Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
My best guess would be screen are the issue. I paid $96 with shipping for my current screen. I bet all these sellers do is just bench test them, and see if they turn on and call the screen "working".
I noticed my screen tends to show white and black bars across it right after the laptop shuts off. Probably not a good sign either.
If I can find a schematic on these Dreamcolor panels it's possible I might be able to fix the brightness issue. Have you tried using Nvidia control panel? I know it has a brightness slider in there that might allow you to dim the screen without the need for a new screen or modding. That what I was able to do via commands using Ubuntu 14.04 from a USB flash drive on my 8730w, and at first I thought it dimmed the screen, but I realized that it just changed brightness output from the video card, but it still looked like all I was dimming was the screen.
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OK bear with me as I just got back onto this thread, and correct me if I missed anything.
Care to share where you sourced these screens from? I'm in the market to get a Dreamcolor for my 2 in one build (guts of a mechanically damaged but once functional Dreamcolor laptop into the case of a pristine but non dreamcolor model, to avoid potential problems with non-Dreamcolor motherboards)
Believe me, when I had the brightness issue with my old panel there was nothing to do but replace the panel. The problem is likely with the LED controller, if it's bad the only thing you can do is replace the whole panel. Mine was permanently at lowest intensity. Impossible to work in a bright room. I also replaced the cable and ambient light sensor to no effect.
If you need the schematic let me know, I have it somewhere but I forget in what format so I may not be able to upload it to the forum directly.
This just tweaks the video card. The brightness is set by a totally different mechanism, and it's a royal pain. There should be a direct, hardware brightness control, as a matter of fact I'm considering adding some pots in series with the backlight LEDs on my 8740w to adjust color balance getting HP's expensive calibration package including hardware and software.
I'm busy right now with other priorities, so I haven't had much time for my laptop projects, but they're just on the backburner. I'll be back
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just for cleaning the openings for the fan from the inside. Since the video card with all these pads and these thermal compound sticks to the heatsink it would be easier not to disassemble them if they stick all just in place
I did disassemble it just like in the guide to see how it works (my video card is broken and I want to replace it in the future) and found out there was a lot of dust even with cleaning the openings and so on with compressed air from outside.
So, I was thinking about a better cleaning method, let's say every six months. However, removing the keyboard and switch board with all these zif connectors is not that repeatable and could damage more than gained. -
The way I clean laptops:
-removed the keyboard
-removed the fan (3 tiny screws)
-vacum inside the fan housing/mounting hole
(that's where fibers and dust get stuck like a layer of fiber and dust almost like a cloth)
Compressed air is not realy good solution, although it does "dust off" the dirt but then this dirt gets to places it wouldn't normally get to.
(suck rather than blow) <- sounds kinda weird
83bj60 likes this. -
There are displays about $200 that is almost 3X as much as I payed for this one (stuck at 100%)
so I'm thinking if I give it a try with one of these expensive ones, I hope to get a fully functioning one.
For that kind of money I would expect GradeA+ display (no defects what so ever).
But if that fails I'm gonna be really disappointed :-(
So I guess the question is... am I ready for another disappointment ?
Damned be LG and respective RGB backlit display for these look soooo great that I don't have the strength to let go
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The display i'm using right now is not from eBay, it's Bliss computers
Laptop LCD Screens
based in New York (if i remember right)
-they have a really nice choice of displays/screens of various types
-and they were very cooperative (offered to waranty-replace my display)
-due to high shipping cost over the display cost i choose to keep this one and use it at this time as-is
(100% backlight, brightness "corrected" to acceptable level with videocard nvidia settings)
The display is just rgiht for daylight use on my porch hovever for nightime use...
I'm considering to get a display from eBay at slightly higher pricerange, I hope to get lucky with that one... -
Really interesting, Man! What kind of tools did you use to replace the parts?
My parts machine has a ripped HD connector and I found one online that I intend to solder in place of the damaged one. The only tricky part I see is getting all pins desoldered at the same time without overheating the surrounding parts...
As my parts machine is the exact same mode as my main machine if I succeed I will have an identical clone, this will make getting back to work from a hardware failure a seamless affair, because identical models mean 100% parts and software compatibility
Sent from my Note 2 using Tapatalk -
Hello,
Please consider, whatever you do to your equipment is your own responsibility
I cannot be responsible for anything you do, even if you read it in my posts here, these are just
the gudelines, representation of, how I do stuff.
I do tend to do things right and it works for me... so it may, or may not work for you
Ok, having said that, I used:
"Classic" coldering iron with a nice sharp tiny pointy tip (temperature regulated ofcourse),
hot air soldering station with 2 and 4 mm nozzle (also temperature regulated)
pointy long tools like small screwdrivers, levers, tweezers spikes and such.
When I do connectors I heat the connector iself and some area around it.
If you choose the right temperature around 390 to 420 deg.C (step up graduately until it desolders)
it will just "come off" at some point using minimal force, be sure not to force anything because you could
pull out your "via holes" so layers of your motherboard may disconnect (this is important for connectors soldered trough the board)
The piece you work on should be secured, and not to be moved too much -that way all the surrounding parts will stay in place even if they desolder temporarely.
If you're not aiming your hot air at those, they should not come off, when done right it's almost as if it's "reading your mind"
things you aim at get desoldered others stay in place.
For soldering and desoldering good practice is to "preheat" your entire motherboard (or the larger work area) using a hot-air gun or "fan" to around 100-150 deg.C or higher (depending on what you do)
That way you desolder and solder easier and faster because the surrounding area of the piece will not tend to cool down your work area.
When soldering use solder paste insead of soldering wire, flux and hot-air soldering station, it takes a little care and some skills, when done right it will look and work as good as new, sometimes even better.
for more inspiring videos and tutorials google/youtube for "hot air soldering",
It may not "just fall in place" the first time, but you do it until it does... so you get better and better.
manjo
P.S.
yes, i'm aware that more and more people consider this "not worth the throuble" and that most working
with soldering irons nowdays are talking foreign languages and robots, but I'm not one of those
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Sure... Talking like that I'm assuming you are American? Just kidding... But that disclaimer stuff is polluting our daily lives enough as it is, I have to deal with it myself in my daily routine and have found over the years, it has added a good 40% on my work load, in my opinion, unnecessarily, as 'common sense' and 'natural abilities' are now believed, by those in power, i.e. 'The Lawyers', to be a figment of imagination and that We, The People, are actually Dumb... I have to fight this utter nonsense, whose purpose, I strongly believe, is solely to concentrate power and remove any remaining civil liberties we have as human beings and citizens, away from us and into the hands of the Specialists whom we don't elect and those in power who listen to them. This is the perfect recipe for tyranny and for the decadence that irremediably follows. But enough with politics...
Excellent to know. I am myself no greenhorn when it comes about soldering, brazing and welding, and have worked on microelectronics before, but as I am getting along in years I am having more difficulties mostly with fine motor skills, and have found replacing SMDs in particular, very challenging. I do understand there are workstations that have lever actuators that allow reduction in movement, but haven't seen one that I could afford at this time considering how little of this kind of work I do.
I did look at a reflow station/hot air gun and may well jump the gun on one so to speak, they seem affordable enough, I wasn't aware you could use concentrators that are that fine while still maintaining a precise temperature control...
Hmmm... Do you think a hot plate originally designed to keep food warm could be used for that purpose? I have one lying around, it's thermostatically controlled... ;-)
Excellent advice... The flux does get in the way... Any specific formula that I should look for? I understand there are different solder alloys with different melting temperatures...
The problem I have is this connector does get through the motherboard, although I believe that it shouldn't be in a delicate part with interlayer connections, considering the solder pads are significantly larger than those of parts in more central locations (which is the primary reason I considered this job doable with the limited means I have)
Here's a picture of the connector in question...
Feel free to comment!
And that's how the connector looks on my good 8730w for comparison...
I have a hot air gun already and did some soldering with it, but of course it's a hand held one with almost zero temperature control, I just used it for removing parts... A hot air station would definitely be a must, you've convinced me of that...
My hobby is restoring vintage appliances and tools so I appreciate "labour of love". As I always say, my parents used to restore old furniture (my mother has stuff dating all the way back to the 1500s, and working kitchen implements dating from the mid 1800s!) and I was brought up working with paint and varnish remover, whereas my antiques are old industrial strength appliances from the 30s, 40s and 50s back in working condition. They used tons of chrome back then and if the chrome is in good condition, the rest, I find, is easy as pie (As rechroming is prohibitively expensive I tend to avoid anything on which chrome is not in good condition - scratches are OK as they can be polished somewhat, pits aren't as it means the base metal is damaged and that necessarily means re-chroming). I also enjoy working on heavy cast aluminum objects, they are harder to polish because they usually come fairly scratched and dented but refinish beautifully with enough elbow grease...
Got to go now and get some work done. Thanks again for the great advice! -
Hi,
Actualy, I'm not american and I agree with your point of view on these over policy lawyer stuff, I do apologize to have excited you about the disclamer part
I gathered from your previous posts that your common sense is in place.
However this is the public place, all kinds of people are reading this, so for all of those who don't have the capacity to deduce what's good for them and what not...
Also I wouldn't have written it, but in this case it's possible to damage your stuff or get injured so... disclamer does come handy
I too have considerable electronics experience, however, just recently started using hot-air soldering station and SMD, there is not much work for this but over the last decade SMD parts and tools became widely available and afordable, so... I went for it... if you like to do stuff, it's a small investment for all the things you could do with it.
For pre-heating you could use almost anything I've seen people using an electric coffe cooking plate or electric stove plate, however you call it
Whatever keeps it warm and regulated so it doesn't fry all the good stuff
Lead free soldering solutions are standard (lower temp + nontoxic). Once you have your circuit board clean, spread some flux/paste over your solder pads, you place your connector or part in place just over all the fux/paste thing.
At this point it may look messy and short-circuited but no need to worry, once you heat it up it will get metallic and liquid and it will be "drawn/blown" towards your pins/pads that way it will "self-clean".
Only if you put really too much you may need to clean a little with vacum or wirebraid.
I realized from images that you have Hard Drive connector issue, this should be quite straight forward.
Another idea for your case:
sometimes it may be more practical to cut away old pins rather than pulling them out, then reconfigure new connector (cut or bend pins to get to the right place) and solder on top of old pins.
If you do it nice and clean it may give result almost as good as entire rework. (proper rework is somewhat mechanically stronger though)
HDD connector is bolted down to the mainboard with 2 screws so... you'll get all the strength there
I see you're a "restorer/restaurator" with passion that's rare these days since today's people tend to say "it's not worth it" or "we'll buy new one it'll be better" true, it may have better specifications but may be generally lower quality product.
I picked my "vintage" 8730 looking for best preserved outer case and aluminum work, I planed to upgrade,
I addmit it was a "rough start" with receiving the wrong motherboard and display right from the start... I almost gave up, but I'm back on the right track
so much for now...
I'll report the progress on display as soon as I get to it, regards,
until then I'm using the Core 2 Quad on 100% DreamColor
manjo -
Well said
You've got me convinced - Great sales job... I 'm going to start looking in earnest
Thanks for the tip! Seems simple enough... I ahave a couple old computers I could try my hand with ;-)
Great idea and certainly simpler than what I thought doing, which is basically remove the pins from the new connector to keep the housing then insert the existing pins into the new housing... I've got two of these connectors to have a spare should I fail upon first attempt... I'lll have a closer look and let you know. Thanks for the tip!
Indeed, this seems easy enough to do. Simply snip the pins from the new one and the old ones to get an overlap and solder them together. Got it! With the two connectors I have I can try either solution. In any case, soldering through the motherboard would be way more risky than either of theses two other solutions and with a solidly screwed on connector there is no reason to believe a surface solder job wouldn't work just as well.
Indeed. I'm always on the hunt for 'antique' hardware designed to last a lifetime, simply discarded because of ignorance or indifference and not being able to appreciate good design and workmanship. But old stuff isn't always well made! My first Thinkpad (TP500, flimsy case) certainly wasn't as solid as my first Toshiba (built like a tank, internal power supply, still runs after having been dropped during an attempted robbery)
I'll be getting back onto my own project(s) soon... I'll take pictures and will probably post a thread on my rebuild sometime before the end of the year. I'm just too busy with other things right now...
Nice talking to you, do keep us posted
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So thanks to you :thumbsup: and your great advice on how to fix that HD connector I've decided I'm ready enough to tackle the HD connector solder job and tackle the screen ugrade and ordered a screen online, am told it should be there in about two weeks. Hey, might as well do it before I grow senile, eh?
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My 8730w (quad) machine has Windows 7 score for CPU and memory both 7.1,
both graphic scores are 6.6 and hard drive (SSD) is 7.8
-it's comparable to lower end iCores
-for most work complete satisfactory
-the screen and the first sight of the thing...
mix of magnesium alloy, plastic and aluminum simply "commands" respect
I am aware that there were many people not so lucky with this machine... what to say... to bad... since
it's decent by today's standards, mechanically even above and beyond.
8740w is step higer in most regards, but I prefer the 8730 keyboard over 8740
regards,
manjo -
My guess is that you ordered from LaptopScreen.com
-they are great suplier i ordered about 4-5 various screens from them and they were all very fine products A+
-BUT for some models they keep "compatible" screens, therefore I check with them first if they have
exact model before ordering...
-many supliers don't realize that even if screen is RGB backlit, and has the same connector it's not the same electrically
-also many screens are compatible but don't perform the same way, sometimes it's about finish (glossy or matte), sometimes it's about color gamut (intensity of the colors), somethimes viewing angles... it's always something or more of these fine things...
-don't even try with samsung screen it can cause serious damage
-the other guy here in this forum almost cought fire trying to make "compatible screen" to work
-my samsung screen didn't work either it would not turn on power led just bliked (as if not enough power) actualy it was short circuited on the connectors
-no other thing to do but to return the thing and look for true LP171WU5-TLB1
many sellers on eBay also have "compatble models" and models with "Dead pixel policy such as: 1-5 dead pixels" stay away from those aswel.
Who know's what's on the way for me
-obviosly it's gonna be a surprise (hope for a good one) -
The exact model I got from laptopscreen was:
LTN170CT08-001
So, I sincerely recomment NOT to mess with it... not even for fun, not even just for test...
Yes there are Samsung compatible screens but with CCFL backlight, my original screen was
LTN170CT02-001 with heavy light bleed from bottom of the screen.
-they offered me my money back, but the shipping cost alone is not worth it
-basically money I'd would get from laptopscreen would go for shipping for less than $30 is not worth so much trouble
-they simply keep this model as "compatible" I'm not sure if they are aware that it's not, let's say I belive them and won't go into that further... because all my other purchases were without any defects high quality displays.
-what I'm saying is:
if you like your working setup don't plug this display not even for fun, when I was trying to make this display work something happened to my first motherboard... (it would not recognise the original display anymore, not even HDMI display) this is my "parts" motherboard now
-since i was going to upgrade to Quad Core it was not a "big deal" I got the second motherboard which is supposed to be QuadCore -it turned out to be DualCore, but everything was working fine so again ...I wasn't making a big deal out of this either because I got working DualCore motherboard now as well.
Then I almost gave up, but finally got lucky with the Quad motherboard from US and so I'm on this "project" on the right track again.
Long story short:
-don't bother with that LTN screen
-it will NOT work,
-there is a high chance you'd destroy your current setup
The screen I ordered now is supposed to be true LP171WU5-TLB1 Grade A+ priced around $130 since seller has more than 10 pieces available I hope this will be a working one (not refurbished)
I orderd from eBay not sure if this seller is on the Ali as well... -
OK, thanks for letting me know... I won't even try!!! I'll let them know another user received that exact same screen and had serious issues with it.
I can see that... Luckily I'm in Canada so I'm eligible for their advertised free return shipping withing Canada and the US
Do he still sell? have a link?
I will... You can bet that! I am not willing to risk anything that may remotely affect my machine... No way no how!!! I'll let them know what happened to yours and that I want the OEM like I was supposed to get or nothing at all...
Thank God you went through that process already and let me profit from your experience As for your motherboard, perhaps the only thing that got destroyed is the fuse, as it seems to be the most common part to fail when bad screens are installed...
Thanks again, Man, your input is MUCH appreciated. Looks like you are going to get your project going before me after all... But I'll be waiting for your results this time, hehe
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Basically what you're saying is... you don't like DC2 that much
-I was looking for a laptop with IPS pannel but it seams IPS is not widely available for laptops
-IPS "equivalent" on laptop would be RGB screen, indeed I was surprised how good the display works
-in most counts its comparable to IPS I realy love it, it just takes SOOO much pain to find a working set :-(
-for me it's not about "color critical" work there is no such work in the world -they say design or high end graphics
demand calibrated monitors and so on... it's a bounch of baloney, here is why:
What good is it if I use calibrated, accurate display to produce multimedia content if 99% of people
consuming this content will NOT have calibrated accurate displays...
Logical thing would be to make the content look nice on your common 'everyday' monitors even if
colors or contrast gets a bit 'saturated' on high end calibrated wide gamut monitors, ok.. that's entirely different story.
I have a couple questions regarding DC -are you able to change brightness using hot keys or "standard" brightness slider in windows power options ?
Or do you adjust the backlight exclusively using display assistant?
I'm unable to change brightness on widonws control, using FN keys don't work either, when I start the Display Assistant it goes to 0% brightness brightness control in display assistant is at 0% and is grayed out (can't modify it's setting)
The more I wait for the display to arrive, the more I get suspicious that I'm gonna end up with another "compatible" thing :-(
-maybe I should have ordered from Germany right from the start (i guess this will be my last option)
Basically my display is very usable as is, there are just a couple of REALY anoying things about it:
-it won't turn off when idle, it goes "black" but backlight is lit (if I was using battery -this would be totally unnacceptable)
-on the other hand when going to stand-by it powers down as expected
maybe more disturbing is:
-when I close the display lid, again, it gets black but backlight is still on and display gets HOT due to LED's being 100% and unable to cool properly when closed
hope to get that new display sometime soon to resolve al least the one part of the dilemma
have a nice day, I hope you got your RMA and sent the display for refund. -
No, that's not what I meant! Let me be perfectly clear: the DC2 is no doubt the best laptop screen there is, but the display setup software is an abomination of bloat and ineffective settings that don't adress the most important: the white point. This is inexcusable for a screen that claims to represent the summum of image fidelity. I have better white balance from my 8 year old cfl backlit consumer grade laptop!
Nevertheless, even with the lopsided backlight white balance, thanks to its 10 bit per channel color depth, it still looks great, even slightly more vibrant than the DC1. But the colors and the range are off because they had to be masked using video card color settings...
So because of that, its essentially sleeping like a genie in the bottle.
For the kind of money it commands, without a way to setup white without expensive extra hardware, it's pure waste as you can get 2 DC1 for the price of one DC2, and the DC1 is much easier to adjust accurately.
I work with pictures and the written word so for me high image fidelity and high resolution are a must. Furthermore I often make presentations to one or two people st once and a wide viewing angle is critical. Finally the brightness of the LED backlight is a must in brightly lit environments common for public meeting places such as restaurants. In other words, for me it's a necessity!
Fn keys only. The auto adjust is useless. I use the display assistant only to set the white point and select the gamut.
Had exactly the same problem with the old screen, except for the fact my screen stayed at its minimum brightness. Only usable at night... Replacing the screen resolved the issue.
As a side note I received the prepaid return shipping label from laptopscreens.com so it looks like everything is going to get back to normal. I'll try the taobao seller next.
No doubt in my mind that the screen is simply defective.
Yep, it's looking good
Good luck with yours!
Sent from my Note 2 using Tapatalk -
A great deal you say
sometimes we do get a bargin price for a very nice piece, one man's junk... another man's treasure
-anecdote about customs and taxes:
as soon as I get notification to address customs office with invoices or such to complete the import process 3/3 cases
until now was: trouble, I try to be positive and say to myself... ok, let's do this, pay some additional taxes and so on, but let's hope it'll be the thing I needed so it would be worth the trouble.
and... NOT: when I ordered my first DC screen It went trough whole official customs procedure I got trouble and more money to pay... but what I really got was... samsung (non)compatible :-(
another case was with my first "quad core" motherboard... same story... truned out not to be quad core at all :-(
third case was the ambient light sensor I was desperate and although the price for it was about $10 with 4X shipping cost :-( turned out not to be the ambient light issue
I wander what is it with these displays that they fail almost regulary... but are so beautyfull to look at (and so hard to give up from
In general... most items don't go trough the customs and I get the most straight and right to my doorstep, but occasionally some random things get's processed all the way trough.
*HP EliteBook 8730w Owners Lounge*
Discussion in 'HP Business Class Notebooks' started by darkmax, Nov 17, 2008.
