CF-51 Display

I have collected several used 51's and am starting to play musical parts to make one good working unit. The best display (UXGA) has a very noticeable orange tint to it. Is it the back-lighting going bad or what? I have another display that the LCD is broken but the lighting appears to be good. Can the LCD be separated from the back light and swapped?
I haven't torn into a display before and need a little advice before I start!
Two are federal units but the third has the antenna's for Wi-Fi. Have scrounged up a card that seems to be Linux supported. That's good as that's what I want to do.
Thanks JohnP

 

John , could you post your full model numbers, my guess you have a MK1+2 ? Check out the first link,it's the CF-51 F.A.Q. and the bottom one is for the MK3 (1.6 + 2.0 Core Duo) mod to Core 2 Duo . I have done a lot with the 51 but never had a screen problem. The wifi card is different between the MK1 and 3. I did just get a MK2 in yesterday but have not had a good look at it. Going to check out the inside of it later to see what is different between the MK's.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/529599-cf-51-f-q.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/526150-cf-51-cpu-upgrading.html

 

Please ignore this cause I don't know what I am talking about.


From what I have read a lcd with a color tint usually is a bad inverter. Yes you can disassemble the lcd and replace the backlight, but the backlight is a fluorescent tube that is about 1/8 inch in diameter and very fragile. Patience is in order. The inverters MAY be the same. Compare the numbers and see.

 

Ummm... NO.

Off color on an LCD is usually a sign of a failing CCFL (air has leaked inside or burned electrodes) tube, NOT the inverter. Inverters are usually go/no go with OCCASIONALLY a DIM/LOW BRIGHTNESS issue.

mnem
No glow.

 

Toughasnails, Here is what I am working on, a CF-51BFGDAKM, Toughbook says this, ***FEDERAL ONLY***Pentium M 1.7GHz, 15" UXGA, 128MB VRAM,1GB, 60GB, 56K, 1gig Ethernet NIC 10/100, NON-WIRELESS, COMBO drive, FDD, SmartCard, WIN XP.
Looks like a Mk1 Federal model.

Deere, I was thinking along that line as well... But it didn't work. Swapped inverter with broken UXGA display and it seems to be a tad brighter, but again, the 'red/orange' hue seems to be slowly going away, but that may be due to being used.

Last resort looks like I'm go along with Mnementh. I'm going to dissect the broken display to see how it's made to see if I can safely swap the lamps... If not, I'll just go with the bad lamp till something better comes along.. JohnP

 

I took the broken display and carefully dissected it. It appears the tube cannot be replaced by itself, the LCD panel has to be swapped out to the back lighting panel.
There are a lot of very tiny screws and areas that require the tape be replaced as it was but I think it might be doable. I'll try tomorrow when I'm not so tired and after a couple shots to steady the nerves! JohnP

Forgot to mention that the display has whitened up some as I let it run and 'warm up' a bit. Very definite dark areas on the far edges, that pretty well says the ends of the tube are getting burned.

 

John, Your 51 could use an upgrade....like a Core 2 Duo T7200. My T7200 2.0 runs some nice and it only cost me $40.00 too.

 

Yep, that's on my Christmas list....

 

Yeah, the reddish tinge is usually a symptom of a gassy tube; (insert Beavis heh-heh-heh here); as the tube warms up it will often get brighter and whiter due to internal ionization. Once the tube cools off, they return to the original state.

The good news is it still works; the bad news is it could fail completely in a week, a month or years depending on usage. It could also cause excessive current draw leading to inverter failure.

mnem
Inverted.

 

Well, I pulled it off!!!
I had the 'new' light panel ready so all I had to do was disassemble and swap out the 'red' light panel. The reassembly is a little more meticulous and time consuming but it was worth it! I saved myself at least $100 for a replacement panel!
The problem with using a used panel is the right edge is noticeably darker, just a bit. But for my use, that's OK. I booted up with Linux Mint 10 and it looks just fine.
Now I can go shopping for a caddy with the money I saved!
Then maybe I can start thinking about that T7200 for my CF-51 Mk3... JohnP