HP Elitebook Folio 9480p Screen Upgrade

Hi,

I current have a Elitebook folio 9480m with the HD screen (1366×768) and I try to upgrade it to an HD+ (1600x900).

The HD screen it came with is an N140BGE-LA3 Rev. C1.
I ordered an N140FGE-LA2 Rev. C2 which is the replacement part marked to be compatible with the 9480m at
https://www.laptopscreen.com/English/model/HP-Compaq/ELITEBOOK FOLIO 9480m SERIES/
both are matte panels.

So far the replacement was not successful. The new screen does not show a picture. Only the backlight works.
As the support manuals of the 9480m do not distinguish anything else than the panels I thought that this might work without any cable changes.

Does anybody have an idea or hint what I can do? Is the replacement screen in general not compatible (wrong model)? Do I need different cables? Is there a software/BIOS trick?

I would also be interested if there might be a completely different brand of panels I could try, beacause the standard panels HP is using are really not good? I am however mostly interested in the higher resolution.

Any hints or suggestions are highly appreciated.

best regards, Jörg

 

you are the first person whome i heard has the 9480m! There is a youtube video on screen replacement for this i believe.

also, download the 9480m service manual for the exact part number.

does your 9480m have excessive fan noise like the 9470m?

 

Hi yaonyc,

I did hear the fan in some situations, but in general it stays quite silent. Especially when it does not have any load, the fan stays off. But I only have it for a few days now. I had a Lenovo T420s before and the Lenovo became quite annoying and overheated. The new HP is much more silent. But I have to really start using it for a while to really judge.

It is my work Laptop. I am working for a company where HP runs the IT and this is somehow the 9480m new standard Laptop for employees. The only really annoying thing so far is the HD screen. Next to the obviously very low resolution it also has very bad viewing angles.

I have ordered now the exact part number of the HD+ screen. According to HP technician this is all I have to do. I am however skeptical now. I also ordered the HD+ cable from the 9470m. It seems to be very similar and it is able to carry a 2 Channel signal. It will however take a wile now until I have all the orders.

best regards, Jörg

 

best of luck Jorg on the HD+ replacement! keep me informed. I might do the same with a low cost refurbished 9480m

also, i hope the haswell processor and improvements made by HP fixed the fan issue on the 9480m!

 

oh! one more thing...the trackpad on the 9470m was amazing! very responsive and very fluid with windows 8.1

im sure the trackpad on the 9480m is just as good or better

 

and one more question! How is the battery life of the 9480m? The 9470m was terrible at about 3 1/2 hours at most in real world usage..

thanks again..

 

I'm writing this on my 9470m. I like everything about this laptop except the screen. I cannot understand why HP isn't using an IPS panel on the 9480m. The TN pannel on the 9470m is horrible to be honest. Especially in normal daylight.

(Also the battery life is sinking for me)

 

OP, the issue you have is going to have to do with the LVDS cable (video cable).
You need the HD+ video cable to work with the HD+ LCD. You may also need a motherboard swap because of the port that connects to the cable is different.
Wish I could give you the part number but I don't have access to the BOM outside of work.

 

Hi Crimsoned,

Thanks for the help. In the meantime I figured out what I need and I completed the upgrade. Unfortunately there was a little experimentation, which was not the cheapest way of doing it.
I did summarize all my modifications and experiences in the following post:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/hp-elitepad-folio-9480m-successor-to-9470m.771983/page-2

 

I work on these units at work for warranty. We sometimes see this problem. IT Department upgraded screen but didn't replace to HD+ cable. They send the unit in for "no video" or "no image" but there is image on an external monitor.
It's not that bad you can do it without full disassembling the unit. It still requires base enclosure, LCD (bezel), and hinge cover to be removed but that's all. You can loosen the motherboard a little, and life it up carefully to remove the lvds cable and channel it through the opening the hinge cover makes once removed.
Saves the time from disconnecting all the flex cables from the KB, touchpad, FP, speakers, etc.

 

Hi Crimsoned,

I see that this might be working. Well, I did it the first time and followed the steps of the maintenance guide. And some examples on youtube. The time it took was not an issue, because I only did it once. I was more worried about potentially breaking something in the process. It took me about two hours to do the replacement because I was very careful and also changed the thermal compound of the processor. Before I had a Lenovo T420s and there it really made a difference. So I thought it might be a good idea to use a good one also on the HP.

I am not surprised, that people try to upgrade without changing the cable. Any kind of official documentation of this process is not existent. I was aware of the potential cable problem, because I found respective descriptions for the Eitebook 9470m. This is why I asked directly at HP if I need to change the cable and if yes, what would be the correct one to use. Their answer was no, I would only need to change the panel. That caused my first fail. As I did trust HP more than a 3rd party panel provider, I did send the replacement panel back and ordered the original part. Of course this did not work. So I paid 3 times the price for the original panel that was even worse in its specs than the 3rd party one.

It was then a problem to actually find the HD cable. The 9480m was also quite new, so that the usual Chinese suspects did not yet have the HD+ cable for my model listed in their shops. For the 9470m the HP spare part list explicitly distinguishes the cables and it is clear, which HP part number to order. The documentation for the 9480m does not mention the different video cables explicitly. I asked HP support to tell me what original part to order. It took them a couple of days to figure this out. It was part of the antenna kit, although this fact was not documented.

When weeks later the ordered original antenna kit arrived I could finally do the upgrade with all original HP parts. Now having the right cable I also knew the original manufacturer part number. With that I asked one of the Chinese shops for a price. It would be 17 US$ with free delivery. Also this is much cheaper than than the antenna kit.

So finally I was successful, but with experimentation and expensive use of original components. I did document this in my other post in order to save others this experience. I could have done the upgrade for a price of about 55-60 EUR for the display and 17$ for the cable. With the HP original parts it was more than 3 times more expensive.

At least it works well now and the official HD+ panel is not too bad. Also, the BIOS and OS did not have any problems with suddenly "seeing" a different display.

By the way. I have a spare antenna kit (minus the HD+ cable). Is anybody interested?