T500 LCD & Lighting upgrade (CCFL>LED possible?)

[fastbiter]

Hey all!
I've got the poor little 1280x800 LED T500 and I've wanted to upgrade it for quite some time. A friend of mine at work donated his T61p that had spill damage and worked very erratically. The screen was open at the time so luckily that lovely 1920x1200 display wasn't damaged at all. I've confirmed it works (granted, non-lit) on my T500.

I've already ordered a non-LED wiring harness and inverter for the swap, but a thought occurred to me - wouldn't it be great if I could move the LED lighting assembly from the WXGA to the WUXGA? I'd rather have LED lighting on the panel anyway, and I figure they're the same dimensions, so there might be a chance? The WUXGA panel is a Samsung LTN154U2-L05, if it matters.

No big deal if it's entirely impossible - like I said, the inverter is on the way regardless. If it's just a matter of "you could break a lot of things if you did this" then yeah, no big deal, I've replaced CCFLs in LCD panels before - so that doesn't worry one bit. Worst comes to worst I have to get another panel, eh?

Thanks!

John

[600X]

I've been wondering the exact same thing. There are CCFL to LED upgrade kits for T40 and T60 ThinkPads, but none for the T500. There must be some reason why it isn't possible. Perhaps someone with more experience could shed some light on this issue.

[fastbiter]

I took both displays apart down to the raw panels. The WUXGA panel has a LOT more ribbon connectors than the WXGA one (obviously). The white plastic that the CCFL/LED is built into is very different for each panel though. While both panels fit into either light diffuser (the plastic white backing chassis thing) the ribbon cables for the WUXGA panel don't properly flip over the top of the LED chassis/frame. I imagine with a decent amount of modification to the plastic room could be made. I don't have a dremel at my disposal at the moment so I'll wait for the inverter.

It absolutely works though! The WUXGA panel fits onto the LED diffuser just fine, but room needs to be made for the cables to fold over neatly, lest they be mushed.

Honestly I think unless you'll die without an LED backlit WUXGA panel on your T500, spend the $5 and get an inverter off ebay...

[jdhurst]

I have a working T61p that is seeing backup service right now as I have an X230 with LED display. The smaller battery in the X230 lasts more than twice as long as the bigger battery in the T61p (LED vs. CFL and inverter, smaller screen, smaller motherboard, more efficient devices).

I would be happy to put in an LED conversion kit if one were available.

... JDH