TP570E - white LCD screen - unseated OR bad flex cable??

[g8tzl]

I have just picked up a mint TP570E at a junk sale. There is no wear to the keyboard.

Using an external monitor the 570E works OK

However, the 570E LCD is just white/grey.

I have another 570 which I think has a badly seated flex cable in the LCD. At boot up I sometimes get an identical white/grey screen BUT I also get a bit of flickering and if I keep pressing gently on the 570 top ie. behind the LCD, I eventually get a good stable display..which can stay like that for weeks!!! I guess the LCD flex cable is not quite correctly seated and pressing on the back of the LCD eventually causes the flex cable to make good contact.

Pressing on the back of the LCD with the 570E has no effect. I'm just wondering if the problem is likely to be a badly seated flex cable OR a damaged cable OR something else. I'd be interested in opinions. The 570E appears to have had very little use so I'm hoping that the flex cable is still in good condition and just needs to be reseated. If its not the flex cable, what else can it be?

Thanks

[Sandstorm83]

The 570 and 570e are notorious for having their LCD cable wear out at the flex point. I would try reseating the cable first since that does not cost anything. However, I would bet that you will need to replace the cable.

I had to replace the cable on my near mint 570e a few years ago and it wasn't a difficult procedure. The only issue today would be to find a new cable to replace it with.

[g8tzl]

Thanks Sandstorm83

Is there a flex connector socket on the back of the LCD as well as on the motherboard OR do you need to solder it to the back of the LCD? I checked out the Hardware Maintenance Manual but its not clear about replacing/reseating the flex cable.

Is there a latching mechanism on the flex sockets - or do you just push the flex cable in?

Is it possible to repair the LCD flex cable? I've previously fixed a "split" flex cable from a two way radio by scapping off the orange "resin" and resoldering the damaged tracks...very tricky but it worked!!!

Thanks

[Sandstorm83]

From what I remember, there are small latches on the back of the LCD that the cable slides in and then locks.

I never tried repairing the cables but if you have had previous success with that, you have nothing to lose since it doesn't work now.

I have a couple of used 570 LCD cables lying around but I never had the opportunity to test whether they work or not since I no longer have my 570e. Let me know if you're interested in them.

[g8tzl]

Thanks Sandstorm83.

I wonder if you have to detach the entire LCD and lid assembly from the main body of the 570E if you just want to check whether the flex is correctly seated rather than replacing the flex? The Hardware Maintenance Manual indicates that you have to remove the lid/LCD etc before you can open it up and check the flex. I was hoping to just remove the keyboard to check the motherboard end of the flex and then open up the LCD without physically removing the entire lid from the main body?

Many thanks for the offer of the spare flexes. I will let you know after I've checked out my flex.

[g8tzl]

I've now dismantled the 570E following the Hardware MM instructions.

I was really hoping to find a detached or partly detached flex plug ...but sadly everything seemed to be well seated

I did a Google Images search on 05K2816, the part number for the flex cable. It was useful to see how the plug at the LCD panel end was constructed...you basically just pull it out...but the imaged showed where the plug ends and the socket starts...which was not obvious!!!

The flex cable is much more than just "10 copper tracks on a flex"...trying to repair it will be almost impossible!!!!

I will now reassemble the 570E just in case reseating did work...but I think its unlikely