W510 Internal display not found?

[NVIII]

Hi all,

I have display woes. DISPLAY WOES.

So.

Bought a used T510 with the WUXGA display. Within about two months, the display started fading out (screen freezes and fades out, more or less from right to left). I initially suspected a bad LCD cable, but when I took the bezel off and fiddled with the cable, nothing happened; however, wiggling or applying pressure to the display usually solved it. But it got worse and worse.

So I got fed up, ordered a compatible replacement display from Ebay, got it, mounted it, all good, right?

Nope. Device Manager (Windows 7, 64 bit) doesn't find the Thinkpad display at all. And when I reattached the old screen, still nothing appearing in Device Manager - only the "Generic PnP Monitor" I have attached externally.

the NVIDIA card (Quadro FX 880M) appears to be working just fine. However, even at boot, no display.

External monitor works fine.

I am confused and frustrated, especially since I've thrown time and money at this laptop (neither which do I have much to spare!) and only succeeded at making things worse.

HELP!?!

Many thanks!
Nate

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to the forum.
The trick with Lenovo laptops is, that they require original, made-for-Lenovo screens.
NOT a "guaranteed compatible" screen from most of the eBay junk-sellers.
The reason is, that the pinout for the LCD cable is different from even the next version of the same screen from the same manufacturer, which could be meant for a Dell, Acer, HP or whatever.
By putting in a wrong screen, if you are lucky you will only have blown a fuse or two.
If not, you may need another (REAL-Lenovo) screen AND a new motherboard.
Remove the lid (or just disconnect the LCD-cable from the motherboard) and connect an external monitor, any luck?

[NVIII]

Thank you for the welcome note!

Looks like I screwed myself and/or got screwed by this Ebay seller. Bah.

New motherboard is baaaaad news.

External monitor via VGA works, but neither my original screen nor the replacement lights up at all, and neither of them shows up in device manager either.

[RealBlackStuff]

Check all the fuses near the LCD connector on the motherboard, using a multimeter.
Fuses are tiny, and normally marked F3, F4, F5 etc.
A replacement fuse cost a LOT less than a mobo.
You can piggy-back solder the new one on top of the old one.

What eBay item did you buy from whom?
Once we know, we can avoid him like the plague!