upgraded E6400 from CCFL to LED screen

I just did the upgrade to go from an 1280x800 CCFL to an 1440x900 LED as I was finding the lower resolution screen too restrictive.

It is a very easy mod, albeit with the usual stumbling blocks as I could not find any note of it having been done before on the web.

The video cable from the motherboard to the screens is different.

The CCFL screen has 2 connectors, one to the screen and one to the inverter which sits beneath LCD panel. The inverter is also connected to a branch off the video cable which comes from the motherboard up through the left hand hinge.

The LED screen has a single connector, and its, different, video cable to motherboard, has a shorter voltage regulator which sits beneath the LED panel, just to the right of the left hand hinge. There are screw holes for mounting either inverter/regulator from respective video cables, in the same place.

The first LED panel which I tried was not compatible, it gave the dreaded black screen - very barely visible picture. This was either an incompatibility, just bad luck of a bad screen, or somehow the panel EDID was defective/not set up for Dell. This last is a grasp from googling as its beyond my skills level. I read of enthusiasts flashing their LCD panels for bezel management for AMD eyeinfinity, but nothing to do with making laptop panels vendor specific.

The second panel (a different make) was pulled straight from another E6400, and works perfectly with the different video cable. The same panel works with both Intel and Nvidia GPU.

Should note that for the E6400 at least, both lids work vice versa, although the CCFL lid needs slight modding to take the LED panel and the plastic bezel is a little thinner on the lower side between the CCFL and the LED, so for looks I also got a lid/bezel.

I am posting this here as most of the google hits went to posts on the forum, but there was nothing specific I could find on the E6400, and hope this saves others some time.

The screen that works is an LG

LP141WP2 (TL) (A1) 14.1" WXGA+

and its (subjectively) a better resolution for the laptop size. I have not done any image correction so far, but between them the LED is much brighter, and the whites are more yellow. The CCFL (at standard settings also) was a bluer white.

 

Thanks, its making the laptop much better for me.

I'll post "how to" pictures on this thread in a few days, as waiting on second screen coming to me, now that I know which one works. Right now I have the donor laptop w/out panel and the transplanted screen in my original e6400

 

You know that there's actually a different bezel for CCFL and WLED? I did the same conversion and after receiving the screen and telling them it didn't fit they sent me a new lid+bezel just to be sure all the parts were correct...for free

 

I think the CCFL lid and bezel will take both the CCFL and LED screens, but the LED lid and bezel will only take the LED screen. But yeah I can confirm that the CCFL bezel won't fit the LED lid, and the LED bezel won't fit the CCFL lid.

 

That could very well be true as i had a CCFL with CCFL bezel and that wouldn't work, i never tried the new bezel on the old lid but just replaced the whole thing.
I did notice one difference between the lids though. The CCFL lid makes a small angle near the top where the antennas are while the LED lid is completely flat, dunno why really but it's different on the outside too.

 

I bet it's because the LED lid is thinner. I've tried an LED screen in the CCFL cover before, and it doesn't work. Too many minor differences.

 

That's what i figured. I read the same about the screens in the M4400.

 

yep, had to get the dremmel out and grind off two magnesium upsets on the far right of the CCFL lid, upper and lower. Using an LED bezel it all fits good enough to work but the plastic bezel not 100% tight at the bottom, so I used an EBAYed LED lid, for it to be perfect.

Using the CCFL bezel "fits" too ie it snaps on okay, but you can see a line of metal of the LED panel, so it looks awful.

So in a pinch and LED bezel and a modded CCFL lid can work but it's not perfect.

 

Does brightness adjustment still work? And if it does, how is this accomplished since the LED panel doesn't use the inverter?
Is the base unit designed to handle LED and CCFL or did you have to do something to make it work?

 

The motherboard is designed to be compatible with both screens, Dell only has two motherboars specs, one for Intel graphics, and one for Nvidia. It's independent of LCD type.