Uh oh! Screwed up my display on 15.4" T60.

[John H]

The bottom third of the display was flaky, so I figured it was a loose or corroded connector and opened it up in the cover. I wiggled the obvious cable connector, and then I shot some Contact Cleaner at it, which I think was a mistake. I put the connector back together and now I have almost no display except for a very faint, barely visible, image. Maybe the Cleaner put some bad stuff on the contacts, so I tried cleaning it with ethyl alcohol to no effect.

I wonder what I should do next. I can get a new LCD for about $100, but that may not be the problem. Maybe it's the cable connector. I wonder how I can debug this, or should I just get both.? Or should I send it to IBM and let them debug and fix it?

[Harryc]

It sounds to me like you had a bad LCD, then shot some liquid contact cleaner at the connector and reseated it. Now it looks like the CCFL (backlight) is not firing. So, it could be a bad LCD cable, inverter, and/or LCD panel. My advice would be to purchase an entire LCD lid, with LCD, cables, inverter etc as one unit.

[underclocker]

Something like this should do the trick (this one has Bluetooth which will work whether you had it before or not, just install the Lenovo driver) --> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0270846657

An eBay search for "T60* LCD assembly" turns up a few more in the same $100 range.

[richk]

If you buy a whole unit, I am interested in the bezel and maybe the lid. I have one with cracked plastic.

[John H]

If you buy a whole unit, I am interested in the bezel and maybe the lid. I have one with cracked plastic.

My lid and bezel are excellent. What price?

[John H]

It sounds to me like you had a bad LCD, then shot some liquid contact cleaner at the connector and reseated it. Now it looks like the CCFL (backlight) is not firing. So, it could be a bad LCD cable, inverter, and/or LCD panel. My advice would be to purchase an entire LCD lid, with LCD, cables, inverter etc as one unit.

Yes, I think it was a dumb idea to use contact cleaner. Now, the backlight is so dim that there is just a faint ghost of a display. I'm guessing that the CC shorted out something in the drivers.

[John H]

I find 2 resolutions on eBay for the 15.4": WXGA (which is what I have now, I believe) and WSXGA which is higher resolution. I'm tempted to get the WXGA because that's what I have, but I wonder if the WSXGA is OK if I replace the whole lid assembly? Can I get higher resolution that way?

I might close up the X60 tonight so I can use the computer while I await new parts. I have a Hyundai 22" LCD I can use for a display (it takes XGA and DVI input, but I can only get DVI thru the docking station, which seems not to deliver DVI, thpough it's theoretically possible). I'm willing to try $100 worth of parts before I give it to someone with better tools to fix it.

Of course, the only way to switch from the X60 LCD to the outboard LCD is with <Fn><F7> because there's nothing to look at in the Control Panel, so I wonder if that will actually work? It doesn't work on the X60s.

[John H]

This eBay listing says that the WSXGA they offer is compatible with T60 as well as T61. Is that true?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0543324643&