Thinkpads Forum

Hi I was recently looking at the 15.4" Thinkpads I had the T61p in mind because I liked the idea of a large resolution 1920x1200 screen anyway I was worried about the nvidia fault on the T61p so ended up buying a very good condition T500 from ebay for £165. I stuck a Sandisk Extreme 120GB SSD in there and maxed out the ram to 8GB for an extra 100 quid and the laptop is running like a dream.

Now I am wondering is it possible and also how easy is it to swap the 1920x1200 screen from a T61p into my T500 with the 1680 x 1050 screen? I have access to an old T61p at work and like the resolution and they wouldn't mind me doing a swap if not I can buy a spares/repair t61p off ebay for the big screen or just buy a screen off ebay.

Also if its possible whats the best way to remove the black screw covers without making a mess of them?

Swapping LCDs is not that difficult, but depend on your skills and patience.

Best thing to do is download both HMMs (Hardware maintenance manuals) from the Lenovo website. They're really good and have a step by step documentation how to take every component apart.

T61p HMM: http://tim.id.au/laptops/lenovo/thinkpa ... 15.4ws.pdf
T500 HMM: http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... 630_03.pdf

Happy disassembling!

Hi thanks for the link to the service manuals I will take a look at the procedure then

Yay I now have a WUXGA T500 My boss didn't mind me swapping the screen out of the T61p at work and to top it all off its an LG/Phillips screen not a Samsung one.

It was a bit fiddly I looked at the service manuals and they wanted me to take the laptop apart completely almost but I found a youtube video on screen replacement for the T500 and followed that. TBH the Youtube video was rubbish as it made it look too easy but it wasn't too bad. I caused a tiny bit of damage to the aluminum around my left hinge as one of the screw threads cracked off but on reassembly the hinges still work I will just have to be careful I think. The 1920x1200 seems to look better in Windows 7 than in vista for some reason, it seems to scale better.

Anyway now to put my old screen back in the work laptop lol.

Wow this is a fantastic result just put the T61p back together and have put it next to the T500 on the desk. The 1680x1050 screen is a Samsung and it actually looks better running on the T61p under Vista for some reason. The 1920x1200 screen in my T500 looks brighter and looks much better under Windows 8 than it did under vista it was a bit eyestrainy under vista because everything seemed tiny.

Ok there are better things I could be doing with my evening I guess but I think the result is worth it lol.

BTW the screen bezel was much easier to remove on the T500 than it was on the T61p

thebully wrote: BTW the screen bezel was much easier to remove on the T500 than it was on the T61p

Glad you got the results you were after!

If your T61p is a wide screen, your statement about the LCD bezel is true on many other models and not just the T500.

@OP. What is the part number of that screen you are using? I may try this at some point in the future and if it 'wows' me I may leave it in and save my WSXGA+ for a backup.

Did a similar swap a few months back. Did not record the exact FRU number but did make a mental note that it was a 1920x1200 LGP screen. The 1920x1200 screen was from a T61p with that did not turn on, so I got it for $40 with 4 GB RAM and a T9300. What I really wanted was the CPU and RAM so the screen was a bonus. What a terrific bonus it was, really bright and flawless screen.

emeraldgirl08 wrote:What is the part number of that screen you are using?

I did several of these swaps and I prefer the LG Phillips instead of the Samsung, I don't know the FRU numbers but the panel models are LP154WU1-TLB1 and LTN154U2-L05 respectively.

Folks at the German sister forum found out that there are Sharp Panels used among others in Dell D820/D830 that are fully compatible. Model # is LQ0DZA0043

Sounds good

Thanks all!

Hi,
I just got my T500 (no ATI 3650) and, based on the recommendations here, would also like to go for a LP154WU1-TLB1. I contacted a seller and he told me this:

Just to confirm we are not wrong about this. Basically your laptop comes in 2 types, the top end will have the high res and the budget range will have the lower res.

The question you need to find out is rather your laptop motherboard and the graphics card can handle the higher res screen. If it does, then this screen will work. If it doesn't then it will fail.

Is this true? It doesn't seem right considering how easy it is for people to just swap the panels (my current panel is a 1680*1050, so I shouldn't even have problems with the inverter, right?)...

I'd like to avoid buying the wrong screen, so I'd really appreciate a quick confirmation.

Thanks in advance!

The seller is clueless.

Either board will run WUXGA just fine.

Happy shopping.

ajkula66 wrote:The seller is clueless.

Either board will run WUXGA just fine.

Thanks, that's what I thought. I've ordered it now and look forward to a 1920*1200 screen (much better for programming, even though 1400*1050 is already nice). I really can't fathom that in the year 2014 1366*768 is the most common resolution.

Retina displays on all new machines should be the norm some day.

I haven't used this generation of machine. Why would one swap an older LCD into one? I thought the new panels were brighter (usable near a window or outdoors in shade) and used less power due to LED backlight.

So what's the advantage of the old LCD?

atanasoff wrote:I haven't used this generation of machine. Why would one swap an older LCD into one? I thought the new panels were brighter (usable near a window or outdoors in shade) and used less power due to LED backlight.

This generation still used - for the most part - conventional CCFL-lit panels, not the LED ones.

So what's the advantage of the old LCD?

In OP's case, higher resolution.

May have been similar to my situation... I had a T500 with a broken LCD, and a T61p with a dead system board (nVidia GPU). So I put the two together, and ended up with a nice T500 from spare parts!