New knowledge: you can not use an X61 inverter on an X201
Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 1:08 am
I got an X200 LCD cable to use a CCFL backlight to install an HV121WX4. The cable is fine, definitely the correct model, but I didn't look carefully enough at the inverter that was packaged with the cable, which was advertised to work with the X200. Before installing the cable, I thought I would hook everything up just to try it out pre-installation to make sure it works.
I plugged in the keyboard, turned on the machine, and in less than a second lots of black smoke was coming from the LCD cable itself! Turns out the resulting awful smell was from the black tape on the cable melting as the inverter power line got very hot. I looked closely at the inverter and realized it is from an X60 or X61, and the pinouts must be different even though it fits on the cable.
Now we learned what sinking the entire backlight power rail to ground looks like! I plugged in the old LED backlit LCD and fortunately nothing is wrong with the X201 motherboard. I messaged the eBay seller asking what happened to the correct inverter - it looks like the right one from the picture in the auction!
I plugged in the keyboard, turned on the machine, and in less than a second lots of black smoke was coming from the LCD cable itself! Turns out the resulting awful smell was from the black tape on the cable melting as the inverter power line got very hot. I looked closely at the inverter and realized it is from an X60 or X61, and the pinouts must be different even though it fits on the cable.
Now we learned what sinking the entire backlight power rail to ground looks like! I plugged in the old LED backlit LCD and fortunately nothing is wrong with the X201 motherboard. I messaged the eBay seller asking what happened to the correct inverter - it looks like the right one from the picture in the auction!