T420 AUO (garbage) panel replaced with LG (acceptable) panel

I purchased a T420 with all the bells and whistles about 5 months ago and was extremely disappointed the MOMENT I first used it due to the awful grainy, cheap display made by AUO that served as a constant reminder to me that I was foolish for “trusting” that choosing an “upgraded display option” from a company like “Lenovo” would mean I would get at lease at decent product in return for my money.

Long story short, after doing a considerable amount of research on the topic (I read all the threads), I concluded that even though I was really mad about what happened, there was nothing that could be done:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/7437917-post2.html

About a month ago I dropped my T420 (which was in a sleeve) from about 4 ft in the air. Upon opening it, I discovered the AUO panel that I so despised was shattered. Talk about fate.
I found a vendor selling the LG (matte only) on amazon (for about $90):
Amazon.com: LG PHILIPS LP140WD2(TL)(B1) LAPTOP LCD SCREEN 14.0" WXGA++ LED DIODE (SUBSTITUTE REPLACEMENT LCD SCREEN ONLY. NOT A LAPTOP ): Electronics

I carefully removed the bezel w/ the help of patience and a credit card:
LCD bezel assembly removal - Thinkpad T420 and T420i

Unscrewed the (4) screws holding the broken AUO panel, and proceeded to install the LG I had purchased:
LCD panel and LCD cable removal and installation - Thinkpad T420 and T420i

I fired up my T420, and for the first time, was actually satisfied with what I had bought. The bezel is a little loose in one area, but this is really a MINOR tradeoff all things considered.

The LG screen is comparable in contrast, viewing angles, and color spectrum to the AUO. However, unlike the AUO, it does not (at all) have any of the disappointing “griddy” or “screen door” effects which have made the T420s notorious.

 

What does HWiNFO report as the part number of your new LG screen? The one in my T420s is LP140WD2-TLB1 and exhibits some griddiness.

John

 

Good job. I wonder if there are full HD screens fitting the T420/ T420s?

 

No.

 

fwiw i have this one as well, and i have slight gridlines also

 

it appears LP140WD2-TLB1. To be honest I wouldn't even say the LG has "some" grid after the AUO. Night and day!

 

Thanks. That says a lot (in an uncomplimentary way) about the AUO screen.

John

 

I have the AUO screen and I don't really notice the "screen door" effect unless I am 3-4 inches away from the screen. Overall though, the screen is definitely washed out compared to x220's IPS.

Nice to know that there are relatively cheap alternatives available though in case it becomes a problem later

 

As a counterpoint, I have the AUO panel, and while it does have a more noticeable anti-glare finish than most, I wouldn't use the hyperbole that the OP did. Yeah, it's got a finish that looks "griddy" if your eyes are <= 18 inches from the screen. At arms-length I hardly notice it, and even when I do, I stop noticing it within a minute of working. I tend to spend more time concentrating on what I'm using my laptop for than minute details of the laptop itself.

 

The best way to solve this debate is side-by-side comparison. Nobody in their right mind would pick some of the Lenovo supplier panels if given a choice of something better for the same price. The real problem is that this decision sits in the hands of many procurement departments where the issue becomes a number.

 

No disagreement there. It might be a supply problem though -- random shortages/inability to supply a given quantity aren't exactly unknown in the LCD panel world...

 

I'm interested if someone can swap the Alienware M14x's 1600x900 screen into the T420/s. It's the only 14.1" 1600x900 screen I've heard of with a contrast ratio above 500:1 (unlike the mediocre ~164:1 of the T420/s screens)

 

It would work?? the AW is an 14.1 and the t420 are 14.0 inches. Would be awesome if posible.


As for me, I've just bought one T420 because it was a good deal.

specs:

i5 2520m, 4gb (probably upgrading to 8gb if it comes with 1x stick), 1366x768, 9 cell, 160gb (replacing it with an wd scorpio black 500gb that I already own)

all for 600 euros (i'm from spain), new with 3 year warranty. About 1300-1400 at official store.. I will be able to save the taxes so it will end up at 500 euros ^^

My first thoughts were to wait until Ivy Bridge comes out and have native usb3.0 and better hd intel graphics, but I think it's worth the price.


I'm gonna recieve the laptop on monday, so haven't checked the screen yet. Would preffered the HD+ rather than the HD but was the only one available.


Will test the screen and if it doesn't convince me I will upgrade it for the LG one, as for now it's the best for the T420 right? Also i'm not sure if it will be some problems putting an 1600x900 on an original hd config, prob not.

But my biggest concern is that I've read on youtube that if you replace the screen it voids the warranty. Is it true?? :/

 

If they are both 16:9 then they are most likely both the same size. However, I'm sure that somewhere in this forum we discovered that Lenovo whitelist the displays in the BIOS.

You would lose the warranty on the display because Lenovo didn't supply it and you can't expect Lenovo to cover any damage relating to the swap.

John

 

On the new display its obvious, but I mean on the whole laptop. Swapping the screen has nothing to do with the rest of hardware components..

 

To be on the safe side, keep the old display and swap it back before calling for warranty.

John

 

A bit pain in the but seems the best way to go, though I believe that the technician wouldn't care about the screen at all and its resolution... crap.

 

Just picked up a T420 to replace my X220, and I wanted to report that my unit came with the LP140WD2-TLB1 display panel, as indicated by HWiNFO64. This is the HD+ 1600x900 display.

I had read reports of the bad displays on the T420, and I figured I had the older kind of display. The contrast ratio is horrible, and I can notice the gridding. The viewing angle is also bad. I was spoiled by the X220's IPS display, but this computer is more ergonomic for me and has a better overall feature set (better trackpad, the most important for me).

I wanted to do this display swap, but I guess I already have the newer display in it. That makes me sad, since this isn't that good of a display to begin with, and it makes me wonder just how bad the old AUO ones were.

 

Well, I'm glad the swap fixed your griddiness problem. But I'm disappointed to hear that the viewing angles, contrast and colors aren't any better with that panel. The griddiness isn't a problem to me, but rather the incredibly sh!tty viewing angles, contrast and color are distracting.

 

why is it that Thinkpads still doesn't support full HD? it seems only Sony has gone down that path.

 

It's sad that Thinkpads have always had amazing build quality and input devices, but (with a few exceptions) have had really awful screens. The screen on my T61 was so washed out it was a joke.

 

The T520/W520 have an option for 1920x1080 screens.

 

Sony has FHD in a 13 inch screen. Gorgeous display but it's in a flimsy Sony Z shell...

 

I don't know of any 14.1" displays with a 1920x1080 resolution though, and Lenovo's track record with custom-made, single-vendor panels is... well who are we kidding? It's lousy.

 

I have no issues with my W510 or my T61p displays, so they can do better they just need to apply it across all series.

 

You're W510 probably has the same display as my T510, the FHD RGBLED 95% color gamut one. That display is epically awesome, and I love it. Unfortunately, the lower res displays have gotten worse in quality. The difference between my T510 and T420 is night and day.

Though, after calibrating the T420 display with the information from this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/lenovo-ibm/571870-eureka-t420-screen-problem-partially-solved.html , I've been much more pleased with my display. Still not as good as the T510 or X220, but much better.

 

I will probably break down and buy the T420s. But, I sure hope Lenovo or someone produces a 13 - 14 inch light weight with a great display.

 

I think you could make a pretty good argument the lower resolution displays have gotten better. While the contrast and viewing angles are about the same, they're brighter, which does help with readability. I'm always surprised when people say things have gotten worse. The displays, outside of the FlexViews, have always been crappy. It's this way for most notebooks. Go to a store and see for yourself.

 

Heck I think that the rose-colored glasses make the older displays look better.

Seriously though -- I've owned the majority of ThinkPads produced since the mid 90s. Displays now, even the "garbage" ones are better than they used to be. A lot better.

The 600X, widely regarded as the "peak" of the line, has a horrible display assembly by the standards of most folks here. It is sensitive to direct lid pressure, deforms easily, and houses a display that offers poor color inversion, low brightness, and a low contrast ratio.

I get the sense that if it weren't for the fact that it was made by IBM in Mexico and produced some ten years ago, it'd absolutely be held up here as an example of "the Chinese cheapening the brand".

 

I have T420, with screen 1366x768. I intend to replace the screen with higher resolution 1600x900.

Is this just plug n play replacement? Or do I have to configure something in BIOS or OS? or Is it possible at all?

Bozop, I read that you planned to change the screen also. Have you try it? was it successfull?

Regards

 

I would like to know the answer to that as well

 

I too have a 1366x768 panel in my t420, and want to replace it with the highest possible resolution screen, which i believe is 1600x900, has anyone tried this. Thanks

 

My T420s came with the AUO panel. I read lots of scaring posts here about that panel, and they proved to be correct. The screen's quality is BAD, especially the screen door effect and the grainy picture. I ordered a genuine samsung panel from ebay, now waiting for it to arrive. I will shoot some photos, comparing the two panels so we can make some assumptions...

 

I'm really curious what the difference will be between these two displays, so report back if you could; I have the Samsung panel, and yes, I can see some griddiness but nothing to bother me. It's just an ok display, I'm not disappointed nor excited using it. I'm wondering if this "T420/s display quality issue" it is not a little bit "overrated".

 

It depends what you compare the display with. For example, see the photos here that show my T420s alongside a Samsung NP900X3B.

John

 

I've been searching for this answer too! I have swapped screens from 1366x768 to a 1600x900 screen and when I restarted the computer the 1600x900 screen was barely legible. Although it did automatically adjust the resolution to the higher res screen it wasn't working properly. Was also wondering if there were updates (bios?, drivers?, ???) that would need to be done to make it work properly.
Thank you for your help.
-awry

 

I've done a panel replacement surgery on my T500. I haven't had an issue with griddiness (not sure if there isn't or just doesn't bother me), but I've been bothered by washed-out and inaccurate colours for ad-hoc photo viewing and editing while away from the external IPS Dell U3011. Calibration using the native white point would improve things a bit with non-colour-managed programs; but Lightroom color management would make certain vivid colours look radioactive due to saturation in the reds and blues.
The original was Samsung LTN154P3-L02 matte.
I've swapped it for a LG LP154WE2 TLA5, also matte because I prefer it for work. Roughly following the advice in an older post where a TLA3 glossy one was used.
It turned out there wasn't as much improvement as I was hoping for. The white point is a bit better, native 6500K, but the colour response looks just about as much twisted, the reds still suppressed.
Contrary to the OP I have better colour experience with a glossy AUO, which is relatively similar to the failed (vertical stripes) original panel sold as Toshiba TruBrite 6-yrs-or-so ago. So I'm getting inclined to believe that the glossy anti-reflex finishes are directly related to the better colour gamut on "standard" laptop panels (although the IPS U3011 doesn't seem to have any problem being matte).
Notice these are all older CCFL-backlit panels. I'd gladly choose an IPS FlexView or some fresh RGBLED backlit new wonder praised at Anandtech, but I gather the old IPSs are not available and the new LEDs are incompatible.

 

Hi awry, did you find out what was wrong with the new display you installed? Did you manage to correct the screen image quality? I ask because I was thinking of doing the same thing on my T420...

 

Hi VonFeffer,

I was in England when I tried to do this upgrade and wasn't happy with the replacement screens that I tried to upgrade to and nothing was working. Long story - short. I had a T520 and a T420 (still have T420) that both had the lower res screens, and I thought the problem was the quality of screens I was trying to use to upgrade (they were the AUO screens) so I finally sold the T520. (sold mainly because it was so big and at that resolution almost impossible to use)
In late October 2012, now I'm back in the US and I ordered this display, LG PHILIPS LP140WD2(TL)(B1), to see if I could get the 1600x900 screen to work. Well, I ordered it and plugged it in --- same thing happened. See this pic and this pic
The screen was just not working right - as in unbelievably grainy. I tried booting it in Ubuntu -- same thing. Searched for white listed bioses.. and luckily never pursued that much.
So, today after thinking about what could be the differences I looked at the cable part numbers and I found this post and am hoping this will solve the problem. I just ordered the cable off of ebay since the lenovo parts website said it was $27 and possibly 4 weeks to ship! (I found it on ebay for ~$20, and ships tomorrow).
Apparently the T420 with 1366x768 uses the FRU of 04W1619
and the T420 with 1600x900 uses the FRU of 04W1618
So according to seang86s's post we should be able to buy the HD+ LCD cable 04W1618 and that will finally make the upgrade possible to go from 1366 x 768 to 1600 x 900. I wish we could go more

Well, I should have probably waited until I get the cable installed to report back but I think it's going to work. I hope

Sorry for the delay getting back to you.
-awry

 

I installed the 04W1618 LCD cable (HD+ cable) on my T420 today to upgrade the display from 1366 x 768 (HD) to 1600 x 900 (HD+) and it worked! I also just realized I ordered the glossy display instead of the matte - not sure if I'm going to love the reflection it puts off or not. We'll see how that goes.

If anybody else searches for how to upgrade a T420 screen I hope they find this thread. I did plenty of searching before looking at the obvious issue of the LCD cable not being the same. To upgrade a T520 screen apparently the cable is the same - and others have successfully upgraded by simply plugging the new display in. (I didn't have that luck with my T520 upgrade)

Cheers,
-awry

 

Great to hear this awry. Please report the graininess status of your new panel as I'm looking to upgrade mine as well.

 

The LG PHILIPS LP140WD2(TL)(B1) I ordered is really good. I don't find it grainy but I'm probably not as particular about that as others. This is the gloss display and I don't like it. I find myself squinting to reduce the glare when I work in a room with different light sources (natural light windows or even different lamps). I may change to the matte finish since I don't recall fighting the effects of reflections on the screen. The biggest thing for me was getting away from the crap resolution of a 1366 x 768 display. (I'm just surprised Lenovo even put that out as a product - especially on the bigger 15" laptops)

 

Hi awry,

Before you replaced the lcd cable, did the screen have a slight blue tint ?

 

Yes I believe it had a blue tint to it. It's been about two years but that blue tint sounds right.
good luck