Interchangability of T2x screens.

[solidpro]

I'm working my way through a bunch of T2x machine and trying to get my head around the LCD panels - which seems to be the biggest point of failure (besides BOD)

It seems for the most part T20 and T21 are virtually the same machine, although one LCD below says it's compatible with a T21/22/23 but not the T20. Not sure why...(Hitachi TX36D97VC1CAA).

Couple of questions, if anyone has more experience than I:

1) Are ribbon cables generally the same or different between the XGA and SXGA+ screens, or are they wired differently?
2) The T20/21s I have all have the same LCD ribbon cable (into the back of the LCD) and the T22 has a difference end connector (into the LCD). Is this 'standard'? Do all T20/21 share the same ribbons and all T22/T23 share the same?
3) Do I therefore assume that all T22/23 screens will not work with T20/21?
4) I've listed all the panels I can find listed for each model, but does anyone know if they're all with the same connectors, or are any 'better' than others?

I realise some of these questions overlap!

T20 standard XGA:

LTN141X8 / 05K9678 05K9944 05K9588 46L2348
TX36D87VC1CAA / 05K9940
LP133X7 / 05K9892 92P6645 93P5545
LP133X7 (F21B) / FRU 05K9636 ('IBM P/N' (ASM?) 05K9635)
LP141X6 / 05K9567
HT14X14 / 05K9907 05K9568 93P5546 13N7055
LTN141XF / 11P8364 46L2292
LP141X10 / 11P8283 11P8241

T20 SXGA+:

LP141E2 / 46L2495

T23 XGA:

ITXG77 / 05K9888

T23 SXGA+:

LP141E2 / 46L2495
TX36D97VC1CAA

Thanks

[SMA]

www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/TFT_display

[kfzhu1229]

1) Are ribbon cables generally the same or different between the XGA and SXGA+ screens, or are they wired differently?
2) The T20/21s I have all have the same LCD ribbon cable (into the back of the LCD) and the T22 has a difference end connector (into the LCD). Is this 'standard'? Do all T20/21 share the same ribbons and all T22/T23 share the same?
3) Do I therefore assume that all T22/23 screens will not work with T20/21?
4) I've listed all the panels I can find listed for each model, but does anyone know if they're all with the same connectors, or are any 'better' than others?

For T2x, XGA and SXGA+ screens have TOTALLY different connectors! XGA of this era use the old school style 20 pin connector (which has no ability to support the bandwidth required for SXGA+), while SXGA+ of this era use the newer 30 pin connector (and is the same connector used on T4x/R5x/T6x/R6x, which means you can theoretically swap a screen from 14.1" SXGA+ T4x/T6x into T2x)
This is not just for ThinkPads, that was very standard practice, and these IBM FRU screen panels were like-for-like interchangeable with all the 14.1" LCD panels of Latitude C6x0 series for instance.
Correct me if I am wrong, but AFAIK it seems like all 14.1" XGA T2x's come with the same connector for LCD and same goes for SXGA+.
My personal advice is avoid the Samsung LTN141XF panels - I've had 4 of them, T22, T23, 14.1" A30 and a spare. One eventually died because of more and more horizontal lines, all the others have absolutely atrocious viewing angles and dull colour reproduction, in fact they are much worse than even the 14.1" XGA panels found on T4x.
If you have a XGA cable and want XGA screen, pretty sure all 20pin 14.1" XGA screens should work as long as the connector is low enough for the cable to reach. The best ones I've had for this stuff are the IBM/IDTech made panels, but not 100% sure if those have the connector at the right place for the T2x cable to reach.
For SXGA+ again theoretically all the T4x/T6x SXGA+ 14.1" panels should work.

[solidpro]

Thanks kfzhu1229 - that's a really helpful reply!

So to summarise:

Avoid samsung
All the XGA share the same ribbon cable
All the SXGA+ share the same cable.
T2x and T4x share the same ribbons, just need to be sure you've got an XGA machine or an SXGA+ machine - does this also go for T3x?

Thanks!

[kfzhu1229]

T2x and T4x share the same ribbons, just need to be sure you've got an XGA machine or an SXGA+ machine - does this also go for T3x?

No they don't. T2x and T4x have TOTALLY different ribbon cables, and for XGA connection the connector is different too (T2x use 20pin for XGA while T4x still uses the same 30pin for XGA like for SXGA+)
ONLY the SXGA+ screens between T2x and 14.1" T4x are theoretically interchangeable, NOT the LCD cables.
Also, AFAIK, ThinkPad T30 uses a totally propietrary connector that's not used in literally any other model, not even on A30 or A31 family! So avoid all T30 LCD or cables!
But you can use T30's battery and those are theoretically better performing than the T2x batteries as they had to cope with Pentium 4-M's power draw.
You can use 14.1" A30/A31's XGA LCD as well on your T2x - all of my T22 T23 A30 came with the exact same Samsung XGA screen! (No 14.1" SXGA+ option exists out of the factory for A30/A31)

[solidpro]

Ah ok, so new summary:

Avoid samsung if possible
All the XGA share the same ribbon cable on T2x, not interchangable from other Series. Same for T3x and T4x.
All the SXGA+ share the same cable on T2x, not interchangable from other Series. Same for T3x and T4x.
T2x and T4x XGA and SXGA+ LCD panels are interchangable - you must just check the ribbon first.
A30/A31's XGA LCDs also compatible with T2x

Thanks!

[kfzhu1229]

Avoid samsung if possible
All the XGA share the same ribbon cable on T2x, not interchangable from other Series. Same for T3x and T4x.
All the SXGA+ share the same cable on T2x, not interchangable from other Series. Same for T3x and T4x.
T2x and T4x XGA and SXGA+ LCD panels are interchangable - you must just check the ribbon first.
A30/A31's XGA LCDs also compatible with T2x

Yeah that sounds almost right.
But T2x and T4x XGA panels are NOT interchangable, one is 20pin the other is 30pin. SXGA+ screen should be fine theoretically
T2x XGA panel is interchangable with A30/A31 with 14.1" screen (again, no 14.1" SXGA+ option for A3x exists).
You should probably treat T30 as a whole different animal as that laptop use proprietary LCD connector that I have not seen elsewhere, hence why nothing there is compatible with T2x or T4x.
For SXGA+, you might need to check where the connector is for a T4x screen as I don't know if the LCD connector is in a similar enough position to the T2x family for you to connect properly.