Interest in upgrade your T420/T420s/T430/T430s to FHD 1080p

[seagoj]

maybe its possible to place the chip where the standard wifi module is located. And then use the pci/msata for a better wireless card.

This is interesting, please let us know if you try it.

[lembang]

oh no i have to give up my msata if that is happening.
I'm awaiting for a another second hand first batch t420 PCB.
What I gonna do. I wanted to try to use silicone gel to wrap them and then cover them with some EMF adhesive fabric.
then try to cover the power line with the same adhesive too. I just need to be very careful if thats gonna cause short circuit.
Any users who has a knowledge on electronic engineering, feel free to reach me, if there anything you want to advise me. I dont have electrical engineering background. I just learnt from google+youtube+reading some textbooks.


edit:
Just thinking about something, since we have some space for those not using SmartCard. What will happen, if we pull a cable down there, Like the way t420s doing it, but of course reacing smart card area the cable will be longer?

[b1naryc0ven]

@ seagoj: I dont have a kit to test it out with, still waiting out for a T430 approved adapter. But when I get to try it out I will certainly report about it here.

@ lembang: Good one, smartcard is indeed something I dont use, but is the height enough? Maybe there is some extra room in the ultra bay? Or what about the expresscard slot?

[lembang]

@ seagoj: I dont have a kit to test it out with, still waiting out for a T430 approved adapter. But when I get to try it out I will certainly report about it here.

@ lembang: Good one, smartcard is indeed something I dont use, but is the height enough? Maybe there is some extra room in the ultra bay? Or what about the expresscard slot?

@b1naryc0ven
I dont want to give up my express card, thats the case i will have no more eGPU T_T
ok so I ordered couple stuff from ebay..

• Glue wire
  Conductive silver+copper tape
  Audio tape (non-conductive)
  Silicone gel.

My plan is to try to layered the PCB using silicon gel, layered the power line with gluewire and wrap it with audio tape.
then on the pcb I will layer it again with the silver tape; make another layer on the mainboard to make sure it wont be conductive or gonna cause any short circuit.
Once I got my stuff and do my experiment i will report to you guys here.

[b1naryc0ven]

@lembang: haha well obviously you need express-card then. Off-topic question; does eGPU work well? I've heard it only does pci-e 1x speed, if so is it still better than no eGPU?
Anyway, it seems like good insulation will be the thing to try out for the most of us.

Looking forward to your results!

[lembang]

@lembang: haha well obviously you need express-card then. Off-topic question; does eGPU work well? I've heard it only does pci-e 1x speed, if so is it still better than no eGPU?
Anyway, it seems like good insulation will be the thing to try out for the most of us.

Looking forward to your results!

I got 2x speed which is not too bad. it can run gtx970. Some says if on thunderbolt can go to 3x. I havent benchmark the test yet.
But I can play Assassin Creed in high settings without a problem.

[b1naryc0ven]

But I can play Assassin Creed in high settings without a problem

Wow that's really something. I'm considering to buy an eGPU adapter now...

[sad47]

But I can play Assassin Creed in high settings without a problem

Wow that's really something. I'm considering to buy an eGPU adapter now...

This is quite OT, and I don't want to continue with it, but I would like to point out one thing: what discourages me about eGPU, is need to restart machine after every (un)plug eGPU (please correct me if I am wrong about that).

Anyway, I'm also very interested in this display upgrade for my T420 (non s). I look forward for working solution!

[zarpanzur]

Ummmm.....instead of losing sleep thinking about how to make this mod work with non-s and putting in so much effort, why not just buy an s model laptop and be done with it? Unless you enjoy the challenge, maybe, or your non-s model has some sentimental value?

[b1naryc0ven]

Ummmm.....instead of losing sleep thinking about how to make this mod work with non-s and putting in so much effort, why not just buy an s model laptop and be done with it? Unless you enjoy the challenge, maybe, or your non-s model has some sentimental value?

I do not like the feel/look/design of the S models, what does that leave me with?

[plympton]

Ummmm.....instead of losing sleep thinking about how to make this mod work with non-s and putting in so much effort, why not just buy an s model laptop and be done with it? Unless you enjoy the challenge, maybe, or your non-s model has some sentimental value?

I do not like the feel/look/design of the S models, what does that leave me with?

T460p.

[b1naryc0ven]

why not just buy an s model laptop and be done with it?

I do not like the feel/look/design of the S models, what does that leave me with?

T460p.

Forget what I said there, I like the design, classic and with the new chiclet keyboard (T430) but not the T440! Its just that on the s models, all the connections are on the back and that seems so weird and inconvenient to me. Besides, why would I swap a perfectly fine T430 for a T430s?

[vitriol_drinker]

Would this work on X1Carbon 1st gen ?

[Ezhik]

Ummmm.....instead of losing sleep thinking about how to make this mod work with non-s and putting in so much effort, why not just buy an s model laptop and be done with it? Unless you enjoy the challenge, maybe, or your non-s model has some sentimental value?

That would turn a ~$150 mod into a ~$400 mod.

[lembang]

Ummmm.....instead of losing sleep thinking about how to make this mod work with non-s and putting in so much effort, why not just buy an s model laptop and be done with it? Unless you enjoy the challenge, maybe, or your non-s model has some sentimental value?

I do have t440p.
So the mod, it is quite fun for me to figure it out. Secondly I still love t420 keyboard better than the t440p

[b1naryc0ven]

I do have t440p. So the mod, it is quite fun for me to figure it out. Secondly I still love t420 keyboard better than the t440p

Didn't the T440p already have the full hd option from Lenovo?

[Utwig]

Just a heads up. In December I returned the bad T420s and got a refund (had to eat the shipping cost) and then New Year came, etc... I ordered another T420s from where I normally order used ThinkPads and it should arrive soon.

[Nugen]

I couldn't get the upgrade kit to work. I have the B140HAN01.2 screen and all I can get is the backlight to work but nothing else appears on the screen. I've checked the fittings and connections are snug and tight. When I remove the upgrade kit and reconnect the original screen everything works as normal.

Is there any trick I should know about or is the kit or screen defective?

Edit: I have a T430s with the latest BIOS version.

[lembang]

I do have t440p. So the mod, it is quite fun for me to figure it out. Secondly I still love t420 keyboard better than the t440p

Didn't the T440p already have the full hd option from Lenovo?

yeap, it run 1080p screen on my t440p.But still t420 with 1080p will still be the best..well its technically already 1080 just need to isolate the interference. Only god knows when all the stuff i bought from feebay will arrived in my mailbox.

*I'm a big fan of thinkpad old keyboard.

[lembang]

I couldn't get the upgrade kit to work. I have the B140HAN01.2 screen and all I can get is the backlight to work but nothing else appears on the screen. I've checked the fittings and connections are snug and tight. When I remove the upgrade kit and reconnect the original screen everything works as normal.

Is there any trick I should know about or is the kit or screen defective?

Edit: I have a T430s with the latest BIOS version.

I do have that problem with a LG screen, but works fine on my AUO B140HAN01.3.
Have u tried on the different laptop?

[wedgepm]

Definitely interested in a T430 non -s kit. Looking forward to the bugs being worked out.

[turomini]

I'm glad to see an upgrade for the T420s screen, I was always a little jealous of my now gfs X220T screen.

Sorry if I missed it, but what would be the best screen to go with this upgrade for the T420s?

[nofear999]

I couldn't get the upgrade kit to work. I have the B140HAN01.2 screen and all I can get is the backlight to work but nothing else appears on the screen. I've checked the fittings and connections are snug and tight. When I remove the upgrade kit and reconnect the original screen everything works as normal.

Is there any trick I should know about or is the kit or screen defective?

Edit: I have a T430s with the latest BIOS version.

I have exactly the same Problem withe the same configuration.Backlight is working but no more else (no Lenovo logo etc.).Send a mail to RMSMajestic the problem is known and he will send a replacement. But I could not yet test it because it is not yet there.

[zarpanzur]

I have the same problem, using B140HAN01.2 and only the backlight works, nothing else shows on screen. Waiting for a replacement kit from RMSMajestic.

[zarpanzur]

I'm glad to see an upgrade for the T420s screen, I was always a little jealous of my now gfs X220T screen.

Sorry if I missed it, but what would be the best screen to go with this upgrade for the T420s?

Either B140HAN01.2 or B140HAN01.3 but just by reading a few posts up, someone had better results with B140HAN01.3. I decided to go with B140HAN01.2 because RMSMajestic gave an icm file for that particular screen.

[jmg3]

FYI, I registered just to respond to this--
I bought one of these adapters off ebay and the LCD panel recommended in the ebay posting, just installed today, and it works fantastic on my t420s. No drama, no flickering, it just works. Very, very happy with this- this upgrade really breathes new life into this laptop -- more than the modded bios to remove whielist, more than the memory upgrade -- possibly the only other upgrade that was had this much of a noticable differnece was going from a mechanical drive to a sata drive.

[teleshoes]

ooh, modified bios for whitelist! if you can, could you please tell me how you went about it, and whose bios you used, and where you bought the hardware for it?

all the resources ive found are either hw-flashers-in-general-for-beginners or t430-specific-flashing-for-experts. i couldnt find a noobs-guide-to-flashing-the-t4[23]0s? anywhere, but maybe i just didnt look in the right places.
(im a programmer, and ive modified and flashed BIOSes before, but ive never had to use hardware to do it, and i dont wanna 'learn the hard way' on my best machine.)

[RealBlackStuff]

Here's info for a T420 modded BIOS: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 40#p756940

Most of these mods are performed on MDL: http://forums.mydigitallife.info/

[zarpanzur]

Here's info for a T420 modded BIOS: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 40#p756940

Most of these mods are performed on MDL: http://forums.mydigitallife.info/

Please excuse my ignorance but what does a modded bios do?

[teleshoes]

Please excuse my ignorance but what does a modded bios do?

among other things, modified bioses are useful to allow you to stick in a wifi card other than the ones that are 'whitelisted' for your laptop.

for example, if you want to use an 802.11ac card in a t430, the bios goes 'beep beep beep, wifi card is unsupported, asshat' and refuses to boot.
...even though the wifi card would work perfectly. modding the bios gets around this.

people also mod bioses to do unsupported overclocking, to speed up boot time, to insert ram speeds that arent supported, to replace closed-source firmware with something like coreboot, and many other reasons.