Frankenpad out of t420 and t410

[jeli2657]

I am hoping someone more familiar with these can tell me if this is possible before I tear into my only working thinkpad.

Long story short: I bought a t420 on eBay that arrived smashed and cracked. I took a partial refund on it thinking I could buy parts to fix it myself. The parts machine I bought on eBay also arrived smashed and cracked and was unusable. The current state of the t420 is:

1. Needs an LCD panel (1600x900)
2. Palmrest cracked, but acceptable
3. LCD back cover cracked and needs replacement
4. Magnesium chassis cracked

I also have a working t410 here with a 1280x800 display. My thought is to merge my remaining parts together with the t410 into a "frankenpad." My concerns are: are the t420 parts compatible enough to fit into the t410 chassis? Also, will the NVidia graphics in the t420 work with the 1280x800 display in the t410?

Specifically, I want to take the motherboard, processor, and NVidia graphics from the t420 and drop it into the t410 chassis, and use the t410 lcd panel. I would be connecting a t410 lcd panel, webcam, keyboard, touchpad, and fingerprint sensor to a t420 motherboard.

Does anyone know if this is possible before I trouble myself with taking it all apart and trying?

Or...does anyone have a t420 1600x900 panel they aren't using?

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to the forum.

If you had joined us sooner, you could have found a much better machine, arriving well-packed.
Unfortunately that's water under the bridge...

If you just look on e.g. eBay at pictures of a T410 motherboard and a T420 motherboard, you'd immediately notice the differences.
Which means a T4102 or T4201 FrankenPad is highly unlikely.
I know that keyboards, RAM and drives are swappable between them...
I never had a T410 as I jumped from T400 to T420, I'm sure others will chime in next.

[jeli2657]

If you had joined us sooner, you could have found a much better machine, arriving well-packed.

I regret going with eBay now but there's not much I can do about it other than .

If merging is not possible I'll either need a replacement panel, or maybe I'll just part out what's left and start over.

[brchan]

This is highly unlikely. The motherboard, chassis, palmrest, port layout, etc. are completely different. If you had a T420 and T430, the swap would be much more doable. I would try contacting the seller again for a last attempt at getting a full refund.

Ebay can be a place to get great deals, or terrible ones. You just have to make sure that the seller has at minimum 98.5% seller rating (100% ratings are more common than you think). Also look for ample pictures to help make sure nothing is being hidden.

[jeli2657]

Thanks for the advice guys. The first laptop purchase was genuinely the fault of USPS; the box had a huge crease down the center and aligned with the cracks on the laptop. It must have been stuck on some equipment, or some employee decided "fragile" actually means "punching bag."

[bit_twiddler]

I have an extra 1600x900 screen left over from a screen upgrade on my T420
that you can have for free if you have a UPS or Fed Ex ground account,
and can make my shipping it to you as painless as possible.

[jeli2657]

bit_twiddler that is very generous, I will send you a PM. Thank you very much.

[TonyJZX]

Its unbeleivable to me that someone was able to crack the magnesium frame while the laptop was still packaged up.

I have a T400 that was dropped and landed on the heatsink and it cracked up the casing and it blew out an inch long piece of magnesium but that was a freak.

[brchan]

If the packaging was not well padded and USPS was very careless with the machine, then it would be possible for severe damage to occur.

I have heard that putting the word 'fragile' on the packaging has 2 effects:
-at best, the package will be treated normally as any other
-at worst, and more likely, the package will be treated worse than other packages.

All of the ebay purchases I have made so far that included heavy padding (often 5+ layers of bubble wrap wrapped around the device) had no problems during shipping. The one time I ordered a T23 lid with a single layer of bubble wrap, it came with a huge crack extending from the front to the middle of the lid.

[jwjensen356]

I'm not defending UPS but what I had delivered early last week survived nicely. It was a ThinkPad in original box and internal support. Problems I have had have been crockery supported not so well even though they seemed to be well padded, even in bubble wrap. I think the pieces slipped in the bubble wrap.

[RealBlackStuff]

I always wrap my stuff in loads of bubble wrap and, even more important: double-box them before they go out.
I do not apply any FRAGILE stickers and have shipped stuff all over the world via USPS.
Never one breakage!

My worst delivery ever:
in 2008 I sold an expensive set of 6 rare porcelain plates to a friend of mine in Brazil.
It was an identical set of Astrolabio plates by Fornasetti, as seen here: http://portuondo.com/gallery/archive/se ... lan-italy/
On the day that my package with these plates arrived in Brazil, the postmen there went on strike.
Apparently incoming stuff was just unloaded and thrown into a warehouse, where this huge stack of packages stayed for nearly 3 months!
Once the strike was over, the package (without a FRAGILE sticker) was eventually delivered, with some dents and wrinkles in it,
but EVERY plate was still in perfect condition! Ooff..

Applying a FRAGILE sticker is bound to cause trouble, if you ask me.
Once they see this, it's an open invitation to play football or basketball with it...