Thinkpads Forum

Hi, i a 600e which sometimes running on battery power only (i think) the screen starts flashing on and off then goes out.

The function f7 key sometimes solves the problem but mostly after a few seconds flashes the goes out again.

I have a spare complete 600 but the screen is marked and has dead pixels, I was going to swap out the inverter but i think this problem may be the backlight.

When i plug the 600e in to mains WITH THE MAINS POWER OFF !? the screen corrects itself straight away?
Also with mains power on.

Anyone prepared to have a stab at what part needs replacing?

Technically a could replace the screen/inverter the sub board from the 600.

Thanks.

This thread may be helpful (it was just created a couple of days ago and may have some bearing on your problem):

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=36374

Thanks but i think i sorted it already, I swapped the inverter from the 600 into the 600e now the 600 has the problem where the 600e does not (Fingers crossed).

I did notice the part numbers were not the same?

Would this be a problem do you think?

Looking at the parts numbers (FRU in IBM-speak) in the Hardware Maintenance Manual for the 600 and 600E, you must have different LCD panels in the two systems. The 600 has 12.1" and 13.3" TFT screens, as well as a 13.0" HPA. The 600E only appears to have the 13.3" TFT panel. The inverter FRU is identical between the 600 and 600E 13.3" screen. There are different inverters for the other panels. It is possible that the inverters are outputting different voltages, or they could simply be physically different. I would say that since inverters are fairly cheap on eBay (~$10), you should probably replace the original problem inverter with an identical model, just to be safe.

I took both machines apart again to look at the FRU numbers properly this time.

And yeah it would seem i took the inverter from a 13.0" HPA Screen .

600e
*2MOE3393254* P/N 00K3234 FRU 10L1719 EC F02959

600

*1MW4SB29952* P/N 00K3145 FRU 0HK3471 EC F02939

At the moment it seems to work fine, but i will swap it out as soon as i order a new one.

I wonder what the diffarence is in voltages if any?

Don't know if there are any voltage/current differences; just assuming from the fact that there are two different screens involved here. If the printed circuit boards physically looks the same (i.e., they have the same 'footprint'), then the only other thing that might be different is the electrical properties.

Also, I tried to measure the voltage being output from an inverter and ended up getting a spark, a melted microclip and a burning plastic smell (the clip). This was done with a Fluke multimeter and before I knew what I was doing was the wrong way to measure it . It appears that the inverter survived that experiment as it still works but I won't try that again.

Thats for the help and information,

Basicaly i shall be ordering the correct part as soon as i can, meanwhile i shall continue to use the HPA one in the 600e.