Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

[TheChuckster]

Why the flower don't you people disconnect the power?...
OK, first check if there's something burned on the adapter board. Next, check for a short to ground on VCC3P with/without connected LVDS cable. Next, connect the power and make sure you have VBL20 on LVDS connector. Let me know the results.

Short to ground from VCC3P with ribbon cable connected, but no short without the ribbon cable connected. LVDS cable doesn't matter, there's still a short both with and without it plugged in.

I am able to get video output to the 1080p LCD when I have a second monitor plugged in, but no video output at all to the second monitor. When the second monitor is NOT plugged in, no video output at all.

Looks like I'll need to buy a new board.

It's an easy mistake when you're reassembling the board and the panel is in the way so you don't realize the charger is still plugged in. Argh.

If there's any easy way for me to repair it here, I'm all for it?

[nitrocaster]

I actually meant VCC3_BRG - 4th pin from the left. VCC3P is not connected to anything on the adapter board. What did you measure?

[TheChuckster]

I actually meant VCC3_BRG - 4th pin from the left. VCC3P is not connected to anything on the adapter board. What did you measure?

The power pad (which I assume is VCC3*) and ground on the motherboard. Looking for an LVDS pinout now.

[TheChuckster]

Okay, I found X230 schematics and pin out for motherboard display cable. Let me see what I measure here continuity-wise.

I appreciate your patience.

[TheChuckster]

Okay, fourth pin from left on ribbon cable connector also same short with and without LVDS cable plugged in (VCC3_BRG).

https://i.imgur.com/1JpQeEK.png

[nitrocaster]

Yes, that's what happens when you hot plug the LVDS cable. We had similar cases before, so MCU is probably dead. Disconnect the LVDS cable and connect stock LCD back to see if the motherboard is still intact.

[TheChuckster]

The SMT resistors and capacitors on the adapter board are all reporting sane values to me. It looks like I might have to replace one of the two ICs. Let me continue to investigate.

Stock LCD still works, so motherboard appears to be in tact.

[nitrocaster]

How can you measure capacitors if there's a short to ground? 3 of them are connected between VCC3_BRG and ground, so they will appear as a short too.

[TheChuckster]

The IC on the left has five pins that are continuous wrt ground. Is that the microcontroller? Logo looks familiar.

I can either buy another entire board from you (probably easiest given you have overstock) or just a pre-programmed microcontroller?

[TheChuckster]

How can you measure capacitors if there's a short to ground? 3 of them are connected between VCC3_BRG and ground, so they will appear as a short too.

You're right, I'm seeing shorts across the capacitors, too, in continuity mode.

Since I am not sure what the actual values are supposed to be, just was seeing what my meter was reporting in capacitance mode (if I had to guess, the value on my meter is WAY far off from what it's supposed to be, given what you just said).

[nitrocaster]

IC on the left is an EEPROM which stores EDID for dummy display. Left 4 pins are all connected to ground. If you want to find a short, you have to either connect the adapter board to a bench power supply and see which IC gets hot, or remove one of them and see if the short is gone. Got a hot air station?

[TheChuckster]

I do, but I don't have a bench power supply. Sounds like the least expensive thing for me to do is buy one of your unclaimed boards.

Moral of the story, don't ****ing hotplug LVDS.

It's at least nice that I was able to verify that both the LCD and the motherboard are still working.

[nitrocaster]

Replacing dead chips would be cheaper. And a bit challenging too, if you haven't got enough of it

[TheChuckster]

Yes, well, I _am_ up for a challenge, since I have learned a lot so far doing this, and it's been a really fun process!

I'll need your help sourcing the chips though (I suspect you feel comfortable sharing your microcontroller ROM with me?). I have a Raspberry Pi that I could use to program it.

EDIT: Actually, given the capacitors are also dead, this might be too much trouble for what it's worth.

[nitrocaster]

How do you know that caps are dead? They are just connected in parallel with the shorted component, so you can't tell which one is bad unless you power this thing up.

[TheChuckster]

Okay, that makes sense. I got an RFQ on a STM8S003F3U6 microcontroller. I still sent you an email about purchasing another board. I bet I can fix this one, but it's always good to have another working board as a backup.

[nitrocaster]

Well, Raspberry Pi can only flash the EEPROM, not the MCU. Two options: you buy these chips and flash them yourself or I send you pre-programmed ones along with the new adapter board.

[TheChuckster]

I'm interested in the latter of the two options, check your email and give me the go-ahead with the amount, and I'll PayPal you again.

[systema]

After following some advice here and on reddit, I'm having trouble with artifacts still showing up on screen while connected to Ultrabase, looks something like voltage errors. I taped with kaplan:

[HUGE pictures!!!]

http://i.imgur.com/aTMeFGr.jpg

Followed this instruction :
http://i.imgur.com/XjGmbz3.jpg

Top row pins: 16 untaped / 19 taped / 21 untaped

Did I do something wrong?

[boutch55555]

I think the tape is not going deep enough in the dock. You need to insulate those pins from the side as well...

[systema]

I think the tape is not going deep enough in the dock. You need to insulate those pins from the side as well...

That did it! Thanks!!

[mr.rhtuner]

Hello Nitrocaster,

I found somebody about 50 minutes away from me that can help with the mod so I went and visited him. He has done small precision soldering before so was confident doing this.

I have a x230 with linux and the SPB4 panel. I prepared the x230 and the fhd kit with the Kapton tape prior.I left the battery at home and only took my power adapter as I didn't want to run into a 'hot plug' issue.
First was the longer white wire that was soldered, next came the sense wire. The sense wire to my understanding he couldn't get to 'thin' with the solder so he used another thin wire that worked.

After that he installed the FHD board and soldered the 7 points plus the two wires to it. Once that was all complete, we made sure to attach the palm rest/keyboard, screen and plug in the power.

Upon turning on the laptop, the think light shines like usual, laptop has the regular lights, fan spins but nothing shows up.
The backlight on the screen turns on and you can see that the display is 'on' but nothing shows up on the screen. Turning off and on the laptop, you can see the screen light up due to the backlight.

He went over the 7 solder points and verified everything, it seems all fine on the board. We weren't sure why anything wasn't coming up.

I got home and looked over again, all seem's fine and I'm unsure why I'm not getting anything on the display. I did attach my dell 27" 2k monitor to the laptop via vga and did not get any output from my laptop onto the monitor.


Any suggestions? I'm pretty bummed out as I was cautious and followed your guide and instructions.

Large images attached:
http://i.imgur.com/PZECT5i.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/bR0PiXI.jpg

Thank you.

[nitrocaster]

It's OK. Just check the first post (see 'Installation note for rev.4').

[mr.rhtuner]

It's OK. Just check the first post (see 'Installation note for rev.4').

Is there a reason why I wouldn't get VGA output? That should still work no?

[RealBlackStuff]

I really think that your manual should be updated pronto!
It needs an added instruction + picture for Rev. 4, that the white auxiliary power wire should be soldered to the left-most bottom pad on PCB Rev. 4.
It should also get a note that the sense wire is lacquered, and that the lacquer needs to be scraped off before you can 'tin' the wire.

[nitrocaster]

Yes, I should do that. Soldering aux power wire to old pad won't do any harm though - it just won't work.

Is there a reason why I wouldn't get VGA output? That should still work no?

Adapter board does not interfere with VGA in any way. Have you got the image in FHD display after fixing aux power wire?

[mr.rhtuner]

I really think that your manual should be updated pronto!
It needs an added instruction + picture for Rev. 4, that the white auxiliary power wire should be soldered to the left-most bottom pad on PCB Rev. 4.
It should also get a note that the sense wire is lacquered, and that the lacquer needs to be scraped off before you can 'tin' the wire.

I agree 100%. These 2 issues were present in our installation yesterday.

Yes, I should do that. Soldering aux power wire to old pad won't do any harm though - it just won't work.

Is there a reason why I wouldn't get VGA output? That should still work no?

Adapter board does not interfere with VGA in any way. Have you got the image in FHD display after fixing aux power wire?

YES sir! I just made the 50 minute drive there and he re-soldered it into the correct spot.

Now I am getting image. I'm in the process of getting the screen into the housing now.

[mr.rhtuner]

Voila!!! I'm done.

A few things that need to be ironed out.

• The bottom left of the screen cover bezel, it doesn't want to sit flush much with the screen. I've followed the guide and grinded down the magnesium backing of the screen lid to allow the screen to fit properly without issues.

• Second is I have some backlight bleed at the bottom right corner. I did notice that, that corner specifically was a bit tight to install with all the pieces removed. I suspect the backlight bleed is from the screw being too tight.

Will have to investigate these sometime when I have more time.

so far....FHD is an amazing upgrade!!! Thank you Nitrocaster!

[boutch55555]

It should also get a note that the sense wire is lacquered, and that the lacquer needs to be scraped off before you can 'tin' the wire.

That wire doesn't even need to be coated, it will literally be 2mm long with nothing to short to. It's not like we're using it to bring the power as Louis did... A single strand from any multi strand wire will work just fine.

[mr.rhtuner]

ANY FEDORA/LINUX USER'S WITH THE FHD MOD?


My one existing issue is with fedora. When I bootup, I need to press FN+F7 to switch displays to cycle to the display showing the fedora login.
When I run xrandr, I get the following output:

Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1920 x 1080, maximum 8192 x 8192 XWAYLAND3 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 280mm x 160mm 1920x1080 59.96*+

I'm unsure how to get Fedora to use this new FHD display as the primary display for the OS boots up.

Thanks!!