Flood Damaged LCD

[miketoro]

My girlfriend's R40 (2723) was damaged in a flood a year or so ago. A pipe burst above her desk. The screen is dead, done, gone, but everything else works fine. She's been using it since with an external monitor.

Is it possible to swap out the bad LCD for a good one? How hard is something like that and where do you get the parts?

Anyone done anything like this before?

Thanks in advance,
Mike

[jdhurst]

If all that is wrong is the LCD, then yes, it can be replaced. A colleague broke his LCD, and I suggested he get an exact replacement from eBay and have a local technician install it. He did, and all has been well since. ... JDH

[miketoro]

Thanks. I found a couple options ranging from $150 to $200 that I think I'll try. If I can find a good tutorial I'll try to install it myself. If not, I'll find a pro. Thanks again,

[miketoro]

The original is a 15 inch SXGA. Will a lesser quality XGA or better UXGA work with the original's graphic setup?

[goofyGAguy]

Thanks. I found a couple options ranging from $150 to $200 that I think I'll try. If I can find a good tutorial I'll try to install it myself. If not, I'll find a pro. Thanks again,

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-45899

[rkawakami]

If you want to take a stab at it yourself, download a copy of the Hardware Maintenance Manual:

R40/R40e HMM

Looking at the LCD FRUs, it appears that you can substitute an XGA screen as long as you also replace the ribbon cable. There does not seem to be any specific motherboard required for XGA or SXGA+. This is the case with T23 motherboard (which I'm more familiar with). Hopefully somebody else can confirm this with the R40 or try searching the archives.

Ahh.. beaten by goofyGAguy...

edit: I'm wondering.... you say the screen is dead, done, gone. Are you sure that when the laptop is not connected to an external monitor that there is absolutely NO pixel activity on the screen? Shine a bright light on it at an angle and see if you can see a "ghost" image. That would indicate that the video signal is getting to the LCD but that the backlight is not operating. That problem could be a broken inverter or bad backlight. An inverter is easy and cheap to replace; the backlight much less so.

[goofyGAguy]

Sorry Ray, I'm just a little quicker than you tonight.

[miketoro]

edit: I'm wondering.... you say the screen is dead, done, gone. Are you sure that when the laptop is not connected to an external monitor that there is absolutely NO pixel activity on the screen? Shine a bright light on it at an angle and see if you can see a "ghost" image. That would indicate that the video signal is getting to the LCD but that the backlight is not operating. That problem could be a broken inverter or bad backlight. An inverter is easy and cheap to replace; the backlight much less so.

There is a ghost image, which means its a backlight problem, right? (If it were an inverter wouldn't it be dead, dead -- no power.) Can you buy backlights only?

[rkawakami]

Ghost image means that the backlight is not turning on. That could mean a bad backlight (aka CCFL) OR a bad inverter. The inverter converts the smal DC voltage into a large AC voltage required to run the CCFL. If this were my system I'd opt to spend a few dollars (~$20) for an inverter and see if that fixes the problem. Since the system received some water damage, it could have shorted out the inverter. There could also be some motherboard damage so you are taking a chance with buying the inverter.

Yes, you can buy backlights by themselves but replacing them is quite a job. User jamiphar offers a replacement service:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=48458

edit: It appears that 26P8400 is the inverter FRU you need for a 2723. There are a couple currently on eBay.

[miketoro]

Thanks. I'll give the inverter a try and go from there.