are the LCD screens interchangeble?

i've got a DV9500 CTO 17" laptop that gots a little blue things on the top left hand corner. i've also got a new HP 17" Pavilion dv7-1261wm 17" laptop as well. i was wondering, if i took both of them apart, and changed just the LCD screen, not the whole lcd panel. do you guys think that i might be able to switch out the screen on it and hopefully get the bad screen on the slower dv7-1261wm and get the better screen on the DV9500 laptop? i can't change the webcams or anything since the whole design on the dc7-1261 is different than on the dv9500. would it be possible to just change the lcd? i think i have a whole blob of stuck pixsls or something on the dv9500, cause its just blue on the top left hand corner and it never goes away.

i just wanted to know if this was possible before i open both of the suckers up and realize it might not be possible to just change the lcd screen.

 

I took mine apart when it died they are not really fixable. They use melted plastic welds and tape to build them.

 

Find out the model numbers of both screens. It's always possible that they're similar enough to swap.

I've just ordered an 8530W 15.4" WUXGA screen from a 3rd party, going to see if I can swap it into my dv5z. From their descriptions it looks like they have the same interface cable... Guess I'll find out in a few days when it ships.

 

how much did that screen cost you?, im looking to upgrade my screen as well

 

I ordered it at www.screenaid.com, $135.99 plus shipping. There are lots of other places that carry it, but this was one of the cheapest prices I found. It may turn out to have been a waste of money, still don't know if I'll actually be able to connect it.

 

Screen are relatively expensive, and difficult to replace. They are not typically an upgradeable component.

 

I disagree.

The screen for my DV7 is about $130 to $160, and for most, replacement is not that hard if you are careful. Upper bezel and upper KB bezel and you have access to route the ribbon cabling.

If you are comfortable in doing the work, you're out the cost of the screen, if not then add $100 or so for labor for someone to do it, but certainly less than the cost of grabbing a new one by any means.

 

Second that. I've already completely disassembled and reassembled my dv5z a few times, just to clean the HSF and try different thermal compounds on the CPU. (First AS5, then ICD.) At this point, pulling everything apart and putting it back together again is pretty routine.

 

same here, i pretty much memorized how the totally dissasemble my hp dv5t after the 3rd time i opened it

 

You got a good deal. But generally speaking, the screen is the hardest component to upgrade/change on a laptop.

 

"But generally speaking, the screen is the hardest component to upgrade/change on a laptop."

Gee, I don't want to tick you off Krane, but it really is one of the easiest ... In addition I typically will remove them to work on harder issues or to get to other componants. Anything towards the mainboard at bottom is harder, because you have to remove everything else first to get down to them.

On an aside I did have to replace my niece's Toshiba laptop this last weekend, I tripped while carrying it (and was not going to let her wait until I could get in a new LCD and install myself). I'll likely be ordering a new replacement for it and installing later on, as she's content with her new one, unlce RW couldn't find a match, just went and got her a higher model hehehe ...

 

OK, just to followup - the WUXGA screen that I got doesn't really work in the dv5z. On boot the image is very shaky, and mostly it just disappears. If I boot into Memtest, I can see the usual screen image, but it's still shaky, and there are two horizontal lines flashing across the screen, at about 1/3 and 2/3 of the way down the screen.

Booting into Linux, the screen disappears part way thru the boot sequence. I think one of the init scripts always replaces the current screen mode (that was set by the BIOS) with some other mode, and this mode doesn't work.

If I switch to the framebuffer console, that text is visible, but only normal intensity white text works. My prompt has some bold text in it, and that flickers and causes a lot of screen distortion.

If I startup X, I see the mouse cursor for a few seconds, and a bit of my taskbar, and then the screen goes blank again. Switching to various other resolutions using xrandr I sometimes get visible output, but it's usually shaky and distorted. Also it's frequently displayed with a large shift to the right. I think the modelines that the panel is reporting are wrong or something. I've tried experimenting with other values for the 1920x1200 modeline but haven't found a stable one yet. Seems like this particular swap was a Fail.

So, I think I've about given up trying to mod this laptop into the one I wanted, and am now in the market to buy one that is already what I want from the start: 15", WUXGA, backlit keyboard. LED display backlight would also be nice, and longer and cooler running than this dv5 also. I am sick of all these hassles witht this thing, the fact that I can't even use it without a cooler pad is so annoying...

 

Following up - I ordered another WUXGA screen, this time HP part # 337006-001 which apparently was originally for a Compaq NX7000. This one is pretty stable instead of shaky like the other one. This one is an LG panel by the way, the other one I got was a no-name Chinese panel. Also, the previous panel's backlight power cable was a bit too short and I had to reposition the inverter to make it reach. This panel has a longer cable and it plugs in fine using the original mount points so overall it's a better choice. And it was only $119.28 on eBay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120475969580&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSA:US:1123

Anyway, I still don't have usable resolutions in X, but I figure since the screen is stable in text mode, then there's probably some way for me to hack the radeon X driver to fix the timing parameters. Still researching it.

 

And another note - apparently the Video BIOS has a preprogrammed set of timings for the panels it's expected to support. So if you're changing panels to a different resolution, and that resolution was never offered from the manufacturer for this notebook model, you're in for this kind of trouble. Oh well, live and learn. Still, I expect to be able to figure out what timings are needed to get this panel working...

 

Hm. Both of the panels stickers say LG LP154WU1(TL)(B1). Puzzling...