Swap N80Vn-GP011C LCD for higher-res?

I've been searching but haven't found anything yet ...

Is is possible to swap the N80Vn-GP011C LCD for a higher-resolution LCD (1440x900 or higher)? I can't even find a place to buy an LCD, so I don't even know if it's cost effective.

I love the specs and reviews on that unit, and plan on buying it (today even), but wish the resolution was higher.

--Nathan

BTW, I haven't said it yet, but I don't know how I shopped without this site before. I've found my future laptop, my fiancee's, my fathers, my mother's, and more ... THANKS

 

First off you should understand that it's going to involve disassembling the top case assembly. That's not an easy thing to do and involves a lot of tricky parts that need some small tools. I'm not sure how you'd find a compatible LCD for your model so I can't help you there. I suspect it's possible tho, but with a lot of labor involved.

 

I'm a competent technician and have disassembled many a laptop in my date; the labor is not a problem at all. In previous experience, brand-name laptops like Dell and HP don't have upgradeable LCD's. Does ASUS? And where can I find them?

 

Yes it should be possible. The problem is getting your hands on one, it's not that it's "upgradeable" by design .... it's that you can probably swap it with one that has a compatible connector from another asus model of the same size.

 

There's been a lot of discussion about people unsure of the WXGA resolution screen, and lots of ideas of how to address the issue. Ranging from possibly swapping the Nvidia GPU into an F8Va (apparently very similar/same chassis and construction) to swapping the F8Va display into the N80 case, there doesn't seem to be any other obvious solution. Not really sure about the internals, but pico1180 seemed to know a pretty decent bit - try to PM him, and maybe you two can make it happen!

 

I can't find any info on what panel is in that model.. it doesn't look like anyone has ripped one open either and posted any pics

 

I'd love to be the first. Are there any stipulations in the warranty about opening it up to look at the LCD?

Does anyone have an ASUS laptop screen I could put in there?

I think I'm ordering my N80Vn-GP011C tonight (with any luck). I'm willing to be a test subject if someone can help provide a GPU or LCD or point me to one!

EDIT: Wait, why would swapping the GPU have anything to do with it? The 9650 can undoubtedly support a higher resolution -- its gotta be just the LCD itself.

 

I think he was saying since the chassis are similar that swapping the GPUs might be possible in addition to what you wanna do with the LCD... I still haven't found anything about the model of panel in that thang...

edit -- also the warranty question is a gray area, but more likely to void than not -- don't take my advice because I voided my warranty the day I got each of my asus notebooks (I've had 5 now and own 2 atm). Generally doing anything but opening it to swap hard drives and RAM voids the warranty according to the asus terms, but if you're a tech and sneaky enough you can probably pull it off despite whatever they say. The only seal sticker is on the CPU heatsink.

 

I was just saying that it was one of the ideas being tossed around by other folks, in order to get a higher resolution screen. It was all pico1180's idea, not mine - I actually still didn't understand why he wanted to try it so badly. I'm partial to the screen swap.

 

LCD can sometimes be disassembled without any warranty stickers being removed. So if you're careful and don't ruin/scratch it there should be no (reliable) way to tell that it has been disassembled. So warranty should not be a problem.

 

If you were to swap the N80 screen with the higher res F8va one, wouldn't that result in a case mismatch? Looking at pictures both of their casings look different so I wonder if it would look okay.

 

The bezel is different but swapping LCD for LCD (not the bezel) should be OK as long as they are the same size and same connector

 

Hi Allur,

I have tried upgrading my F8Sn-B1 in the past to a higher resolution 1440x900 screen. I ran into a wall though in the process. I'm a competent computer technician myself and I have worked on notebook repair in the past.

Here's what happened:
I actually purchased an LG-Phillips LP141WP1 TX WSXGA+ screen that was pulled from a Dell machine. It also came with the appropriate inverter cable which uses the universal 2 prong power header from all notebooks(including Asus). It uses the standard display ribbon cable, and I was able to get it to work in the F8Sn. But not without problems, it was insanely dim and the colors were distorted. Windows identifies the driver/panel correctly and I could set the resolution to 1440x900, but the display was not correct. I have tried the stock inverter that came with the F8Sn as well as the one for the LG Panel, as far as I know, it's only for the CCFL backlight and has nothing to do with the panel itself. I personally think that there is a separate display cable for high resolution, but I haven't confirmed it.

I know that the C1 version is 1440x900 but I could not get a part from Asus nor is it available on the Estore.

 

If the colors were messed up the cable or the connectors are probably messed up on the display connection or it's the wrong pinout. But if your backlight isn't getting enough power your brightness will be low... also did you swap the LCD back out again and was the backlight OK in that case?

 

It's likely not a backlight issue as the screen gets enough light, but the dimess was likely caused by the incorrect cable. The picture was readable, and all the pixels/output is correct as I could read and operate the machine, but as far as color accuracy, it was way off and some colors outputted a dark gray rather than a brighter color. The pinout seemed exactly the same, and I used the stock cable that came with the F8Sn. It's either that the LG panel I bought was faulty or that the cable itself wasn't compatible.

Just a heads up, hopefully everything runs perfectly for you.