W520 upgrade to touchscreen, LCD cable mismatch

[popfuture]

I thought I would be real smart and upgrade a W520, type 4276-23U to a touch screen. So I got a W510, type 4389-2UU off eBay with a touchscreen and proceeded to do a screen swap. When I opened up the two machines, I found that the LCD connectors (on the motherboard end) didn't match. I haven't opened the lid yet to see if they match on the other end. The W520 cable has part number 04W1565 revA01 and the w510 LCD cable has 4CU03012 rev b02.

The W520 has the i7-2920xm and the Nvidia 2000M graphics, so its so much better than the W510. I would hate to give up such power just for touch.

I'm really not sure what to do here. Perhaps I need to keep the LCD cable from the W520 and open up the two lids and swap the cables, but I really was hoping not to have to mess with that and there's a pretty good chance that the cables won't match on the other end either. I am about to abandon the whole project and put them both back together the way they were. Any thoughts on this? Has anyone on here tried this?

[Thinkpad4by3]

Well, of course they wont!(not trying to be rude) first, is part of another tick tock cycle where the motherboards are similar (t6x, t400/410 t420/430) seconds, there are extra required pins for touch. You're best luck is to put the panel in the w520 frame and cross your fingers and hope to God that the touch connector isn't custom. If it is standard, find a touch screen adapter and install somehow. Otherwise, consider a stick on touch bar if touch is such a necessity

Sent from my SM-G550T using Tapatalk

[popfuture]

That's what I was afraid of. Unfortunately, I was led to believe it would work by this thread:

/viewtopic.php?t=114131

I guess you can't believe everything you read on the internet! Going to put these back together now. I don't think I will be attempting this again unless someone has a breakthrough to share.

By the way, I love these retro keyboards, sooooo much better than my w530 at work! I don't need to plug in an external keyboard to get work done! Using vim with a chiclet keyboard feels like a crime!

[RealBlackStuff]

Hold it!
According to the HMM:
- the W510 uses the same LCD-cable 75Y5557 for HD, HD+, FHD and FHD-touch.
- the W520 also uses the same LCD-cable 04W1565 for HD, HD+, FHD and FHD-touch.

(Note: newer cables (or from another manufacturer) can have different P/N or FRU number.
Lazy Lenovo never bothered to update the HMM if other parts or part numbers became available.

Both cables can (and apparently do, as per your info) have different mobo connectors.
But the LCD-pinouts for both W510 and W520 screens are the same (40-pin).
If only the mobo-connectors are different, you only need to swap the screens themselves, so it CAN be done!

[RealBlackStuff]

By the way, I love these retro keyboards, sooooo much better than my w530 at work! I don't need to plug in an external keyboard to get work done! Using vim with a chiclet keyboard feels like a crime!

You can install a T420/T520/X220/W520 keyboard in a T430/T530/X230/W530
Since it's a holiday weekend, prepare to do a bit of forum reading: viewtopic.php?f=69&t=120776
Then ask your IT Dept. (provided they are capable enough...) to do the mod, or if you can do it yourself.
You/they can do it in your coffee break.

PS: and while you're at it, at the same time you can also make the W530 able to use batteries from the W520...

[popfuture]

Wow,RealBlackStuff! I dozed off to sleep last night to shattered dreams and I wake up to this! Can I just say you are a friggin' genius? I'm going try to retain the w520 LCD cable and attach it to the w510's screen as you suggest. It certainly takes a lot more disassembly to do that and hence more time. No problem there - I will always trade sleep for Thinkpad projects.

As for the keyboard mod, very interesting thread! I don't know if my IT department can handle working around the pins not matching though. Luckily, I use Linux at work, which doesn't seem to mind if the drive gets moved to another machine. So I could theoretically pop it in my w520 I just got for on-the-go coding. Then when I get back to my desk, my w530 would be ok, since my Razer Tournament Edition Chroma keyboard is there (yes it works in Linux with a third party daemon). Still though, it might be fun to try the keyboard mod just to see if I can, which is, of course, the best reason for doing things.