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

[chubbyfatazn]

Just got my panel installed. This is glorious

Immediate notes:
- You need to remove that tab from the roll cage. You're not gonna be able to wedge the PCB in if you don't, I tried for the longest time before whipping out the dremel.
- Don't use your fingernails when removing the palmrest/screen bezel. Had to clean up more blood from my laptop than I intended to.
- I've noticed flickering exactly once (at 50Hz refresh), and that was when I was physically moving the laptop. No flickering on post, watching youtube videos, etc. Testing now at 60Hz, haven't noticed anything yet so far.
- If you're having trouble removing the palmrest bezel due to the headphone jack, don't try prying the area around the jack out; you'll end up cracking the palmrest around the lid latch release (oops). Instead, undo all the clips on the opposite (left) side, lift up slightly, and push to the right. The palmrest bezel should pop out immediately.

Edit:

No flickering at 60Hz after 2 hours of use, whether on battery or on AC power. Haven't seen any further flickering when moving the laptop around.

Mine is iGPU-only. Running W7 x64 SP1, with Intel graphics driver v9.17.10.3347 (dated 14/05/23), 65W adapter, if any of that matters.

[axur-delmeria]

Had to clean up more blood from my laptop than I intended to.

Don't worry, it's just an offering to the machine god.

[chubbyfatazn]

Here's a quick guide I threw together using the pics I ripped from the 51nb thread. I'm about to board a plane in an hour so it's a bit messy.

http://imgur.com/a/hUaJm

[RMSMajestic]

Here's a quick guide I threw together using the pics I ripped from the 51nb thread. I'm about to board a plane in an hour so it's a bit messy.

http://imgur.com/a/hUaJm

Nice guide, much better than mine
P.S. what was your laptop displaying when the flickering occured?

[RMSMajestic]

I've turned this 420s into my daily driver. FHD, I'll be honest, I hate the 16:9, hate it hate it hate it. BUT, the 1080 is more than the previous 1050, and the 1920 is a fairly nice improvement over the 1400. I got more pixels, not less in my 14" and that's what matters most to me. WUXGA would be ideal, but it is what it is. 16g of ram, not running at 80C, far less lag for everything, lighter, still a good keyboard. I can more than tolerate it, it's overall an improvement from the T60.

not necessarily. I found it very painful to use my T420 with FHD @ 96 DPI, my eyes have started aching.
while on X61 with SXGA panels, it wasn't very comfortable, but still acceptable
T60p with UXGA still rocks!!

[85101]

I installed B140HAN01.1 on my T430 with the NVS 5400M and Windows 8.1 x64. The frame didn't need to be modified. I tested by watching some videos using the HD4000, playing a game with discrete graphics, and using both at the same time by connecting 2 DVI monitors to my 4338 dock. No problems so far.

[chubbyfatazn]

Here's a quick guide I threw together using the pics I ripped from the 51nb thread. I'm about to board a plane in an hour so it's a bit messy.

http://imgur.com/a/hUaJm

Nice guide, much better than mine
P.S. what was your laptop displaying when the flickering occured?

The W7 login screen. Haven't encountered any further flickering today.

The only thing I noticed is that after I put the laptop to sleep for the first time after a fresh boot, the next time I wake from sleep the power LED will be blinking as if it's still asleep. Didn't happen before I did the mod.

Edit: ok scratch everything I said. This thing is flickering like there's no tomorrow. Trying to figure out why I had no problems after I first powered on after mod install but have tons of problems after I put it to sleep and wake it up again later.

Edit edit: laptop battery was charging when flickering first start occurring. As soon as I stopped the charging the flickering seems to also have stopped.

Edit edit edit: yeah, I'm only able to reproduce flickering on my end when I'm charging the battery. 50Hz is a flickerfest compared to 60Hz. Otherwise, if the battery's not charging, it's stable.

[peca89]

Hello,

I came across this topic recently and I found it really interesting as I am not very fond of my so called HD+ screen on T430. I'm very interested in upgrading the screen, but to be honest, I'll wait for the flickering problems to settle down.

As for the flickering problems, I do not own the kit, but IMHO your experiences suggest me that this must be some kind of power supply problems or overheating issue. Where does adapter supply its power from? Did anyone who owns a kit and has some experience in electronics try powering it from an external power supply?

@chubbyfatazn: Did you use 90W power adapter? Your i7 probably draws too much current...

[chubbyfatazn]

@chubbyfatazn: Did you use 90W power adapter? Your i7 probably draws too much current...

Using a 90W adapter now.

Now that I think of it, I think most of the posters here had or upgraded to i7s with this upgrade. But I'm somewhat skeptical that an i7 would draw that much more than an i5.

All in all, since my T420 is plugged in 95% of the time, it's not a big deal to me. It's definitely a veeeeeery significant upgrade to the 1600x900 panel.

[85101]

Hello,

I came across this topic recently and I found it really interesting as I am not very fond of my so called HD+ screen on T430. I'm very interested in upgrading the screen, but to be honest, I'll wait for the flickering problems to settle down.

As for the flickering problems, I do not own the kit, but IMHO your experiences suggest me that this must be some kind of power supply problems or overheating issue. Where does adapter supply its power from? Did anyone who owns a kit and has some experience in electronics try powering it from an external power supply?

@chubbyfatazn: Did you use 90W power adapter? Your i7 probably draws too much current...

I am using the i7-3632QM, which does not even allow charging on a 65W adapter. So far no problems using a 90W adapter or on battery and at either 50/60Hz.

[bit_twiddler]

@chubbyfatazn, now that you're using a 90W adapter, have you noticed any flickering?

[chubbyfatazn]

@chubbyfatazn, now that you're using a 90W adapter, have you noticed any flickering?

Yep. Everything I posted in my earlier post about flickering was done with a 90W adapter.

I actually had no problems using the 65W adapter when the battery was charged. Granted I'm out of town at the moment and didn't take the 65W adapter with me, so I can't do any further testing right now.

[bit_twiddler]

@chubbyfatazn, do you have another battery that you can use to test for flickering behavior?
I know it's a long shot, but might be worth trying.

[theterminator93]

To those interested to know - problem on mine got a lot worse earlier this week. Flipped it over to Nvidia only (where previously it did not glitch at all) and it was still going like crazy. I've got another board coming to try out - so we'll see if the problem persists or is cured when I get it swapped...

Alternative is a different screen, I suppose. No problems with B140HAN01.1? Matte finish?

[chubbyfatazn]

@chubbyfatazn, do you have another battery that you can use to test for flickering behavior?
I know it's a long shot, but might be worth trying.

Seems to be the same type of behaviour using my spare 9-cell (I have two 9-cells). Didn't test for too long but charging the battery induced flickers again.

I haven't had any flickers since yesterday after I charged the battery, so it definitely has something to do with that (on my unit at least). I have a 170W adapter for my W530 I plan on trying out when I get back home.

[RMSMajestic]

I've got my i7 2760qm, yes, after using i7 3740qm, i7 3940xm and even i7 920xm, I can't cope with dual core on my daily workhorse anymore.
And, the flickering doesn't occur on this CPU as well.
So maybe flickering is more individual screen dependent.

I'll post the i5-2520m for @antonizoon and replacement kits for @chubbyfatazn this afternoon.

TGIF every 1!!

[bit_twiddler]

I've got my i7 2760qm

Just out of interest, what machine do you have this in?

[thinkpadcollection]

RMSMajestic, same question as previous poster, what are the machines this had quad core put in? And what software or game are used as well? Or any reasons?

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

[RMSMajestic]

Just out of interest, what machine do you have this in?

This T420

[RMSMajestic]

RMSMajestic, same question as previous poster, what are the machines this had quad core put in? And what software or game are used as well? Or any reasons?

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

Just this T420, temperature is ~60-70 normally and went up to 95C and throttles after 15 mins of AIDA64 FPU stress testing, temperature is about the same as a slightly overclocked i7 920xm on W701

software I've used... errrrr Fritz chess benchmark, super Pi, MS SQL 2008 R2, VMWare, Firefox etc. etc.

Big problem is that I often open 60-70 tabs together when running virtual Machines and SQL Server.

[bit_twiddler]

With the stock heat sink?

[RMSMajestic]

With the stock heat sink?

Yup, FRU 04w0409

[thinkpadcollection]

Wow, that is pure power user stuff, I don't even approach that except games but not on notebooks even. Just dual core i7 due to better design that are not crippled as i5 are, not talking about the visible features. I'm talking about deeper stuff internal to the die processor itself.

My desktop is so old (optiplex 780 E8400) but doing well for now till I fill up my wish list of notebooks, just one more to go then build new desktop parts; month by month budget.

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

[chubbyfatazn]

My desktop is so old (optiplex 780 E8400) but doing well for now till I fill up my wish list of notebooks, just one more to go then build new desktop parts; month by month budget.

Just focus on the Thinkpads :p Computers as a hobby are such a money sink. I've got 5820k and 3930k rigs and just today I bought an X301 (it was $85 and in super condition!). Ugh.

Thanks RMS for volunteering to post new kits. Not that I needed nor expected you to - I'm not sure how much more testing I can do over your two days' (!) worth. Knowing under what conditions I'll get flickering, I'm happy with the mod on my unit.

[Colman96]

Hey! I was wondering how I can get ahold of a kit for my T420. Are these available now for the non-slim? Thanks so much!

[kbahus]

I just purchased a T430 to use as my MacBook replacement after I played with a loaner T60S and got hooked on the Thinkpad line. I really love this T430 but the screen is terrible and kills it for me. I should have done more research before buying with regards to the screen, but an HD+ screen sounded like it should be decent. I sure would love to get my hands on one of the T430 kits if they become available again. The risk of flickering doesn't bother me much either, willing to accept the trade off for a better screen.

[thinkpadcollection]

Someone mentioned about unsnapping the keyboard bezel on Tx10 thru Tx30, well I did find out that much easier is to take out optical drive and roll 3 hooks outwards and upwards one by one starting from back to front, you'll will see them. Then work from right to left along front seam after undoing that first 3 hooks.

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

[bit_twiddler]

Am happy to report success on a T420 (HD3000 only) with a B140HAN01.1 screen.
I'm not seeing any glitches or flickering after about 3 hours of use.

[edhelas]

Hi everyone, I'm really interested to move to a Full HD screen on my T430 (not S :p) Thinkpad.
I'm living in The Netherlands and I've found a UK shop that sells B140HAN01 screens for an interesting price (http://www.ajparts.co.uk/catalog/produc ... 40hge-ea1/ ) what do you think of this shop ?

Aslo I've found out that B140HAN01.1 is matte and the B140HAN01.2 glossy. (see http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads ... st-9579734), if that can help you to choose

Is there still a kit for T430 available ?

[theterminator93]

B140HAN01.2 can be either glossy or matte (mine is matte) but has issues with the kit that's out now. B140HAN01.1 does not seem to have issues.