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Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

X200/X201/X220 (including equivalent tablet models) and X300/X301 Series
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nitrocaster
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#631 Post by nitrocaster » Mon Oct 02, 2017 3:52 pm

siriuz wrote:
Mon Oct 02, 2017 10:02 am
But... is it normal to not be able to see the BIOS booting screen? It just shows up blank but lit if I hit F1 on boot.
Check the sense wire.
Want to buy X220/X230 FHD mod kit? Read this before sending me a PM!
T60 | X230 i7-3520M FHD Win10

nitrocaster
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#632 Post by nitrocaster » Tue Oct 03, 2017 7:51 am

Status update: PCBs arrived, but for some reason they put only 2 panels instead of 20, which means I have only 40 boards instead of 400.
I have to postpone the production until the remaining panels arrive.
Want to buy X220/X230 FHD mod kit? Read this before sending me a PM!
T60 | X230 i7-3520M FHD Win10

proze
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#633 Post by proze » Tue Oct 03, 2017 7:57 am

nitrocaster wrote:
Tue Oct 03, 2017 7:51 am
...instead of 400.
You have that many preorders?! Wow, awesome!

My mod is running great! Thanks again!

BigT0ny
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#634 Post by BigT0ny » Tue Oct 03, 2017 2:20 pm

I've messed up one of my adapter boards...I managed to destroy a number of docking pin connector pads - a combination of inexperience, too much heat and bad flux (which I probably didn't need). The question is, am I able to salvage them? The bottom side of the board looks good so I should still be able to get those bottom side of the pads to stick to the docking pins right?
Goodbye T420 <3

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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#635 Post by boutch55555 » Tue Oct 03, 2017 2:22 pm

Please post pictures so we can see how bad it is. The traces are connected on the pads from the top, if you ripped them it won't help.

BigT0ny
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#636 Post by BigT0ny » Tue Oct 03, 2017 9:06 pm

I compared it with my good adapter board, it doesn't seem like I can do much - I guess my previous post was just desperation. :oops: Welp, it's a good thing I bought two of these, I'll be sure to be more careful in the future!
Goodbye T420 <3

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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#637 Post by RealBlackStuff » Wed Oct 04, 2017 5:49 am

I have been using this flux pen for years on all my LED-mods, as well as on my X230 FHD-mod: Chemtronics CW8100 NO-CLEAN FLUX PEN.
It's tip looks like one from an ordinary text marker.
Easy to apply and works like a charm!
Image

siriuz
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Location: Australia, Melbourne

Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#638 Post by siriuz » Wed Oct 04, 2017 7:58 am

nitrocaster wrote:
Mon Oct 02, 2017 3:52 pm
siriuz wrote:
Mon Oct 02, 2017 10:02 am
But... is it normal to not be able to see the BIOS booting screen? It just shows up blank but lit if I hit F1 on boot.
Check the sense wire.

How would you go about checking it?
It is not bothering me too much so I might put it off for awhile...

proze
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#639 Post by proze » Wed Oct 04, 2017 11:27 am

I suppose the only thing you can do is check that it's soldered to the correct places and the joints are okay. Out with the magnifying glass!

6sicSIX
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#640 Post by 6sicSIX » Wed Oct 04, 2017 5:52 pm

My second adapter board is still working well (first modded laptop went flying and broke) in my X230


I managed to blow a fuse when I was doing the mod and the screen backlight would not work.... I replaced it with a thin wire :D

I am very happy with my laptop now (maybe could do with wireless AC eventually....)
X230 2.9GHz (3.6ghz Turbo) i7
x220 Keyboard
16GB RAM
1080P LCD
Windows 10 Pro (With classic theme using my script: http://winclassic.boards.net/thread/204 ... pt-windows)

nitrocaster
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#641 Post by nitrocaster » Wed Oct 04, 2017 6:26 pm

6sicSIX wrote:
Wed Oct 04, 2017 5:52 pm
I replaced it with a thin wire
Please don't do that. Next time you'll blow the motherboard instead of a fuse.
Want to buy X220/X230 FHD mod kit? Read this before sending me a PM!
T60 | X230 i7-3520M FHD Win10

6sicSIX
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#642 Post by 6sicSIX » Wed Oct 04, 2017 6:45 pm

Yeah I know, no carpets next time (and maybe a fuse from the old motherboard)

Occasionally (about 1 in 20) windows 10 just displays a black screen after booting (fast startup from shutdown, not a reboot) and I can see the backlight flashing on/off at about 1Hz.
Windows is running because there is hdd activity.
Putting the laptop to sleep then resuming again fixes the issue and I see the logon screen.

When a display is connected via display port, I cannot control brightness on the laptop (and I have a phantom screen as expected), would your bios mod fix both of these issues?

nitrocaster
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#643 Post by nitrocaster » Wed Oct 04, 2017 6:51 pm

6sicSIX wrote:
Wed Oct 04, 2017 6:45 pm
Occasionally (about 1 in 20) windows 10 just displays a black screen after booting (fast startup from shutdown, not a reboot) and I can see the backlight flashing on/off at about 1Hz.
Windows is running because there is hdd activity.
Putting the laptop to sleep then resuming again fixes the issue and I see the logon screen.
Weird things may happen when you forget to disconnect power. Maybe that's one of those things. What display do you use?
6sicSIX wrote:
Wed Oct 04, 2017 6:45 pm
When a display is connected via display port, I cannot control brightness on the laptop (and I have a phantom screen as expected), would your bios mod fix both of these issues?
Do you have brightness control at all?
Want to buy X220/X230 FHD mod kit? Read this before sending me a PM!
T60 | X230 i7-3520M FHD Win10

6sicSIX
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#644 Post by 6sicSIX » Wed Oct 04, 2017 6:58 pm

Possibly haha... I use an SPB4 LCD. It could be a windows 10 issue.

Yeah I have brightness control and dual screen works fine. Once the 3rd screen (display port) is connected the phantom screen is disconnected so there isn't brightness control anymore it seems.

nitrocaster
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#645 Post by nitrocaster » Wed Oct 04, 2017 7:16 pm

Unless you got X220, that is not what should happen.
Want to buy X220/X230 FHD mod kit? Read this before sending me a PM!
T60 | X230 i7-3520M FHD Win10

6sicSIX
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#646 Post by 6sicSIX » Thu Oct 05, 2017 6:06 am

I have no options to extend to 3 displays at once. It says to try a different combination of display settings.
------
1 = dummy
2 = 1080p
3 = external hdmi via display port

if i duplicate desktop on 1 and 2 brighness is adjustable
if i show only on 2 brightness is at max
If I duplicate the display on 2 and 3 brighness is at max
If I extend the display on 2 and 3 brighness is at adjustable

I'm not sure why it works with extended desktop, becaues the dummy display is not active.

Oh well, extended desktop is good enough for me.

I thought this was expected behaviour until now though :)

I'm using an X220 lid as well as keyboard, if that's worth mentioning, and the WLAN unlock + X220 keyboard bios mods.

nitrocaster
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#647 Post by nitrocaster » Thu Oct 05, 2017 6:42 am

6sicSIX wrote:
Thu Oct 05, 2017 6:06 am
If I extend the display on 2 and 3 brighness is at adjustable
I'm not sure why it works with extended desktop, becaues the dummy display is not active.
Could you please show a screenshot of display settings window?
Want to buy X220/X230 FHD mod kit? Read this before sending me a PM!
T60 | X230 i7-3520M FHD Win10

owen_r61
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#648 Post by owen_r61 » Thu Oct 05, 2017 3:50 pm

This may have already been asked, but is this mod compatible with Librebooted X200s? And if so, which FHD, or higher resolution, displays are compatible with Libreboot?

nitrocaster
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#649 Post by nitrocaster » Thu Oct 05, 2017 4:07 pm

X200 and X201 are not supported.
Want to buy X220/X230 FHD mod kit? Read this before sending me a PM!
T60 | X230 i7-3520M FHD Win10

emacsomancer
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#650 Post by emacsomancer » Thu Oct 05, 2017 5:10 pm

proze wrote:
Thu Sep 28, 2017 3:00 am
.....
[/b]1. The soldering is pretty easy IF you have access to good soldering equipment, including a magnifier/microscope, and perhaps prior experience. I would be very, very hesitant to try this with a hardware-store soldering iron. The components are small and delicate. If you don't have such access, I'd strongly recommend getting some help.
Do you (or anyone else) have recommendations on a good soldering kit? I'd been a number of years since I've tried soldering anything. For the solder itself, is something like this good?: AMTECH NC-559-V2-TF
proze wrote:
Thu Sep 28, 2017 3:00 am
......
2. Backlight control does not work if you switch off the internal display...
3. ...and suspend does not work by closing the lid with it on. I can put it into suspend manually, though.

So there's some tweaking to be done. It's usable right now, but not without little irritations.
Edit: Okay, I understand I need a patch for the Intel driver. I'll do that next...
Edit 2: After the kernel patch everything works great, just like it used to.
So does suspend work again now?
* X230 - i7-3520M - 16Gb RAM - 512Gb Samsung 850 Pro SSD - Lenovo IPS screen / Boot firmware: Coreboot w/ me_cleaner
* X200 - Core2-P8600 - 8Gb RAM - 500Gb Samsung 860 Evo SSD - Hydis AFFS screen / Boot firmware: Libreboot

nitrocaster
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#651 Post by nitrocaster » Thu Oct 05, 2017 5:24 pm

emacsomancer wrote:
Thu Oct 05, 2017 5:10 pm
Do you (or anyone else) have recommendations on a good soldering kit? I'd been a number of years since I've tried soldering anything. For the solder itself, is something like this good?: AMTECH NC-559-V2-TF
Regarding the iron - there are Lukey soldering stations compatible with Hakko FX-888D. Being outdated and not very nice to work with (comparing to FX-951, for example), they're extremely cheap and they actually allow you to do the job. I used Lukey 702 to install first 3 or 4 kits and they still work well. I would say that's a good thing to buy if you don't want to spend money on something that you won't use daily.

NC-559 is a flux, not solder - very good one. Buy from Louis Rossmann to get a real flux.
Want to buy X220/X230 FHD mod kit? Read this before sending me a PM!
T60 | X230 i7-3520M FHD Win10

emacsomancer
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#652 Post by emacsomancer » Thu Oct 05, 2017 6:53 pm

nitrocaster wrote:
Thu Oct 05, 2017 5:24 pm
emacsomancer wrote:
Thu Oct 05, 2017 5:10 pm
Do you (or anyone else) have recommendations on a good soldering kit? I'd been a number of years since I've tried soldering anything. For the solder itself, is something like this good?: AMTECH NC-559-V2-TF
Regarding the iron - there are Lukey soldering stations compatible with Hakko FX-888D. Being outdated and not very nice to work with (comparing to FX-951, for example), they're extremely cheap and they actually allow you to do the job. I used Lukey 702 to install first 3 or 4 kits and they still work well. I would say that's a good thing to buy if you don't want to spend money on something that you won't use daily.

NC-559 is a flux, not solder - very good one. Buy from Louis Rossmann to get a real flux.
Cheers. It looks like the Lukey 702 are all being sold via Russian or Ukrainian sellers. Do you (or anyone else) have recommendations on good/bad sellers (I'm in the western hemisphere, so it won't be local to me).

Does the particular solder not matter as much as the flux?
* X230 - i7-3520M - 16Gb RAM - 512Gb Samsung 850 Pro SSD - Lenovo IPS screen / Boot firmware: Coreboot w/ me_cleaner
* X200 - Core2-P8600 - 8Gb RAM - 500Gb Samsung 860 Evo SSD - Hydis AFFS screen / Boot firmware: Libreboot

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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#653 Post by Fusion » Thu Oct 05, 2017 8:06 pm

If you need a soldering iron, get one of these
https://www.banggood.com/MINI-TS100-Dig ... 84214.html

They're small, light, powerful and have great reviews.
ThinkPad X220, i7-2640m, 16GB RAM, 120GB Kingston SSD, Intel HD3000, 12.5" WQHD, MacOS Sierra 10.13.2
ThinkPad W500 4063-VA4 CD2 Penryn 2,80GHz, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 15.4" WUXGA, FireGL V5700, Win7u
ThinkPad R60 9461-DXG P-CD2 1,83GHz, 2GB 667MHz, 100GB HDD, ATI X1400@512MB, XP2 Pro

owen_r61
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#654 Post by owen_r61 » Thu Oct 05, 2017 8:18 pm

nitrocaster wrote:
Thu Oct 05, 2017 4:07 pm
X200 and X201 are not supported.
I already knew that. I just bought an X200 which needs a display and your thread was the first thing that popped into my mind. Supposedly both X220 and X230 will be able for Libreboot soon, "late 2017," so I may return then and ask the exact same question.

emacsomancer
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#655 Post by emacsomancer » Thu Oct 05, 2017 8:24 pm

owen_r61 wrote:
Thu Oct 05, 2017 8:18 pm
nitrocaster wrote:
Thu Oct 05, 2017 4:07 pm
X200 and X201 are not supported.
I already knew that. I just bought an X200 which needs a display and your thread was the first thing that popped into my mind. Supposedly both X220 and X230 will be able for Libreboot soon, "late 2017," so I may return then and ask the exact same question.
As far as I can tell, coreboot seems to be compatible and so I'm guessing libreboot should be as well. (I'm contemplating the same thing.)
* X230 - i7-3520M - 16Gb RAM - 512Gb Samsung 850 Pro SSD - Lenovo IPS screen / Boot firmware: Coreboot w/ me_cleaner
* X200 - Core2-P8600 - 8Gb RAM - 500Gb Samsung 860 Evo SSD - Hydis AFFS screen / Boot firmware: Libreboot

proze
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#656 Post by proze » Thu Oct 05, 2017 11:46 pm

emacsomancer wrote:
Thu Oct 05, 2017 5:10 pm
So does suspend work again now?
Yup, all good.

phage
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#657 Post by phage » Fri Oct 06, 2017 12:23 pm

albertine wrote:
Mon Sep 04, 2017 4:12 am
remove gdm/lightdm/every DM that you could have installed before, write your .xinitrc then starting your DE only via startx ! :thumbs-UP:
It took me awhile, since I haven't done either of these before, but I patched the 4.9 kernel and wrote my xinitrc script.

The patch didn't fix the black login issue, though it now allows me to use the external display port since I'm using an X220 and gives better power consumption.

So I wrote the xinitrc script after removing and purging all display managers and their config files, but the weird thing is I still get the same problem with xinit: black xterm screen, but suspend-waking will let me see the CLI. Is there anything that we haven't tried yet?

[Edit]: I've also been experimenting with the hack

Code: Select all

rtcwake -m mem -s 1
run as root. It would suspend to RAM for 1 second and wake up, which should do it, but I can't think of where to put it.

phage
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#658 Post by phage » Fri Oct 06, 2017 3:31 pm

phage wrote:
Fri Oct 06, 2017 12:23 pm
Is there anything that we haven't tried yet?
I ended up settling with reinstalling lightdm, then setting it to autologin by uncommenting the following lines in /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

Code: Select all

user-session=default
...
autologin-user=<user>
autologin-user-timeout=0
and then adding a custom rtcwake script to run at startup as root:
I put this in a file called insomnia.sh

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
/usr/sbin/rtcwake -m "mem" -s 1
then

Code: Select all

chmod 755 insomnia.sh
sudo cp insomnia.sh /etc/init.d
sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/insomnia.sh /etc/rc3.d/S99insomnia.sh
So the result ends up being that startup takes awhile, but goes right to the desktop.

x3kcl
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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#659 Post by x3kcl » Thu Oct 12, 2017 7:02 am

I got a screen already for the mod and I am preparing the top lid already till I get my boards, I got one of these http://www.panelook.com/modeldetail.php?id=29324 displays, it fits the top lid perfectly but it has edp 1.3, I wonder will the board be able to handle this?

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Re: Upgrading X220/X230 to FHD 1080p

#660 Post by RealBlackStuff » Thu Oct 12, 2017 8:54 am

That BOE screen probably needs a lot more material removal, it is bigger than the commonly used LG, which just about fits.
Outline(mm) 300.4 × 180.9 × 2.85 (H×V×D) BOE NV125FHM-N62
Outline(mm) 290.5 × 170.7 × 2.85 (H×V×D) LG LP125WF2-SPB4
Pinout-wise they are identical.

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