Make one good W500 from two

[2ndgencamaro]

I have two W500 thinkpads. The first I obtained from my work with memory; no hdd; broken lcd and most of the bezel around that lcd is also broken. Under bright light I can see that the lcd has cracks everywhere. The top lid is broken to the point that it is not attached to the base and all of the plastics are broken. You cannot put screw back in so it just flops around if you let it. It boots with an external monitor. This model is a 4062-4FU.

The second one came locally for $30 and does not boot. Push the power button and the 1 and A light for a second than go out. The only thing lit at that point is the AC light and the power indicator. No beeps ... nothing. This unit is a 4063-WHF.

I would like to remove the entire lcd upper lid from the second unit and attach it to the functioning W500. Before starting I was wondering if this is doable given the different models, and I would like to know how much time I will need to invest in this effort. I hate to start something and have to set it aside for completion at a later time. On the broken bezel computer I can see a small bundle of wires running into the base by the left hinge. I also see a flat ribbon like cable also entering into the base just left of center. Any and all information welcome.

[theterminator93]

Given your situation, I'd take the CPU from the unit that doesn't boot and install it in the one with the broken screen. The unit that fails to boot also came with 2GB Turbo Memory, which may give you a minor performance boost if there's a socket to install it in the other unit.

The screen is the higher res WUXGA model in the one which won't boot; the broken screen is only WSXGA+. So I'd say you got the best of all worlds with this combo.

For someone who isn't familiar with working on computers it would take an hour or two to do the swaps. If you're familiar with working on them it would probably be a half hour or less.

The wires you are seeing are the LCD ribbon cable and the wireless antennas.

[2ndgencamaro]

I have replaced a fan once upon a time in a T500 which is close to a W500. I have taken it down that far. The service manual is stating to remove both the PCI mini Express for LAN and WAN. Never touched those when I replaced the fan. Which processor is on the dead board? I checked the W500 that boots and it has a T9400. I wonder why the dead computer is dead?

[TPFanatic]

T500 and W500 are pretty linear to take apart and rebuild, I've taken some completely apart, all components removed, motherboard and frame separated, and rebuilt them multiple times.

For your operation you only need to take them apart to removing the upper keyboard bezels, disconnect antenna wires, unscrew the hinge screws from below, and you have lid lift off. The MTM says the dead board came with a 2.8 Ghz T9600 (gratz on the third fastest mobile C2D).

The T500 and W500 Hardware Maintenance Manual will tell you which screws you need to take out to get to what.

If you've replaced the heatsink, you can get to the LCD with the same steps.

I disassemble in this order,
1. Remove HDD, battery.
2. Unscrew Palmrest and Keyboard, remove.
3. Unscrew metal support plate(s), remove.
4. Unscrew keyboard bezel (big head screws over LCD cable, over left speaker, and under the palmrest. Remove.

You can get to the lid from here.

5. Remove interior hinge screws, and bottom hinge screws.

Should be a fun adventure.


Perhaps the dead computer died from ATI failure, which can occur on neglected computers that overheat due to old, dried up thermal paste. Reseating the CMOS battery should reset the computer to boot on Intel GFX only and it might get somewhere? Or it's just dead. These computers seem reliable to me but who knows...

[2ndgencamaro]

I have to apologize for my lack of knowledge in this area. What are the metal support plate(s)?

[TPFanatic]

I probably used the wrong term. It's this thing, may be 1 or 2 metal pieces depending on the age of the machine, whatever is held down by these screws:

http://i.imgur.com/wiLeF8A.jpg (I missed one red circle, the lowermost screw comes out too)

If it's in two parts, the upper one has to be lifted off to take off the Keyboard Bezel, which has to be removed to take off the lid. If it's one piece like in the picture, the whole piece comes off.

[thinkpadcollection]

And one more lower right.

T500/W500 are same parts except one of motherboards has fireGL GPU.

Cheers, thinkpadcollection

[2ndgencamaro]

Final followup. I took the bad computer apart and removed the lcd lid last week. After I had the keyboard off I realized what you meant by the metal pieces. Sorry, I just do not take these things apart unless I have to. I took the T9600 processor, the fan, the speakers, the keyboard, the palm rest, the 2mb turbo memory card, 4gb of memory (2x2gb), and the Intel 5300 wireless card from that computer. Also kept the extra screws. Note: I had to remove the left speaker to free up the antenna wires. When I took the good computer apart apart and replaced the complete lid, I found that it had a socket for the 2mb turbo memory card but no card. I replaced the Intel 5100 wireless card with the 5300 card. Getting the various antenna wires into the small groves around the left hinge was the biggest pain. I upgraded the memory from 3gb to 4gb. Everything worked when I finished but I had problems with Win7 after it installed. Windows updates did not work. I fought with that for several days until some suggestions found on the internet finally got everything working.

Thanks everyone.

[Hans Gruber]

Final followup. I took the bad computer apart and removed the lcd lid last week. After I had the keyboard off I realized what you meant by the metal pieces. Sorry, I just do not take these things apart unless I have to. I took the T9600 processor, the fan, the speakers, the keyboard, the palm rest, the 2mb turbo memory card, 4gb of memory (2x2gb), and the Intel 5300 wireless card from that computer. Also kept the extra screws. Note: I had to remove the left speaker to free up the antenna wires. When I took the good computer apart apart and replaced the complete lid, I found that it had a socket for the 2mb turbo memory card but no card. I replaced the Intel 5100 wireless card with the 5300 card. Getting the various antenna wires into the small groves around the left hinge was the biggest pain. I upgraded the memory from 3gb to 4gb. Everything worked when I finished but I had problems with Win7 after it installed. Windows updates did not work. I fought with that for several days until some suggestions found on the internet finally got everything working.

Thanks everyone.

Congratulations on your W500 surgery. I would suggest 8GB of ram on the W500. The price of 8GB ram kits is usually well under $40. On Thinkpads prior to the T500/T500 series I suggest 4GB of ram because of the inflated cost of 4GB DDR2 ram sticks.