R60 XGA to SXGA-- was working, now image tiled?

[virge]

I have an R60 (CTO) which I received with a dead LCD. This is a 14" non-widescreen model with an Intel GPU. I replaced the non-working XGA LCD with an SXGA model (13N7063). It worked just fine. I then had it working for a couple weeks with the lid closed, but hooked up to my external monitor (QXGA, non-wide), keyboard, mouse, etc. During this time, I opened the lid a few times and didn't notice any problems. However, I recently swapped this R60 for a different one.

I powered the machine off, disconnected the peripherals, then powered the machine on. The display did not work properly-- the Lenovo/Thinkpad BIOS page was stretched off the screen and after I enter BIOS, the image is tiled and stretched! If this doesn't make sense, I can add a picture. It looks like this image (but stretched off screen, and not upside down): http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/9352/p80c.jpg (image taken from http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 26#p521326)

I thought that maybe the LCD cable was damaged and the LCD couldn't tell the mobo the proper resolution to display... I purchased another cable off the forum and plugged it in. Same result. I'm at a loss as to what I can try next. Any suggestions would be helpful.

[Harryc]

Virge, you lost me when you said "However, I recently swapped this R60 for a different one. " Is the tiled LCD issue on the same machine you replaced the LCD on? Also did you ever try viewing the LCD without it being hooked to an external after you replaced the it? Did you replace the entire assembly or just the panel? If you replaced just the panel, did you also replace the inverter and LCD cable? What part numbers did you use?

[virge]

Sorry about the confusion. Ignore that part altogether. What I meant was I replaced R60 #1 (with problems) with R60 #2 (no problems).

R60 #1 is the one which I upgraded from XGA to SXGA. I only changed the LCD panel itself. I did not change the inverter. It was working fine for a while with SXGA resolution...all of a sudden its tiled!

[Harryc]

According to the R60 LCD parts list, the standard 4:3 LCD parts are the same for the cable and inverter, XGA vs. SXGA+. So, we can assume at this point that there is a problem with the parts (LCD, cable, inverter is not likely). Have you tried reseating the LCD cable at both ends? Can you swap parts from the other R60?
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-64327

[virge]

The tiling happens in BIOS. As soon as I turn on the machine, so I don't think its a driver issue. To be sure, I also ran a full restore from the recovery partition and it remained the same. LCD cable has been replaced.

I was thinking that the LCD's EDID isn't being communicated to the motherboard properly. I have no idea how to check that though.

[Harryc]

Can you swap the LCD from the other R60?

[virge]

The other R60 is a 15" SXGA model. These are my first R6x machines so I'm not that familiar with them. Would the LCD be compatible? Its still under warranty, but only for two more months. I was thinking of an IPS upgrade anyway....

[Harryc]

I don't know Andy, the systemboard part numbers are different. i don't want to be responsible for giving you advice that might blow a board
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 64316.html

[virge]

i don't want to be responsible for giving you advice that might blow a board

I wouldn't want that either.

I don't have the FRU info with me at work, but I do know that the non-working 14" R60 has the Intel GPU. The working 15" R60 has the 128MB ATI GPU. That was one reason I upgraded.

I will first try to plug the 14" SXGA from the R60 into a T4x mobo. If my theory that its an EDID problem is correct, than the panel should work fine in a T4x. Of course, unless there's some other suggestions, I still have to swap parts from another R60 to figure out if the problem is in the LCD or mobo.

Wouldn't it stink if I blew out either a good mobo or a good LCD in the process?

[Harryc]

That would stink. I've never given anyone advice here that blew up a part or machine, so I don't want to start now . Anyway, if you can plug in an external monitor and pull the EDID data, I bet someone here would post the same from their SXGA R60 for you. It would help to post a brief tutorial. I believe there is a way to flash the EDID from within windows, or from within a DOS utility if yours is bad. Troels is the expert in this stuff. You could sent him a PM too.

[virge]

Well, instead of risking my other R60, I looked for a reasonably priced 14" LCD to test with. Came across some nice, complete T60p machines w/ docks. Since I needed a dock anyway, it was a real bargain. I will try out the 14" SXGA from the T60P when it arrives. See: Subject: Official eBay Bidding and Buying Thread

Edit: Those T60 machines look to have 15" LCDs. Also 2008-CTO comes up as a T60P, but the parts list shows that these are T60 (not P) machines.

[RealBlackStuff]

It is quite likely that a 14" SXGA+ LCD from an R60 will work in a 14" T4x, but NOT the other way around (because of EDID).
I know a 14" T4x XGA LCD will fit in a T6x machine (and should therefor also fit in an R6x).
I recently sold a 14" R60 with SXGA+ (9457-Y1X) and Intel 950, but didn't extract any info from it.
It's a great machine and gets dragged to college every day.

[virge]

I know a 14" T4x XGA LCD will fit in a T6x machine (and should therefor also fit in an R6x).

Hmm... One of my daily beaters is a machine with a T40 body and a R50E board. It has the only 14" XGA LCD I own, so I'll have to try it. That would definitely be less risky (cheaper parts anyway) than trying the 15" SXGA LCD out of my R60 or soon to arrive T60 machines. Thanks for the tip RBS.

[ajkula66]

Although it undoubtedly fits when it comes to pinouts and stuff like that, I doubt that you'll get the LCD from a T4x to work in a R60 without an EDID mod, which may be more of a pain than it's worth in this particular case...

Good luck.

[SMA]

Could be a bios issue. Might be worth it to check if you have the latest bios version, and if not, then to try an update.

[RealBlackStuff]

See this post for LCD inter-compatibility: http://www.thinkpads.com/forum/viewtopi ... &view=next

[virge]

@SMA: Bios is up to date.

@RBS: Thanks for the link. That information seems to be consistent with thinkwiki, but I'm not sure why a T4x XGA screen would work in a R6x/T6x, but an SXGA one would not. I will try an XGA T4x screen as soon as I get the chance.

10/12/2009 Edit: I just tried connecting the R60 to a 15" XGA panel (FRU 926679)from an R51. It lit up and worked just fine. Seems like the EDID in my 14" panel is corrupt.

[virge]

Does anyone know why XGA screens from the T4x work in the R60 but not SXGA screens?

[RealBlackStuff]

Guess it got to do with the presence or absence of EDID.

[SMA]

Could be a fuse on the MB.
From a randomly picked lcd datasheet, it looks as if the id chip has a seperate power line. So it might also have a fuse of its own.
Seems logical that there may be cases where bios will want to read the panels identification, without having to turn on the entire lcd panel.

I have never been inside a R60, so I am just putting up another guess here.

[richk]

I believe SOME of the XGA panels from T4x have the EDID chip but most don't. The ones that don't, cause a fuse to blow.

[virge]

The ones that don't, cause a fuse to blow.

That's not good. I will try to see if the XGA panel I tried has an EDID chip... maybe only a few of the T4x LCD FRUs work, not all.

I've tried a 14" SXGA T4x LCD on this motherboard. It didn't even light up. I powered down ASAP when the BIOS screen didn't show. I don't think anything was damaged since I later tried the XGA and that worked just fine. Guess I was just lucky?

[virge]

I believe SOME of the XGA panels from T4x have the EDID chip but most don't. The ones that don't, cause a fuse to blow.

From a randomly picked lcd datasheet, it looks as if the id chip has a seperate power line. So it might also have a fuse of its own.

Okay, what does the EDID chip look like? I trying Googling this and didn't come up with any good pictures. On the 15" XGA panel I tried, I see an empty spot for an 8-prong chip, that has separate lines leading to it from the LCD ribbon cable connection.

Is it possible that the EDID chip is not needed for XGA resolutions? The XGA panel lit up (the SXGA stayed dark) and displayed the correct resolution through BIOS. Nothing bad appeared to happen. I only tried them long enough to get into BIOS though. If a fuse were to burn up, it would have happened very quickly right?