Thinkpads Forum

I'm having trouble finding an SXGA LCD w/ digitizer included for a reasonable price.
Since most people are selling the LCD only, does this mean I can reuse the current digitizer from my XGA screen with a new SXGA screen?

I'm doing the mod, I got my sxga+ panel a few days ago, and started ripping digitizer stuff off of the XGA panel in order to transfer it across, and half way through the install discovered the SXGA+ panel was defective.

Have sent it back for replacement.

I have no proof as I didnt accidentally finish the mod, but from what I understand....

Physically the sxga+ LCD and 'xga' digitizer are compatible, the LCD and digitizer plug into the same cable harness but are pretty independent. On factory SXGA+ models, they probably use the same digitizer as the XGA digitizer.

If not, it is possible there are any slight issues with the resolution change making things wierd, but I doubt it. The digitizer 'resolution' as far as I know is independent of panel resolution.

To move your digitizer over from the XGA panel to the SXGA+ be prepared for pulling off lots of things stuck with adhesive, and also tearing off aluminium shielding glued down to put on the SXGA+ panel.

There is a video guide to this somewhere on the net, if i find it I will post it, good to see what you are in for.

Not that difficult, but not something most people would want to do to their favourite expensive laptop. Pretty messy.

Thank you for sharing.

Hmm. It's not as simple as I thought it might be.
But from what you're telling me, it doesn't sound too difficult if you're careful.

I'll keep on eye on your progress before I proceed with my upgrade.

http://staging.vimeo.com/3933798

I really recommend you watch this excellent video through, really lets you know what to expect when doing an LCD change in an x60/x61 tablet.

Wow.

Thank you! That was excellent.

I wasn't really phased until the part where you have to peel the foil to get to the digitizer part.
I think I'll just keep looking for an SXGA screen + digitizer.
I think I would still attempt this if my screen was broken, but for an upgrade, I don't want to possibly ruin a perfectly good XGA screen.

Thanks again for the information!

As luck would have it, I ordered one of the SXGA+ BOEHydis panels to try this on a X32/60s and it came with the Wacom digitizer. I think eventually if I want to install it into the unit, i would have to remove the digitizer because it would be too thick otherwise.

I'm not sure what was the reasonable price that you were looking for, but this screen with the digitizer was about $250. I'm pretty sure I ordered one without the digitizer to save me the step of removing it, but I guess I wasn't so lucky.

$250 is reasonable. Some places online were selling for over $1000.

May I ask where you purchased your panel? Do you have the FRU?
I need to find one compatible with the G5 data cable.

I bought mine off of eBay from the seller 'leonworks2003'. You can find it by searching for 'HV121P01-101', it is a 12.1" SXGA+ screen with digitizer. Note that there is a '-100' variant as well. I suspect the difference is that the -100 is the G4 digitizer and the -101 is G5, but I don't have enough information to confirm this. I do know that the panel I have (-101) has a glass overlay on it.

I can take some pictures of the panel and the connector later today if that will help.

Thanks. It's good to know seller "leonworks2003" includes the digitizer. I asked seller "expresslcdscreens08" and he said he doesn't include digitizer.

I would appreciate some pictures if you don't mind.

Thanks again!

I got the SXGA+ screen back from RMA, and installed it in my x61t.

The digitizer from the XGA panel works fine and there seems to be no issues with the resolution change.

FYI, my panel was from the 247laptoplcd store. They had a pretty good price, deliver worldwide, and excellent support. Finding this panel on ebay seems to be getting harder and harder. I actually bought it from an ebay store only to be told later they were out of stock.

Of course, my panel came without a digitizer.....

You can use any panel with a G4 or G5 digitizer assembly, but if you buy a panel with a digitizer assembly make sure that it is the right one for your laptop, because the cable that connects to the digitizer assembly is different for G4 / G5, and you will need to change this too if you get a different digitizer then you already have in your machine.

Honestly, though changing the digitizer over seems ugly, the machine is pretty robust... I ripped the protective shielding foil into two parts by accident, got crap all over the adhesive so it wasnt sticky any more + replaced it with thin double sided tape, and bent a metal shielding plate to hell and had to squash it back into shape... and the thing is like new now.

The hardest part is getting the [censored] glass plate on the front of the new LCD without having any dust in between. Thats like impossible.

For the BOE HYDIS panels, -100 and -101 are just two models, I think -101 is direct bonding coating for better outdoor viewability or whatever. Which is a good thing.

However, I have heard that the -101 panel has an annoying sparkly effect that the -100 does not have. Mine (the -100) seems OK, but I cannot compare or confirm.

The cool thing is, the -100 and -101 are interchangeable electronically.

The thing is, when you get a digitizer + LCD, the "G4 assembly", most commonly in x60t, normally has the -100 panel, while the "G5 assembly" more commonly would have the -101 panel.

But if you aren't getting the whole assembly, you can buy either.

Sorry for bumping this. I was looking into getting an x61t and the one I found has an XGA screen, probably just as well since I'm used to the XGA of my X31, but I was still interested into finding out how the SXGA upgrade could be done.

It seems it's as simple as getting an SXGA+ 12.1 screen with a digitizer? The increased resolution will be supported natively?

Unfortunately the leonworks2003 eBay seller only has the 12.1 TABLET XGA screen, not the SXGA, any other sources these days?

Thanks !