Sxga?

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ThinkPad · #1 Post by **ThinkPad** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 6:12 pm

Was SXGA resolution ever offered with in the X4x line? Im shopping around and do not see any SXGAs, but I do recall someone talking about an SXGA X40...

pianowizard · #2 Post by **pianowizard** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 6:18 pm

Never, not even for the X41 tablet. Perhaps you saw me talk about the possibility of replacing an X40's XGA screen with an SXGA+ tablet screen. I plan on trying this mod as soon as I can find cheap enough parts.

ThinkPad · #3 Post by **ThinkPad** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 6:21 pm

What about the X60?

It could have been your discussion, but i was pretty sureI read something about an X series with sxga....

pianowizard · #4 Post by **pianowizard** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 6:37 pm

ThinkPad wrote:i was pretty sureI read something about an X series with sxga....

Some X60 and X61 tablets have SXGA+. Unfortunately, these weigh almost 4 pounds, much heavier than the regular X6* or the X4*.

ThinkPad · #5 Post by **ThinkPad** » Sun Dec 16, 2007 6:54 pm

So I guess I should give up on my search for an SXGA X40...?

Lomax · #6 Post by **Lomax** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:11 pm

It is possible to upgrade the LCD in the X31/2 to SXGA, this guy in China has done it! http://www.51nb.com/viewthread-576766

I must say I'm extremely tempted to have a go but more information is needed. Anyone here good at chinese?

HTH,

Lomax

pianowizard · #7 Post by **pianowizard** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:23 pm

Lomax wrote:It is possible to upgrade the LCD in the X31/2 to SXGA, this guy in China has done it!

Like I said in the X6x/s XGA -> SXGA+ LCD Upgrade Thread, the X31 is almost as heavy as the X60 tablet, so why not just buy an SXGA+ X60 tablet. What we really need is either an X4* with SXGA+ or an X60s/61s with SXGA+, which would be much lighter.

UPDATE: I just bought an X40 just for trying this mod. Wish me luck!

Lomax · #8 Post by **Lomax** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 6:27 am

Excuse me, but I find the X32 superior to either of those machines in terms of build quality, features, battery life and cost. It also has an IBM logo bottom right which I happen to like

The only thing I miss from the X60 series is the SXGA option.

Lomax

chazz · #9 Post by **chazz** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 3:31 pm

UPDATE: I just bought an X40 just for trying this mod. Wish me luck!

Oh man! PW are you going to try to get a SXGA on a X40?

let us know the outcome and ingrediants...
are there any 12" sxga panels (non tablet) out there? ..
that will be really cool..

ThinkPad · #10 Post by **ThinkPad** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 5:49 pm

chazz wrote:UPDATE: I just bought an X40 just for trying this mod. Wish me luck!

Oh man! PW are you going to try to get a SXGA on a X40?
let us know the outcome and ingrediants...
are there any 12" sxga panels (non tablet) out there? ..
that will be really cool..

Do post up experiences, I would be greatly interested

Im currently looking for an X-40 and prices are not bad at all

Jason404 · #11 Post by **Jason404** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 1:05 am

An X32 with a SXGA screen would be my dream Thinkpad. I am very disappointed with the feel of the X4x series. I have never seen a X6x, but I cannot afford one of those anyway.

Lomax, I am also very interested in making this mod with a X32, or my current X31. Please get in touch with me if you find out any more details on how to get it done. Cheers.

pianowizard · #12 Post by **pianowizard** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 8:31 am

I haven't received the X40 yet, and I haven't bought the 12.1" SXGA+ tablet screen either. But I have been looking at photos of the screens for the Toshiba M200 and the Lenovo X60 tablets and am concerned that they might be a little too big for the X40 display assembly. Of course the screen itself is the right size, but the panel has a bunch of attachments that make it about several mm wider. So I'm not very optimistic.

rek · #13 Post by **rek** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:07 am

Here is a page with lots of M200 disassembly photos: http://www.irisvista.com/tech/laptops/T ... izer_1.htm

It looks like the "extra appendages" of the digitiser are a separate sub-assembly, that can be easily separated from the screen. (Check out step #10 and #11 -- the underlying LCD panel looks like any normal display to me)

If I have time this weekend, I might pull the screen assembly from my M200 apart and get some exact measurements for you. The inside of the screen cover could do with a bit of a clean...

pianowizard · #14 Post by **pianowizard** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 9:18 am

rek wrote:It looks like the "extra appendages" of the digitiser are a separate sub-assembly, that can be easily separated from the screen.

I hope you are right. I owned two X40's before and remember that it has a very narrow display bezel (much narrower than the M200's), so all of these appendages need to be removed. If they aren't removable, this mod won't happen. Perhaps that's why those people on that Chinese Thinkpad forum did this mod with an X31.

Thanks for the photos, and thanks in advance for opening up your M200.

Jason404 · #15 Post by **Jason404** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 12:14 pm

The screen bezel is a bit weird on the X40. It is slightly 'dished' on the left side, where one of the wifi aerials is (the other one is on the top of the bezel), like the X3x series. The right side is only slightly wider then the LCD unit itself.

This makes it appear to be thinner, but I think it might actually be the same thickness, without the dish bit, if you know what I mean.

What you really need is the exact measurements of both screen units, taken with one of these:
http://www.shan-precision.com/images/Pic_06.jpg

Lomax · #16 Post by **Lomax** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 11:18 am

So, are there no Chinese speaking members on this forum who can contact the guys in China and get some more information? In particular, what we need to know is the make and model of the LCD panel that was used in their X31 mod... I'm a little frustrated that this information is not disclosed in the mod thread on the Chinese forum

We would also need to get hold of a copy of the modified X31/2 BIOS that enables the use of SXGA resolution internally. From what I understand they have copied parts of the T41/2 BIOS that relate to graphics modes and they have also changed a soldered jumper on the display cable. The presence of this jumper seems to indicate that IBM were considering an SXGA version of the X31/2, in which case there must be a panel on the market that would fit!

Lomax

pianowizard · #17 Post by **pianowizard** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 11:20 am

Lomax wrote:what we need to know is the make and model of the LCD panel that was used in their X31 mod...

HV121P01, i.e. the same one used in the X60 tablet. This number is shown in one of the photos posted on that forum's Chinese section.

Lomax · #18 Post by **Lomax** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 11:29 am

Thank you! So it is an SXGA+ panel, 1400x1050... This might be a bit on the high side for such a small screen, I would have preferred 1280x1024. Still, it would be an excellent upgrade and I am now very tempted to try to source one of these panels. Does anyone have an old panel from an X31/2 that they can measure? The specifications (and outline dimensions) of the HV121P01 panel can be found in this datasheet:

http://www.beck-oled-lcd-tft-display.de ... Rev.P0.pdf

Lomax

pianowizard · #19 Post by **pianowizard** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 11:39 am

Lomax wrote:Thank you! So it is an SXGA+ panel, 1400x1050... This might be a bit on the high side for such a small screen

It's not that bad. The pixel density is 144.6 dots per inch, a little bit lower than 1920x1200 on a 15.4" screen, which is 147.0 DPI.

Lomax · #20 Post by **Lomax** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 12:46 pm

Managed to find the dimensions of the Hydis HT121X01 XGA panel that comes as standard in the X30/1/2 laptops. The're not an exact match with the SXGA+ panel: 261x198x5.3mm (XGA) vs. 270x199x6.7mm (SXGA). Does anyone know if the extra 9mm width or 1.4mm thickness will affect the fit in the X31 bezel? 9mm does sound like a big difference...

One good thing though, the SXGA+ panel actually uses less(!) power than the XGA one, 4.1w vs. 4.6w. This at least means there should be no power supply issues. Weight wise it also looks good, the SXGA+ panel being only 30g heavier than the XGA one (305g vs. 275g).

HTH,

Lomax

Jason404 · #21 Post by **Jason404** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:35 pm

Well, this has got a bit further than I expected it to, already.

I'm not so sure that your dimensions for the Hydis HT121X01 are that accurate, as the width of the outside of the screen on the X31 is 272mm.

The holes for screws and other fixings/positioning is bound to be different, but as long as the new screen can be made secure, the width difference is unlikely to a problem, but the thickness difference could be a big one.

All we need to do to answer these questions is to buy a HV121P01 panel.

I would like to do this with an X32, ideally, and that would have a different BIOS to the X31. I have no idea about programming. Unless you know programming and BIOS, we need to find a modding geek.

1400x1050 would be great for me, but will 16MB of VRAM be enough to display 1400x1050 at 32-bit colour depth? This might be another issue.

pianowizard · #22 Post by **pianowizard** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:39 pm

Jason404 wrote:All we need to do to answer all these questions is to buy a HV121P01 panel.

I actually just ordered a whole new X61 tablet, in addition to the X40 I mentioned earlier! The X40 should arrive next Friday and the X61 tablet in mid January. I'll try transplanting the SXGA+ into the X40 then.

Lomax · #23 Post by **Lomax** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 1:47 pm

The amount of graphics memory is not really an issue as the panel can only display about 260000 colours anyway.

dr_st · #24 Post by **dr_st** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 1:15 pm

1400x1050 would be great for me, but will 16MB of VRAM be enough to display 1400x1050 at 32-bit colour depth? This might be another issue.

A quick calculation shows 1400*1050*4(32 bits in bytes) = 5,880,000, so 16MB would be more than enough.

The amount of graphics memory is not really an issue as the panel can only display about 260000 colours anyway.

Windows is oblivious to the internal electronics of the panel. The digital signal going to the LCD will still carry the full 32 bits.

Lomax · #25 Post by **Lomax** » Sat Dec 22, 2007 4:50 pm

Good point, but i still don't feel the need for 32 bit colour, there are few LCDs that can match a good CRT on fidelity and they're rarely found in laptops. 24 bit colour will be good enough for me!

fantomex · #26 Post by **fantomex** » Sun Dec 23, 2007 6:54 am

i managed to get an account on the 51nb.com - if you login you see much more from the posts. i posted if somebody could help us. but i don't know chinese, so i used english. hope somebody would respond.

pianowizard · #27 Post by **pianowizard** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 2:10 pm

I regret to report that the X61 tablet's SXGA+ screen cannot be installed into the X40, because it's much thicker than the X40's XGA panel. I sort of anticipated this, but was hoping that at least I could try connecting the SXGA+ screen to the X40's mobo through the X61t's cable to see if I could get anything on the screen. That failed too, because the connectors are different in size

As a result, this X40 (with ultrabase and DVD/CDRW combo drive) is now for sale. I'll try to sell it locally first but if I can't find a buyer, I'll post an ad here.

cchsiao · #28 Post by **cchsiao** » Fri Dec 28, 2007 11:38 pm

How about using the cable and inverter card of X40 and plug the SXGA+ panel into the inverter card?

pianowizard · #29 Post by **pianowizard** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 7:40 am

cchsiao wrote:How about using the cable and inverter card of X40 and plug the SXGA+ panel into the inverter card?

Then the SXGA+ panel would display only 1024x768, unless I did the major, irreversible surgery those Chinese guys did to their X31, which might not work on the X40. Even if that had worked, I still wouldn't be able to use the screen because it won't even fit into the X40's display assembly.

I'll hold on to this X61 tablet for a while. If I come across a cheap X60, I might try the mod on it. But the lid is probably just as thin as the X40's.

proaudioguy · #30 Post by **proaudioguy** » Sat Dec 29, 2007 10:46 pm

pianowizard wrote:I regret to report that the X61 tablet's SXGA+ screen cannot be installed into the X40, because it's much thicker than the X40's XGA panel. I sort of anticipated this, but was hoping that at least I could try connecting the SXGA+ screen to the X40's mobo through the X61t's cable to see if I could get anything on the screen. That failed too, because the connectors are different in size

As a result, this X40 (with ultrabase and DVD/CDRW combo drive) is now for sale. I'll try to sell it locally first but if I can't find a buyer, I'll post an ad here.

I don't find this shocking at all. It's well known the X61 Tablet has several layers laminated together to make the screen stiffer and more durable. I think you want the X60 T screen, with the Wacom parts removed. Can't you just order the LCD alone?

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