ThinkPad T43 to T43p Conversion Idea & Finding Parts

[OldeThinkPadEnthusiast]

Hello everyone. As a basic description of what I want to do with my project next I was recently thinking about turning my ThinkPad T43 14.1" into a T43p by getting a system board that has an ATI Mobility FireGL V3200 GPU. However, I have been experiencing a lot of trouble finding this motherboard with the GPU I just specified and I was thinking about upgrading the screen as well but I don't know where to find that either nor if it is possible to upgrade the screen on the 14.1" model. Last but not least, I was also considering doing the southbridge cooler mod which I may be able to figure out on my own but still haven't got around to finding materials for yet.

If anyone knows where to find the motherboard I am looking for and whether I can upgrade the display or not, please let me know and thanks in advance! Have a good one.

[SAIYAN48]

eBay and Aliexpress are good places to look for parts. The best 14.1'' screens are 1400x1050; if you had a bigger screen, you could go FlexView/IPS.

[ajkula66]

You'll also need the LCD cable upgrade if going from XGA to SXGA+.

Personally, I wouldn't bother. These screens were crap when they were new and I can't see them improving with age.

V3200 will run hot in a small 14" frame, especially if paired with a faster CPU. 15" is a different - more tolerable and preferable - environment.

Enjoy the system as-is while it lasts would be my word of advice.

[OldeThinkPadEnthusiast]

eBay and Aliexpress are good places to look for parts. The best 14.1'' screens are 1400x1050; if you had a bigger screen, you could go FlexView/IPS.

Thanks, I'll have to look into finding that display. However, I already looked on eBay and AliExpress for a motherboard with the ATI Mobility FireGL V3200 GPU but I had no luck finding it either way unfortunately. I could also just get a T43p from eBay and still do this if I wanted to but the ones I found were ridiculously overpriced and I found only two of them so that is out of the question.

PS: As for the 1400x1050 screen, I have found one on eBay that is band new like I wanted but it is nearly $120 and I'd like to know if it would work.

Link to the screen I found will be here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/115724098965?_ ... ga+display

[OldeThinkPadEnthusiast]

You'll also need the LCD cable upgrade if going from XGA to SXGA+.

Personally, I wouldn't bother. These screens were crap when they were new and I can't see them improving with age.

V3200 will run hot in a small 14" frame, especially if paired with a faster CPU. 15" is a different - more tolerable and preferable - environment.

Enjoy the system as-is while it lasts would be my word of advice.

Thanks, I appreciate it! I'll have to look into getting a 15" one day and maybe doing the same thing.

[Placeholder]

I did it with a 15" because I was extremely lucky with finding parts, and even there as soon as I finished the build I found a near mint T43p on eBay for cheaper than my build.

I would say don't bother, be patient and you'll find one eventually for a good price. (Although I'd say it was a very fun experience)

[kfzhu1229]

Hello everyone. As a basic description of what I want to do with my project next I was recently thinking about turning my ThinkPad T43 14.1" into a T43p by getting a system board that has an ATI Mobility FireGL V3200 GPU. However, I have been experiencing a lot of trouble finding this motherboard with the GPU I just specified and I was thinking about upgrading the screen as well but I don't know where to find that either nor if it is possible to upgrade the screen on the 14.1" model. Last but not least, I was also considering doing the southbridge cooler mod which I may be able to figure out on my own but still haven't got around to finding materials for yet.

If anyone knows where to find the motherboard I am looking for and whether I can upgrade the display or not, please let me know and thanks in advance! Have a good one.

If you currently have a T43 with Mobility Radeon X300, upgrading the display vs motherboard (GPU) is actually an either-or, you don't explicitly need the FireGL graphics for the SXGA+ and UXGA (or even QXGA) panels. The X300 will just perform terribly in Windows Aero on UXGA resolution however.
As for upgrading the motherboard, there is not specifics to be said. But the GPU and the southbridge run VERY hot, and unfortunately the GPU on these also has this heat spreader epoxied in, and the first T43p board of mine that later died end up having issues with the aging of the epoxy. The Southbridge I ended up always running it on copper heatpipe to the PCMCIA cage so that never died
As for upgrading the screen:
- With my contributions to this forum, I have my guides on how to (permanently in the case of 15" cables) turn any 15" LCD cables (even R5x cables) for these motherboards into SXGA+, UXGA or even QXGA cables. For 14.1" then there is really only the SXGA+ panel whose display quality is still miles worse than the 15" SXGA+ panels.
- With that dealt with, then there is the LCD you need to get and also preferably a replacement inverter that outputs boosted brightness, or else the backlight will be very dim
Honestly up to you if these mods are worth the investment for you. For exhibition purposes then it's perfectly good. My personal take with the T43p of mine is that it's honestly seeing better days. It's on its third palmrest replacement and the palrmest is still trying to disintegrate. The touchpad button (membrane) is on its 2nd replacement and it's dead again with the left click not working. And also the whole chassis still looks noticeably warped (smiley curvature if you look towards the battery bay)