Thinkpad X230 successful upgrade to 13.3 FHD & msata3.0

[sdueducn998]

Thinkpad X230 is an old but still powerful laptop, but its lcd panel is not so comfortable even changed to IPS as the original resolution is only 1366*768 with 45% color gamut.

Recently, I have upgraded my x230 with a additional circuit board designed by a group of Chinese engineers
The result is now I have a almost excellant X230 which has

1. A 13.3 FHD(1920*1080) 99% sRGB lcd panel
2. A second msata3.0 ssd ,totally 3 disks

Here is my mod steps
1. Welding the additional to the motherboard of x230 and function test
2. Modify shell A&B , because the 13.3 panel is larger than the original 12.5 panel
3. AssemblyAB&Panel then the whole laptop.
Enjoy it!

[alisan]

This is wonderful, I would like to do the same on my x230. Few questions

1) Does backlight control works on Linux?
2) Did you get also the screen bezel?
3) What is the screen that you are using?

Also, did you buy the board directly from taobao? Or something else?

Thanks

[dr_st]

Lovely mod! 51nb calls these "X330", and I think the name fits. Can you rotate the last picture so that the laptop is shown upright?

[Tasurinchi]

Welcome to the forum!

Very interesting indeed

Could you elaborate a little about the soldering work? Seems there are 22 solder points, mainly on the top left of the board. Is that all? Or is anything else that needs soldering?

Can you also solder only the FHD board and leave the mSATA board out?

[sdueducn998]

This is wonderful, I would like to do the same on my x230. Few questions

1) Does backlight control works on Linux?
2) Did you get also the screen bezel?
3) What is the screen that you are using?

Also, did you buy the board directly from taobao? Or something else?

Thanks

Thanks for your reply!
Brightness can control though 2 ways: short press power button for cycle adj or with fn key by installing an app for windows provided by the engineer. If your system is linux or macos, you can just use power button.
There are few type of no bezel panel we can choose, just like lq133j1tw13/11 which are for dell xps13
I bought from taobao,and do other job by myself
Any further question,just post here, I will be glad to reply

[sdueducn998]

Welcome to the forum!

Very interesting indeed

Could you elaborate a little about the soldering work? Seems there are 22 solder points, mainly on the top left of the board. Is that all? Or is anything else that needs soldering?

Can you also solder only the FHD board and leave the mSATA board out?

There are 17 points should to be soldered to make panel being functional.
6 on the top left are for msata. if you don't want to use msata3.0, just leave them alone.

[Tasurinchi]

Thanks for the quick reply!

There are 17 points should to be soldered to make panel being functional.
6 on the top left are for msata. if you don't want to use msata3.0, just leave them alone.

I see one more solder point on the far right, correct? Without the mSata I counted 16 points, although maybe is because of my bad eyes ... If you could post a bigger picture (via a link) that would be great!

[sdueducn998]

Thanks for the quick reply!

There are 17 points should to be soldered to make panel being functional.
6 on the top left are for msata. if you don't want to use msata3.0, just leave them alone.

I see one more solder point on the far right, correct? Without the mSata I counted 16 points, although maybe is because of my bad eyes ... If you could post a bigger picture (via a link) that would be great!

OK,I will post an additional pic tomorrow

[Tasurinchi]

Awesome, thanks!

Keep in mind to post a link if the pic is too big...

[alisan]

Any further question,just post here, I will be glad to reply

Is this the screen bezel I should get? How I can communicate to the seller that I want the screen bezel for a x230 and not a x220?

Thanks!

[sdueducn998]

I will make a guide ASAP,thanks for all !

[sdueducn998]

Any further question,just post here, I will be glad to reply

Is this the screen bezel I should get? How I can communicate to the seller that I want the screen bezel for a x230 and not a x220?

Thanks!

Yes, amazing u can find it

[evening_hunger]

Hmm. Getting this bezel is one of harder parts of the x220->320 or x230->330 mods. With it and suitable panel plus some dremeling, the mod can be performed even using Nitrocaster's adapter only. I'm tempted to do just that: thus, can you link to the exact models of the panels used? Preferably, also we should have a list of modifications needed, as user boutch55555 did in one of his mods.

Finally, the same is discussed here

[sdueducn998]

Hmm. Getting this bezel is one of harder parts of the x220->320 or x230->330 mods. With it and suitable panel plus some dremeling, the mod can be performed even using Nitrocaster's adapter only. I'm tempted to do just that: thus, can you link to the exact models of the panels used? Preferably, also we should have a list of modifications needed, as user boutch55555 did in one of his mods.

Finally, the same is discussed here

The panel I used is LQ133M1JW13, Actually, the board supports almost any edp panel with standard 30 pins connector .
The only restriction is the width of panel which must be less than 299mm in order to fit Shell A.
I'm writing a detailed modding guide now, it will be done maybe by this weekend.

[alisan]

I ended up buying two kits through superbuy. kit 1, kit 2. I have a x220i motherboard to test on, I'll use best kit on my x230, hopping to get brightness control working using FN/page up+down under Linux.

I ordered also a 13.3 screen bezel for my x230, will order the panel soon.

[alisan]

The panel I used is LQ133M1JW13.

Are you sure that your panel is LQ133M1JW13? I'm not able to find any info regarding that panel and anywhere to buy it.

[wojtekS]

I would really like to see the screen installed before the bezel was put in place and before screen was put in place.

What about WIFI and 3G antennas ?

[boutch55555]

I saw mentions of a w13 on some taobao shops. They list it w11/w13/w21 so it's probably the same size. By the way, anyone got a tech specs pdf for those ?

Antennas can be modded, or changed, I added pictures to my quick lid guide.

Solders are not that hard, use this picture and remember to solder a long wire on 3rd capacitor from the right [1] and pass it through the board before doing the rest. This is what happens if you don't do that. [2] is the bridge on the backlight power line, might help to use a bit of wire to close the gap. Can be done before / after the rest of the regular solder pads.

[alisan]

How did you attach firmly the screen to the lid? Did you apply some strong glue?

[TPFanatic]

Funny thing... the LCD screen in Thinkpad T410s is held in only be the front bezel.

[redbluerat]

Considering this is the xps sharp panel, do you have CABC (content aware brightness control)?

Here is a test for it: http://tylerwatt12.com/dc/pg2.html

[erva]

Considering this is the xps sharp panel, do you have CABC (content aware brightness control)?

Here is a test for it: http://tylerwatt12.com/dc/pg2.html

I would really love to know too! 51nb uses those Dell XPS 13 panels, but if they suffer from this "feature", I wouldn't buy it. But one guy with x330 say it doesn't do it. But every XPS13 does it. So I am confused. Thanks!

[wojtekS]

I have the 12.5 inch SHARP screen (so called 2k) that came with the kit from China - no such phenomen - I see the grey DELL logo all the time.

[boutch55555]

That's the 2nd page, you need to go on the black one first (http://tylerwatt12.com/dc/) to see how it transitions. I can confirm W11 and W21 are affected. There were no mentions of the FHD 9350 (AFAIK where those panels come from) in Dell's patches until Jan 09, it got added to the 9360 driver but there seem to be missing files. It still doesn't work with the main app though. And I won't be using TCON_DP_REWORK_TOOL.exe manually, I already killed a panel trying it.

[axd]

What happened to the guide that the OP was working on?

How would I approach this if I want to do this mod? If anyone could provide some hand-holding I would be extremely grateful.

Also how would the daughter board compare to the one nitrocaster is making + selling?

[boutch55555]

Buy this board through superbuy. You can also get the bezel if you don't want to cut it yourself. Mod the lid using this guide. Solder a wire on the 3rd cap from the right, "*" in this picture and pass it through the board before doing the rest of the solders. Get a B133HAN04.6 panel since it doesn't have CABC. You can get a LQ133M1JW11 / 21 instead if you don't mind CABC.

Those boards differ from nitrocaster's mod by controlling backlight through USB instead of screen mirroring. It requires an app to control it. The windows one is available here. My crude Linux wrapper is available here.

This kit also includes the additional board for mSATA3, but you are not required to use it if you prefer keeping the expresscard slot.

[Hikori]

Buy this board through superbuy. You can also get the bezel if you don't want to cut it yourself. Mod the lid using this guide. Solder a wire on the 3rd cap from the right, "*" in this picture and pass it through the board before doing the rest of the solders. Get a B133HAN04.6 panel since it doesn't have CABC. You can get a LQ133M1JW11 / 21 instead if you don't mind CABC.

Those boards differ from nitrocaster's mod by controlling backlight through USB instead of screen mirroring. It requires an app to control it. The windows one is available here. My crude Linux wrapper is available here.

This kit also includes the additional board for mSATA3, but you are not required to use it if you prefer keeping the expresscard slot.

Is it everything we need to do this mod? Do we get any cables with this board to connect screen with it? What about wifi, do I have to buy new antenna? After doing everything what you wrote, do I have to mod BIOS like during installing X220 keyboard? Also what about screen brigthness, can I adjust it? Sorry for asking so many questions but I want to prepared 100%. Also thank you for your help!

[boutch55555]

Cables included, should be all that's required. Antennas can be modded, but you can order new "flat" ones if you prefer. Bios flash is not required, but it's a nice touch not to have a unused output when using FN keys. I linked the software to control brightness in the post you quoted. Fallback is a short press on power button to toggle between levels.

[Hikori]

Thank you for such a quick response.
Also what do you mean by ''not to have unused output''? Another thing is ''controlling backlight through USB instead of screen mirroring'', does it mean that one of the USB ports will be unavailable? Sorry for asking such stupid question but I am newbie and I would like to understand everything I will do to the laptop.

[boutch55555]

Without the patch, the original LVDS interface is still exposed to the OS. So when selecting active displays you will still have it doing nothing. AFAIK that's basically all it does, strip it from the exposed hardware. The USB port used for backlight control is one that was on the dock. With more minimal FHD boards like nitrocaster's one, you could keep using the dock with tape on some pins. With all the different sections that would need to be taped with those boards I wouldn't recommend it, so losing that port isn't much of an issue.