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New W500 Camera & other

W500/W510/W520 and W700/W701 Series
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Crazycow
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New W500 Camera & other

#1 Post by Crazycow » Mon Mar 26, 2018 5:21 am

Hello everyone

Yesterday I bought a W500 4062-2XG to replace my Z61t and sit on the advanced dock throne.
I am very happy because not only it had top specs but it was also in a superb condition! I am very, very happy!

I have a few questions and I would be thankful if you could help me.

1) Integrated camera:
My model doesn't have one. Wiki says that
The W-series, being a relatively young line, has only models ready for cameras.
What does this mean?
Can I upgrade my machine by buying the camera module and the appropriate bezel?
Do I need to buy anything else?
The microphone is included in the camera module, right?

2) Screen
Are there any LED kits for the screen?
I know that there is a led control unit from the smaller resolution monitor, would it be possible to exchange that with the inverter and put leds on my WUXG+?
Will it work properly and have the correct brightness levels etc?

3) CPU
I suppose adding a quad core is not a possibility, right?

Additional stuff
I have already looked for drivers issues on windows 10 and found this
http://win10-on-t500.blogspot.gr/2016/0 ... o.html?m=1
I will report back here on my progress :)

RealBlackStuff
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Re: New W500 Camera & other

#2 Post by RealBlackStuff » Mon Mar 26, 2018 6:29 am

1) Webcam see here: viewtopic.php?t=105329

2) Search Google for a 15.4" LED kit.
Dell Precision M4400 has a 15.4" LED WUXGA screen (LTN154CT04) that might fit.
Don't know about cabling etc.

3) The C2D T9900 is the top-CPU for that machine.
It is not possible to run a quadcore CPU in the W500.
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
.

TPFanatic
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Re: New W500 Camera & other

#3 Post by TPFanatic » Mon Mar 26, 2018 4:02 pm

LTN154CT04 is an RBG LED display, it is unique connectorwise. Someone did manage to make it work in 15.4" Thinkpad with a custom adapter.

Crazycow
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Location: Athens Greece

Re: New W500 Camera & other

#4 Post by Crazycow » Tue Mar 27, 2018 2:12 pm

Thank you very much for your replies!

On the monitor I will need to change the ccfl soon and I could very well go after a led backlighting. At this phase it is functionality before anything else.
Would the WSXGA+ led control unit work on the WUXGA panel or would it be too dark?
I know that some guy in the forum makes LED kits for thinkpads but I'm not sure if the custom kit is necessary.

The m4400 monitor looks very nice, although on a review I've read that it has dual ccfl which means it would probably be hard and way beyond my ability :/

As for the windows 10, beyond the switchable graphics and some minor bugs with the advanced dock (E.g. laptop screen stays off when powering up on dock) everything seems to be working fine.

By the way, something very interesting is that with the w500 (vs z61t), the driver of the GT640 in the advanced dock stopped crashing! I'm sure it was a hardware issue because I installed the same drivers ;)
Last edited by Crazycow on Tue Mar 27, 2018 2:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

RealBlackStuff
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Re: New W500 Camera & other

#5 Post by RealBlackStuff » Tue Mar 27, 2018 2:23 pm

If you can live without LED, then look for a Sharp WUXGA LQ154M1LW2A or LQ154M1LW02, they are a drop-in replacement and one of the best screens ever in 15.4" T60/R61/T61/R500/T500/W500.
They are also quite cheap (used a.o. in Dell 8x00 Series)

Crazycow
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Location: Athens Greece

Re: New W500 Camera & other

#6 Post by Crazycow » Tue Mar 27, 2018 4:04 pm

@realblackstuff

Thank you once again :) especially for the buying used advice!

I googled the panel and it looks incredible

http://thinkwiki.de/images/4/40/Frontal_2.jpg

It would probably look even more incredible with leds!

By the way, the process itself is not so complicated
https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/think ... anel.shtml
The only thing i don't understand is if the led 'inverter' from the lower resolution monitor can replace the ccfl inverter from the higher one, or if a custom kit is really necessary.

Hans Gruber
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Re: New W500 Camera & other

#7 Post by Hans Gruber » Wed Mar 28, 2018 9:15 am

The absolute top of the line W500 model was the 4062-F5U. I have two myself. Webcam, 1920x1200, T9900. Still a very usable daily machine. The 16:10 ratio is really the best screen orientation for widescreen. It's probably why so many like the T500/W500 thinkpad. Good luck with your upgrades to your W500.
:beer: T43p,T61,X200,X200s,x201,T500,W500,T510,T410,T410s,T420s,T430,T430s :parrot:

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Re: New W500 Camera & other

#8 Post by RealBlackStuff » Wed Mar 28, 2018 9:34 am

Don't be so sure it's easy!
Most screens have a different construction of how a CCFL is built-in.
Going the "X61 way" on a Sharp (or any other) panel might get you into serious trouble!

Crazycow
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Location: Athens Greece

Re: New W500 Camera & other

#9 Post by Crazycow » Sun Apr 01, 2018 6:08 am

General discussion:
I think the w500 is perfect for everyday use and that is without any compromise.
My z61t suffered from the 3gb ram limitation and the 950gma; being so accustomed to these I feel that the w500 is 'flying"!

Update progress:
New SSD and HDD caddy ordered, camera and bezel soon xD

Update questions:
Some w500 (t500 too?) models shipped with a led screen.
The manual says that FRUs 42W8080/42W8082 are 'LED control units'
Which points out that a conversion from CCFL to LED would only require an appropriate LED strip.

Issues faced:
-- 1 --
Thinkpad advanced dock would BSOD (crash) on live docking / undocking.
Thinkpad own monitor would not operate while docked.
Solution:
Installing the switchable graphics driver (https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/mobiles/7vd619ww.exe in win7 compatibility) solved the above
note: It had no effect on switchable graphics, now windows identifies both intel and ati cards and thinks that a second imaginary monitor exists!
But it doesn't mater, windows 10 boots up in seconds and i can change it in bios anyway.

-- 2 --
Trackpoint middle (scroll) button does not work, trackpoint buttons have significant time lag (2 seconds) in video games (tried counterstrike)
Solution:
not found yet

Crazycow
Posts: 29
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2010 6:12 am
Location: Athens Greece

Re: New W500 Camera & other

#10 Post by Crazycow » Fri Apr 20, 2018 6:25 am

Update

The W500 now has a new bezel, an integrated camera, a 120gb SSD, a generic but well-built caddy for my 1tb.
Now the w500 covers my needs fully!

Only problem is that the HDD caddy has a blue led... so I will block it under the plastic cover.

On Screens:
By the way, opening the screen revealed that the panel is the Samsung one.
The screen is not horrible but it is very, very dark.

https://i.imgur.com/hoFmLz1.jpg

The T500's LTN154AT14-L01 (1280x800, LED) had only 200 nits (why Lenovo? why?) which would make it pointless.
I've emailed xiph from the forum with a bunch of stupid questions but he didn't reply which is fair enough.
I think the whole electronic part is way beyond my knowledge and i'll probably contact him on tweeter and ask him to sell me some of his kits if he has any left.

p.s. i'll practice on the z61t's broken panel first xD


Admin warning: picture(s) WAY too big, tags removed. Read the Forum Rules, especially Section 5: https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=14339

RealBlackStuff
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Re: New W500 Camera & other

#11 Post by RealBlackStuff » Fri Apr 20, 2018 7:14 am

You could also put in a WUXGA screen (1920x1200), see https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=124446
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

PS: the old Boardroom website is still available on the Wayback Machine
.

Crazycow
Posts: 29
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2010 6:12 am
Location: Athens Greece

Re: New W500 Camera & other

#12 Post by Crazycow » Fri Apr 20, 2018 8:40 am

RealBlackStuff wrote:
Fri Apr 20, 2018 7:14 am
You could also put in a WUXGA screen (1920x1200), see https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=124446
Sorry, I didn't edit my previous post correctly.

I already have a WUXGA 154U2-L04 panel and i am not sure if i really need a LQ154M1LW02; might get one if I find a cheap dell.

The low brightness is a problem, so i will need to get a ccfl to LED kit eventually.

screenshot
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Re: New W500 Camera & other

#13 Post by screenshot » Fri Jul 03, 2020 9:24 am

uhm, wait... i can replace the old Led screen with some new drop-in Ccfl panel? :eek: :help:
(1920x1200 resolution)

where did you get a new bezel from and what was wrong with the old one?

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