as it should. I swapped a hard drive between regular pen-touch X60 tablets and the tablet features worked only with the original one where it came from. Installed windows with the others and the tablet features worked after that on that one.

The yellow-ish color is either due to nicotine from the previous owner (but you'd have smelled that by now, so unlikely), or it is due to age of the screen.
A new CCFL might solve the problem. Get it e.g. here: http://www.ccflwarehouse.com/
I have a spare X41t digitizer panel. Find out if that works in an X61t, and I could ship it out to you for $15.- incl. postage.

^Thanks for the help, guys.

RealBlackStuff wrote:The yellow-ish color is either due to nicotine from the previous owner (but you'd have smelled that by now, so unlikely), or it is due to age of the screen.
A new CCFL might solve the problem. Get it e.g. here: http://www.ccflwarehouse.com/
I have a spare X41t digitizer panel. Find out if that works in an X61t, and I could ship it out to you for $15.- incl. postage.

One question: how difficult is it to replace the backlight on this screen? Does the digitizer make it harder? I've never really fiddled with a laptop so much as I have in the past 24 hours, but I supposed I don't mind going for it anyway (I do have the old screen if I break this new one anyway).

Raceboy wrote:Most likely you have to reinstall windows to get evrything working as it should. I swapped a hard drive between regular pen-touch X60 tablets and the tablet features worked only with the original one where it came from. Installed windows with the others and the tablet features worked after that on that one.

Yeah even the original screen wont work properly in windows now. Tests fine on android x86, though, so I'll guess I'll have to reinstall.

youwonder wrote:One question: how difficult is it to replace the backlight on this screen? Does the digitizer make it harder?

You'd probably be the first to do so in a 12" LCD... Good luck!
For some general idea, see here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=88991
Some screens are harder to work on than others.

RealBlackStuff wrote: You'd probably be the first to do so in a 12" LCD... Good luck!
For some general idea, see here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=88991
Some screens are harder to work on than others.

I did that. Successfully. Although taking it apart a few times later wrecked it.
I'm sure people on the Chinese forums have done that tool.

Plastic simply yellows with age, I think it's either ozone (oxidative) content in the air, or UV damage (quite likely as CCFLs give off a lot of UV). I restore 1970's bicycles and frequently run across plastic that is horribly yellowed, and there was no nicotine involved. There is a simple way in many cases to remove the yellowed finish, because it's only on the outside of the plastic. Just dissolve away one layer of plastic ! I find that acetone tends to remove a layer of yellowed plastic. I have not tried this on a CCFL screen, but I have some very yellowed ones that I will be replacing either this weekend or next weekend, and I will see if I can detect which sheet has yellowing, and I will try to clean it with Acetone.

I have done this on many bicycle parts and one very important thing is to do it uniformly! You can easily rub away large portions in one location (like a maker's logo) and leave other areas almost untouched!! So you have to come up with a system for cleaning the plastic sheet uniformly so as not to produce visual distortion due to varying thicknesses in the display.

I'll let the group know if I'm successful. If this is successful, then we have another way to greatly extend the lifetime of aging LCD screens.

I really think you should limit yourself to restoring bicycles in the future.
Acetone on an LCD screen...