Thinkpads Forum

Hey guys I have just put up a listing at ebay selling off my beloved SXGA+ X61 Thinkpad: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0426353422

Finally got around to having the time to fabricate the cable. It looks good, tests fine. Used the proper connectors and wire.

Flashed the proper BIOS found on 51nb, and it's still tiled like it would be if not flashed. Checked the BIOS information and it's listed as the correct one.

Any ideas what's going on here? Other than the tiling, the screen looks great.

edit: Figured it had to do with the EDID wiring, and sure enough, had Pin 19 and 20 swapped. Solved it.

zombie thread alert.

Finally got around to continuing the modification. I noticed that flashing the BIOS to support SXGA+ helps out with some horizontal sync issues. Before, the rows would be misaligned and randomly move back and forth.

I've also had a panel that doesn't detect as 1400x1050; I think this is due to the EDID data not being reported correctly or something like that. I will try it out in a X32 to see what happens.

I'm also running into the problem where the lid doesn't latch all the way down. I'll have to try cutting off the back part of the WLAN antennas. For those of you with the WWAN antenna, that cable is a pain to route. It took me at least 5 tries to get everything to fit like it should, but I really did not want to completely detach the antennas (routing it a few months ago was a pain in the butt). Almost considered taking the WWAN antenna out completely because I don't use it (or have the card installed for heat reasons).

For those of you who are curious, I used double-sided tape and kapton tape to tape the LCD to the hinges. Seems to hold fairly well without too much movement or added thickness.

force wrote:zombie thread alert.
I'm also running into the problem where the lid doesn't latch all the way down. I'll have to try cutting off the back part of the WLAN antennas.

I have the same problem. I cut off the back parts of the antennas, but the latches still don't have that snap they used to have before. It did get quite better though after cutting of the back parts.

Zombie thread no way. This is one of the coolest machines you can build. In my opinion there's no real alternative. Just wish the BIOS could be modded to support SATA2. While I'm sure this is possible, I don't think anyone will take the time to do it (myself included)

andykrej wrote: I have the same problem. I cut off the back parts of the antennas, but the latches still don't have that snap they used to have before. It did get quite better though after cutting of the back parts.

Zombie thread no way. This is one of the coolest machines you can build. In my opinion there's no real alternative. Just wish the BIOS could be modded to support SATA2. While I'm sure this is possible, I don't think anyone will take the time to do it (myself included)

Nothing on the X60 can be modded for it to have SATA2. The chipset is just limited, so in other words it's a hardware issue.

rkan wrote: Nothing on the X60 can be modded for it to have SATA2. The chipset is just limited, so in other words it's a hardware issue.

I know that. I have the X61s, which has the Santa Rosa chipset. Theoretically it should be possible.

Apple did that with the Macbook. I recall seeing a thread/petition for Lenovo to do the same.

Also, I trimmed off the back of the WiFi antennas and reassembled the display. It works! The display will latch now, although you have to press down on it for it to stick.

Hmm, so what's next? Anyone see the QXGA panel in a T60? =D

force wrote:Hmm, so what's next? Anyone see the QXGA panel in a T60? =D

Check my sig It's beyond anything you can imagine... I'm using it for notation in Sibelius, and it's such a joy to work on. Very easy replacement. Took me 15 minutes.

My screen in the X60s is slightly misaligned- it's about 5 pixels higher on the right side than the left. Not bad for not measuring and just taping the hinges at all.

Dear friends,

I am new to the forum.

I am trying to do what you guys have done long ago. But i guess its never too late.

I need 51NB Bios that will enable me to use a SXGA screen in X61s laptop.

Please if anyone has the copy of the modified BIOS then please give me a copy.

thanks in advance for any help

(Please PM me for any help you can offer in this difficult task-I will be grateful)

Hi All,

I have an offer for the right person. I have a X61s that I have been running Mac OS X on, a Hackinosh for about 2 years now, starting with 10.5 Leopard. Just over the weekend, I did the vaunted "plain vanilla/retail" install of Snow Leopard 10.6.4. It works amazing and it totally inspired me to get some web dev work done on this beautiful Sunday. It took 2 full days to get going, but everything works flawlessly now. I have about 15 hours of serious run time on it.

Here's the offer basically:
I send you a customized hard drive with Snow Leopard 10.6.4 on it in exchange for a custom wiring harness. This is a upgradeable system if you know what you are doing. It is "vanilla" meaning I used the retail legally purchased Apple DVD to install it, with minimal hacks, you can upgrade it most of the time, though you need to check the usual sources before running Apple Software Update. It's not some bittorent download that I threw on there where half the laptop is working and half not.

Here's the details and variations on the offer:
This Snow Leopard install is 98% complete. Every feature works except the microphone in port. (I need to research the pinouts and configure my kernel extension plist for it, but it's definitely doable today.) Here is a list of customized kext's that make it "complete". This is by far the best Mac Laptop I have ever used (with my SSD drive), and I've had 6 Mac laptops previously, including a 15" MacBook Pro.

1. Deep Sleep/Hibernation
2. Built-In Keyboard and MousePoint
3. PS2 Mouse/Keyboard
4. Hacked ATA/SATA kext so it doesn't freeze
5. Sound Out and Speaker (working on Mic)
6. LCD Brightness Control w/X3100 GMA Frame Buffer for video acceleration
7. SD Card Slot Reader
8. WiFi (had to buy a $20 Atheros Lenovo part off eBay, WEP/WPA/WPA2 may not work, haven't tested it yet, did not work in 10.5)
9. Custom kext to sync the CPU cores so it doesn't freeze
10. Built-In Ethernet (unfortunately disabled when machine sleeps, requires reboot after wake to get it going again)
11. Intel SpeedStep
12. Battery/Power Management
13. FakeSMC kext for booting
14. DSMOS kext for booting
15. Custom com.apple.Boot.plist for startup parameters (video resolution choices, 32-bit vs 64-bit)
16. Latest and Greatest Bootloader, will double or triple boot Windows/Linux, etc
17. Everything else, Volume Buttons, ThinkPad Light, Ultrabase ports & DVD, VGA out, FireWire, USB, basic low level stuff works out of box. Only 4 Apple stock kexts needed to be removed.
18. You will also get my custom Verizon Sierra Wireless WWAN drivers, AFAIK, I'm one of 2 people who have done this. I simply love raising the antennae every time! The only Mac that does this around!

Physically you'll get:
1. 80 gig HD (prolly an Apple pull!) with everything "ready to go, install and power on", including all the Hackintosh Tools/Utils you'll ever need
2. DVD to bootstrap the X61s so you can install a retail edition of Mac OS X Snow Leopard in the future (not included, needs Ultrabase)
3. Also on the HD, a folder with all the kexts in one folder so you can do it again, plus instructions
4. Wait there's more! Lots of apps. Everything legally purchased, all the "important" office and graphic apps, the essential Mac Shareware apps, dev tools, photo apps, you'll never go back to Windows
5. Hard Drive will be cleaned up, like a brand-new Mac, you will boot and it will ask you to configure it via the wizard. (I'm a Mac techie.)
6. Some tech support, if you brick it, I'll help you over the phone, or if need be I'll reimage it and send it to you. (No crawling the boards for hours and hours like I've done.)

What I want:
1. Wiring harness ready to install for the 100 or 101 panel
2. Detailed instructions on how to prep the LCD panel, with tools used
3. Some of this magic kapton and foam tape if you will, all the inexpensive fabrication products needed
4. That elusive BIOS, although I don't think I'll need for Mac.
5. Some tech support, I have ripped apart tons of Mac laptops as an authorized Apple tech but my soldering/fab skills are nil and cracking plastic cases scares me a bit.

To raise the stakes:
I'll buy a decent-spec 128 Gig SSD hard drive for you and preload it and TEST it if you buy me the LCD panel and prep and TEST it for me. Maybe I'll even throw in the Atheros WiFi card, New Old Stock, if you have credentials here on the forums.

That way we're both good to go!

I think this is a fair offer and once you try this system, you'll never go back to Windows. I work with Linux, Windows and Mac daily, and by far, this X61s Hackintosh is the best system ever. I will say that the battery life with the 8 cell is only about 3 hours, that is the only downside. It's not because the Hackintosh is bad, Mac OS just uses more power it seems, even with SpeedStep. Just to be completely honest. Some of the satisfaction of user experience is in the nitty gritty in the trenches daily use, and here's the bottom line on some the bad things, after using this for 2 years.

1. Battery life. 3 hours. Ok, I'm pretty used to it as a Mac guy, it's way better than my MacBook Pro however. I carry the power cords in my car, home, bag, everywhere I have one stashed.
2. WiFi encryption (WEP, WPA, WPA2) This the biggest deal. At home I use MAC address lists. At cafes, most are open anyways. At friends, I gave in and bought a $20 USB one the size of a thumb drive with a jointed swivel antennae attached it, it's by Edimax. It uses open source RALink drivers and works beautifully, better reception than built-in. THIS MAY BE FIXED ALREADY BUT I HAVEN'T TESTED.
3. Built-in Ethernet dies on sleep. I hated this for a while, but frankly I don't use ethernet much. I hated rebooting when I had to, but with the SSD hard drives, it's takes seconds, not minutes, so it's not such a deal breaker anymore. (Thank heavens for saved tabs in Firefox and Chrome!)
4. Mic In. Ok, I don't Skype all day, but I'd probably want a nice USB mic anyway. I can get it working I'm sure, just not that motivated at the moment after an epic install-fest weekend.
5. That's it, the rest of this notebook is absolutely fabulous. Even without deep sleep and sound out, I loved it and constantly showed it off. I love the card reader and Verizon WWAN, kind of unique for Mac. (new Macs do have SD slots finally, but no WWAN.)

Hopefully one you master fabricators is interested! Obviously I am extremely intimate with Mac internals and this particular Thinkpad. I am looking for the same in a person who can hopefully build the harness and prep the panel, someone who's done this successfully and does good careful work, and can make as easy as possible to install it. The last thing I want it make a last second mod myself where I damage the display or fry my mobo.

Thanks for considering and hoping someone can help build the Ultimate, and Complete Hackinosh X61s!!
Tatsu

While installing some upgrades to the laptop (new LCD bezel and SSD) I had a go at trying to make it such that the hinge closes cleanly, without any additional pressure. After about 2 hours of trial and error I managed to make it happen! Now it's done I'm never ever ever ever opening another X60 LCD assembly again if I can help it

Not exactly sure how I did it, except it did involve basically pulling the whole thing to bits and putting it back together very systematically, while being paranoid about minimising thickness of cables behind the LCD. I aligned the LCD so that it was set back about 0.5mm from the front edge of the hinge rails, and removed the little foam pads on the rear top edge of the LCD panel. Also paid careful attention to how the WLAN/WWAN antenna wires were routed, and that the SXGA+ harness/LCD flex cable was organised so that it was as thin as possible with minimum overlaps, and didn't foul any confined areas (bottom near the hinges and inverter, and high up where the PCB for the LCD panel adds thickness to the panel)

While it's fresh in my mind (and in hindsight, should have taken photos!), here are a few additional tips:

- if you want the screen well aligned with the bezel, it should be positioned such that the top edge of the LCD is about 1-1.5mm higher than the tops of the hinge rails.

- always tape the entire length of the hinge rail with double-sided tape. Cut it so that it's only just wide enough for the rail/LCD. Any daggy bits will make it harder to fit everything together.

- If you end up having to re-position the LCD, put on fresh double-sided tape. Otherwise, everything will move around when you're putting the LCD back plastics on.

- routing WLAN cables; you might have better luck routing them along the back edge of the LCD, rather than alongside the outer edge of the hinge rails. The WWAN antenna you have little choice but to route it along the rails.

- use electrical tape to keep cables in position and lying as flat as possible (especially if/when you need to fold over the existing LCD flex cable to suit your SXGA+ harness). But not too much, every fraction of a millimetre counts when it comes to that hinge working properly!

- be careful around the area of the right hinge, there are lots of little cables there and you might pinch one in the plastics, or between the plastics and the hinge itself.

- pay careful attention to the LCD front bezel: when putting it back on, there are three slots where it pushes into for alignment, then press around it to get the clips in. If you just try to angle it on there, as if it were all clips, you end up bending those bits and the bezel doesn't fit right on the top edge. (Why do you think I was installing a new front bezel? )

Does anyone know if this upgrade can be done without the cable mod? From what I can gather the cable mod lets the computer read EDID data from the panel. Wouldn't it be possible to have the computer force itself to the resolution using PowerStrip and the "proper" EDID?

The cable is required since the pinout of the replacement and original panel are different.

Regarding assembly, I had to cut off the back of the wireless antennas to cut down on thickness. This was the way I got the bezel to fit properly and have the lid still latch.

Is there any reason why bluetooth shouldn't work after this mod?

I have done it in my x60s. In my case with a XGA panel pulled out from a x41t (I wasn't able to find a SXGA+ at a reasonable price)

In my case bluetooth is not recognized by windows after the mod. I haver revised it and it is well connected, so I wonder if this has something to do with the LCD cable. Everything else is working fine.

Thank you very much.

bluetooth works with the mod.

either your cable or module is damaged or the module is disabled somewhere.

I guess it has to do with the cable. I have checked with another bluetooth module I have and still nothing is recognised. Anyway, I can live without bluetooth.

By the way, I did this mod in a rather unorthodoxial way. I completely removed the metal vezel of the panel. This leaves it rather unprotected, but this way there are not space problems and it is very easy to fit in the lid with the antenas and it also helps to reduce weight. Working great at the moment, but in the future I supose that dust can be a problem.

dust will almost certainly be an issue with the metal bezel removed unless you seal the edges with tape.

If you don't mind me asking...anybody have a RELIABLE source for the panel cheaper than $289 on eBay? (I'm currently in Germany, but US sources are also OK).

I have a pretty mint X61T still under warranty. If anyone would like to trade for their SXGA+ frankenpad - let me know.

What's the current situation on the X6x SXGA+ cables? Erik is no longer making them, is anyone else? Does anyone have a surplus cable? Or is our only option to hack them together ourselves?

I sourced mine from eBay user i.Thinkpad in the UK. It came in a small random holiday card.

Hello, my name is Fabrizio and i am from Italy. Last week i buy a x61s code 7666 from ebay; i am very glad and and last night, reading this topic, i bought an SXGA lcd screen on line.
I have just insert the new sxga bios in my laptop; but now i ask help help help to make the cable mod for the screen.

Have yoy same pics and some step to step to do this mod? What can i buy to do this mod?

Please help me!!!!!!

mejam wrote: Have yoy same pics and some step to step to do this mod? What can i buy to do this mod?

Please help me!!!!!!

Congrats on your X61s. For help about this mod, I recommend you read this thread from beginning. There's too much info to make a single helpful post. Post above yours mentions cable, but I think the seller doesn't have more. Good luck with your project!

Ihave read the thread from the beginning, but the links to see the picture of the cable mode are broken(excuse me for my english).
Can you post some picture for this mode???
Thanks...

Hey guys.

I'm fitting the SXGA+ panel to my X60s using Phil's cable and I'm having a problem. Here is the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGYRY5WxVGU and another: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwE7-kn4AcU

I read about few people here talking about the crosstalk so I tried separating all the data (Rinx*) pairs and wrapping them in aluminium foil, but it is completely the same (while I didn't wrap them completely, there should at least be SOME difference, right?). I also checked for a short circuit in the cable but there doesn't appear to be any.

Does anyone have an idea, what would be the problem? Switched pins, perhaps?

Thanks!
Darko

Edit: I looked at the datasheet for my XGA panel (LTN121X1-L01) and I discovered http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/922/pinoutwth.png (big pic warning) - the pinout for the LTN121X1-L01 and HV121P01-00 to my untrained eye appear identical (apart from the EDID). If that's how it is, how I'm getting a picture at all with the converter cable? Or does the IBM/Lenovo LTN121X1-L01 have the different pinout?

Darko,

From my experience that's actually normal. You need the SXGA+ bios in order to handle the 1400x1050 screen resolution since the stock bios only handles up to 1024x768. It's interesting that Ubuntu can handle the higher resolution without the bios patch; you can try it out with the live cd/usb.

I hypothesize that the behavior seen in your videos are from the horizontal sync on the LCD. This could also explain the tiling behavior. In either case, if you flash the SXGA+ modded bios it will fix everything.

Thank you very much. That BIOS was actually the first thing I wanted to try, but didn't find any online and then I just proceeded thinking the split screen is the only effect of the unmodded BIOS. I would be grateful for any PM from anyone willing to share the X60s modded BIOS

Cheers,
Darko

Hi all,

Well, I've finally gotten over my despair and disappointment so am finally posting my experience here...

I've wanted to do this mod for several years now, and recently finally got around to sourcing the parts. I got the cable adapter from eBay UK (i.Thinkpad) and ordered a HV121P01-100 from a seller in China (from alibaba.com).

I took apart my trusty x60s, wired things up to the new screen, and lo and behold, I had FFS SXGA+ goodness from my Thinkpad! Joy! (I'm a Linux user, BTW, so I had no need for fiddling with a modded BIOS).

Now the bad news: the screen came with the glass screen protector which was bonded to the screen via super strong adhesive across the whole screen region. I (foolishly) thought I could have a go at removing it with a combination of patience, a cutter knife, and gobs of Goo Gone adhesive remover... I was actually successful until half way I must have applied a biiiit to much pressure and a crack developed on the screen It's useless now.

My understanding was that HV121P01-100 didn't have this glass screen protector, only HV121P01-101 did. I specifically ordered HV121P01-100, and the item I received clearly indicated this part number. So what gives? How can I guarantee that I get a screen *without* this glass screen protector??

Any advice or knowledge on this matter would be greatly appreciated...

Cheers,
indotoonster

Little bit off topic, but I'd like to replace my TN XGA panel with IPS (or AFFS). Any hints which panel is suitable for it? What panel did you use for your XGA-mods? Thanks!