Thinkpads Forum

Greetings TPF! I have ordered a T400 and T500 that both have brokens screens and don't boot to bios.
My guess that why they don't boot because they don't have ram installed.
K, so if all goes good when I get them and IF they boot to bios with RAM installed my next move is to replace the screens and game on it!!
If all goes bad, then I got two BIOS locked, water damaged, rubber dome busted ThinkPads with decent frames and exploding batteries.

On the T500 looks to be OK unless the model is LED backlit then obvioulsy its a no go.
I have a W500 that is bios locked and I may be able to source its screen from that if it is backlit seeing as they are similar in specs from the HMM.

The T400 looks like I could swap from a 14" widescreen T6x or R6x and be done with it.


Reasons of why I am doing this is that I decided to spoil my high school brother with a W500.
It played games alot better than I expected so I am curious to the differences of the T400 and T500.
From there I might flip them if they are working, paid $80 for both units, then $50 for two sticks of 4GB ram...

Happy Holidays indeed!

Got my units in the mail! T400 didn't have any memory installed, the T500 did but it hanged at the startup screen. There is damage from the USB plugs, I'll investigate that unit later.

Onto the T400, its machine type is 7417-TPU wouldn't know if that matters but yeah.
I have the LCD out from the donor T61 7665-11U. The motherboard must of blown a fuse somewhere for the CCFL.

The screen works and fits from the T61!! FRU 42T0494 P/N 42T0493

Its not a lid swap though, you'll need the T400's LCD cable, the connector to the motherboard is slightly longer than the T61.
It connects to the LCD flushly, turns on to bios fine. But I think there is some slight screen cropping. Will find out later when I try out an OS.
Not sure if the ThinkLight is in a different area but there will be some stress perhaps when trying to apply it.
Oh the piece that secures the LCD to the hinges are different from the T61. The right unit is slightly shorter in height for it to be secured, but a drill could solve that.
The left unit would need to be bent and flipped 180 degrees for it to be secured on that side...
But I didn't do that, also the inverter board has the same FRU for both units I've obtained.

I'm putting back the LCD as I am writing this post, I'll try T500 next if not too tired but I might need to sleep.


Here are some photos:
Testing to see if it works
The slight difference to the mobo
LCD cables

Seems interesting enough... I once had a W500 apart and a T60p 14" handy, and I noticed the detail about the plugs being different. Interesting you've found that simply using the cable from that laptop allows the LCD to work anyways... I kinda want to put a W500 motherboard in a T60 frame now.

I assume the T500 will work fine. Although is there any dots or artifacting at the startup screen? It could be the ATI chip(if it's equipped with one.) if not, yank the BIOS battery and all other sources of power(battery, charger) and give the thing a 15 minute timeout for acting up. Hopefully it'll learn it's lesson, if not, then you may have to peel it apart for other cannibal T500/W500s.

The T400 you got is kind of a cruddy one, it has a lower-power processor, 1280x800 display and Intel integrated graphics. Although it will be worth a pretty penny if the T61's display works, because apparently that T61 display is 1440x900, a nicer 14" display.

Looks like the T500 is the same case, the LCD to mobo connector is slighty longer.

The lid from the T50 may not fit either, the LCD cable is positioned slighty to the right, so there is some tension to the lid.
Could probably be sanded down, also my T60 donor lid didn't come equipped with a frame, so it'll be lesser likely to survive a stress test. Can't use it as a sheld.

I'm gonna try to salvage the hinges because I don't want to take them apart.
Powered it on, LCD works as well. I think the bootup screen is frozen because two of the USBs are damaged, might have to pry em apart to get past the boot screen.

Hopefully the screen is at least WXGA+, pulled an HDD from my x61s and tossed it on the T400.
Machine runs OK, though it skips audio from youtube on the background while web browsing...

So I'd have to say this project was a success!!!
The swap works so far, given that neither of the fixerupper T4/500 are not LED backlit units.