Sony Vaio S13 IPS Display Mod

This thread outlines the procedure to swap out the stock VAIO S (SVS13A290X) 13.3” 1600x900 TN LCD panel with an LG 13.3” 1600x900 IPS LCD panel (model LP133WD2-SLB2).

Purpose : The quality of the stock TN panel (Chimei Innolux model N133FGE-L31) is disappointing, at best, due to its low viewing angles, harsh blue tone, low saturation, low contrast ratios and grainy anti-reflective coating. This is an attempt to replace the display with a better quality IPS panel.

Here we go. First you will need to purchase the new display panel. I bought mine off Ebay, your results may vary. The LP133WD2-SLB2 has a 40-pin dual LVDS connection on the lower-right portion of the panel, when viewed from the back. The connector matches the stock display, so no need to modify the cable (I wouldn’t have known how to do it anyway). There are different models of the display and at least one other user (wwiktor) has used another version successfully in this mod (LP133WD2-SLB1). There are portions of the panel’s circuit board that will need to be cut because it is too wide to fit the bezel’s cavity.

Update (4/20/13): The LP133WD2- SLB1 fits much better in the original display cavity, so a lot less cutting is needed. When available, purchase the SLB1 instead of the SLB2 and most of the work will be done already.



I will not detail the procedure to open up the body of the S13. That might be in another post. You can follow almost the exact same procedure as in wizzardxexe’s post here. Make sure you disconnect the battery and power adapter before you open the laptop! Get at least to the point where you have the keyboard assembly removed, then work on the bezel.

The bezel can be opened without full disassembly of the laptop by unscrewing two screws on the bottom left and right of the display, underneath the rubber pads. Using a wooden or plastic spudger, you can carefully pry open the bottom of the display first, then free the bezel working your way up using inward pressure to free the clips along the side and upward pressure to free the clips on the top.



The front portion of the bezel is attached to the original panel with a thin strip of adhesive along the bottom of the screen. Carefully pull the 40-pin connector straight out of the socket and the bezel/LCD unit will be free. Separate the bezel apart from the LCD slowly to release the adhesive. The carbon-fiber back portion of the screen can be removed by unscrewing the six large-headed screws on the hinges. Draw an outline of the metal hinge on the carbon fiber panel with a permanent marker before you remove it from the body. This will remind you where to cut the new lcd panel. The wifi antennas peel-off and the webcam just pulls straight out.



You can use this opportunity to connect the new panel to the display cable. Plug in and turn on the computer to see if it works properly. You’ll need to reassemble the keyboard assembly if you want to fully boot into your OS. If everything looks good (check for dead/stuck pixels, orangegate), you can proceed to modifying the back panel.



Once the back portion is removed, place it flat on your workbench and start removing the raised “frame” that used to hold the old LCD panel in place. You will need to remove everything highlighted red in the picture. You do not want to remove the “standoffs” that are used grab the bezel’s clips. They will be used later to hold the new panel in place.



I thought that I could sand-off the frame with a dremel cutting wheel, but the carbon fiber “melts” from the friction. I ended up just taking a pair of pliers and grabbing the frame in its teeth while rocking it back and forth to break it off like how metal fatigues under stress. The rest of the frame can be whittled away with a sharp X-acto knife. The new LCD will sit on this surface, so make sure it’s level all around.



Carefully cut and remove the foil from the bottom left and right portions of the LCD circuit board. You will expose the portions of the board that will need to be removed. Thankfully there is no active circuitry in this area, it’s just all grounding and the screws are for strain relief. Unscrew the two screws that hold the board in place. They will not be needed anymore. Now lay the LCD panel back in the carbon fiber backing and use the marks you made earlier around the hinge to mark the portion of the circuit board you need to cut. You will need to cut either a triangular shape off of the circuit board to make it fit around the hinge or just cut off the whole edge at a diagonal, following the top side of the hinge. You will need to cut off a diagonal on the left side of the panel to allow the rerouting of the webcam cable.



The next step is to release some slack in the display cable since the connector on the new LCD is further to the left side of the bezel. Begin by disconnecting the cable on the motherboard end. Pull the plastic tab on the connector straight up and it should snap off. Hold the motherboard down with your other hand because it takes some force to pull the cable off. Now you need to free the motherboard from the laptop base. You will need to remove the optical drive first, then eight screws outlined in red. After doing this, you can carefully lift up the motherboard from the fan, just enough to release the display cable from underneath. Pull up on the display cable as you gently lift the motherboard up. You don’t need to take the whole motherboard off (there are other wires that prevent you from doing this). Pry off the plastic clip that sits on the hinge and the cable can be fully released. Adjust the length of slack necessary to reach the display connector, then place it back into the hinge and underneath the motherboard. Snap the connector back into the motherboard and replace the plastic clip.



Re-attach the WiFi antennas and webcam and route the cables in their original positions on the back display frame. Here is where it gets tricky because you have to reroute the webcam cable underneath the metal hinge while re-screwing the back frame on. Check and see if there are any other portions of the frame that need to be cut off in order to do this properly. After you have the back frame screwed in, connect the display to the LVDS cable and set it in place within the back frame. The portions of the circuit board you’ve cut out should match the contours of the hinge.



On the plastic bezel, there are clips along the sides of the frame that formerly engaged with the “standoffs” you cut in the display backing. There is not enough room for these clips to engage anymore because the LCD panel is wider than the original. You can still use these clips to somewhat secure the sides of the bezel to the display backing, however. Use a Dremel sanding wheel to shave down the clips so that they are thin enough to fit in the small gap between the standoffs and the LCD panel. There are also some clips along the bottom edge and top edge of the bezel that need to be cut off with an X-acto knife. After you’ve done a dry fitting and everything seems to fit with no bezel-bulging, secure the LCD to the back panel with double-sided tape. Then place some double-sided tape along the bottom edge of the LCD screen, just like on the original LCD. Snap the plastic bezel back onto the display backing, starting with the bottom and work your way up.



Remove the protective plastic film that covers the new LCD display before snapping the bezel back on. Reassemble any remaining parts and confirm that everything functions correctly.



Good Luck!


Addendum:

If you happen to hook up your display and the backlight ceases to work, then you may have forgotten to disconnect the battery and power cable when you disconnected or replaced the LVDS cable. The following images show the location of the fuses which may have blown during the process. Either replace the fuses or just bridge the connection with some solder to get the backlight working again.

 

Extremely impressive ! Thanks for the detailled walkthrough !

 

Impressive work! Do you happen to know the part number of your LVDS display cable? I'd like to perform a similar mod to a VPC-SB series laptop, which comes with a 1366x768 screen and it most likely comes with a single channel LVDS cable (so that would need to be replaced as well).

 

This is more than Brilliant, It's perfect

Thank you so much Mr Prone!!!

 

This is for sure a great guide! I have a question, though. Do you think same replacement could be done with the basic 1366x768 screen? I'm hesitant to try, because it's obviously different for low and high res. screens. I want to try it so bad, but I'm hesitant the computer simply won't accept a higher resolution? Do you have any info on that?

How does Vaio Z screen fits in there? It's 0.2 inch difference, I have an opportunity to buy a Vaio Z 1980 x 1080 display. but I would not be able to return it if it doesn't fit, so I don't really know if i should take the risk, the display obviously is pricey.

 

I just found out that the replacement part number is V030 LVDS 2CH CABLE (A1841202A) and the existing is V030 LVDS 1CH CABLE.

But the service department of Sony Europe (after requesting the S/N of my laptop) informed me that they are not allowed to sell a different replacement part than the one that the laptop is originally equipped with! This means that unless I find something on e-Bay I have to stick with the lousy stock TN panel.

I think I had enough with Sony, I am switching back to Lenovo for next purchases. To my experience, they have much more open policies on their hardware.

 

Amazing mod! Congratulations

So who's gonna IPS/VA mod the Z Series?

 

I would just like to say this is brilliant and I take off my hat for you. :thumbsup:

Now who is going to put his hands on the screen in this beauty and put it in their S13P.
13,3" Full HD and probably IPS too, going by the 350 nits brightness and 178 degrees viewing angle.

 

Awesome mod.

This panel costs $150 retail. Why doesn't Sony put this in the next S and charge a $300 premium? I would gladly pay. It would turn the S into a worthy successor to the Z.

 

Here's the label on the LVDS cable. It's a highly custom-made cable. There's absolutely no strain relief on this cable except for the flimsy metallic grounding tape they coat the thing with. Make sure you grab the tape firmly and pull it straight out to prevent damage.

I doubt you could just replace the 1 Ch cable with the 2 Ch one and expect the 1600x900 display to work on a unit designed for the 1366x768. Wouldn't the laptop side have to be wired differently? I'm surprised Sony even gave you the actual part number! Good detective work, though.

 

My thoughts exactly.

 

there should be a DIP switch on the motherboard which specifies what kind of LCD panel is attached to it. with the correct DIP switch setting and the correct cable, the 1366x768 panel on the 2011 SB model was successfully swapped for a 1600x900 of the SA.

 

Thanks for the info about the dip switches! I did a similar replacement once, putting an IPS higher res. panel on a ThinkPad T500 system by just changing the LVDS cable (on that system the motherboard retrieved the resolution settings through the EDID automatically).

Do you know the dip switch arrangement for swapping the 1366x768 with the 1600x900 panel? This is a VPC-SB series laptop and the arrangement I currently see for the stock 1366x768 screen (from 1 to 4) is 0,1,0,0.

Thanks.

 

Thanks for the help prone, I've just did the mod on my laptop. I got the screen from LaptopScreens.coml , it was cheaper than the guy on eBay and they were in Canada so I did not had to pay crazy FedEx broker fees. Actualy I bought two, just in case I hd a problem with one of the screen. Unfortunately for me, the first one had a big dead pixel. Well, a pixel is a pixel, this one is big because it looks like a couple of pixels all dead together at the same spot.

The second screen also have dead pixels, but only 2, and they're not as dark as the BIG dead pixel of the first screen, they're more grey, they look like dust, do I don't really see them unless I'm looking at a white background.

Does your LP133WD2-SLB2 had any dead pixels? I feel unlucky, 2 out of 2 had some, and since they're less than 8 dead pixels, they're under the ISO norm so I cannot return them has defective item.

Anyways, It does make a HUGE difference. The grainyness of the stock screen is GONE!!! It is just amazing how this screen looks good. I agree that the brightness is less than the stock screen, but I don't care since I was finding the stock screen too bright. This LG-Philips is what I'm used too in term of brightness with my old MacBook Pro. But colors are so great. This is my first IPS panel, I've always had TN panels in the past, but oh god the difference this does! I also prefer the matte finish of the new screen more than the stock screen. The stock screen was reflective as hell, even if it was a "anti-glare" screen. The stock screen was more like a glossy screen with a filmsy anti-glare on it. The LP133WD2-SLB2 is a REAL matte screen, what a difference.

I've been using the laptop with the new screen for 4 hours now and havn't got tired to look at it. With the stock screen my eyes were crying (no joke) and I had to take breaks.

I also find the laptop a little heavier, but this is so light compared to my old MacBook Pro, I don't give a lol. I havn't tested the battery life yet, I'm always on power cable anyway and have set my battery to not recharge over 50%.

Your instructions were good, but I had problem with the re-assembly. The right hinge cover where the LVDS cable goes through especially. I had so much trouble putting it back that I ended up broking the exterior of the hinge cover on hte back side of the display. I'll provide pictures for everyone as soon as I find my phone charger cable. Getting the bottom of the front plastic bezel to clip with the back cover was also a pain in the butt. I think I had to restart the procedure 4 times before getting it, and each attempt took me at least 5 minutes of play to make it fit. Each time I had one side, but not the other, and vice-versa.

I also had to completely shave down the clips along the side of the front plastic bezel because there was not enough rooms to engage than with the back cover. I could engage them only on one side (left) of the display, but this was puching the screen more to the right, so it wasn't centered anymore. So I decided to shave down the whole clips. The front bezel is now holding with the bottom clips and screws and the top clips. For the sides, I have a temporary fix with electric tape. It's quite simple and effective, I'll provide pictures also of this. I'll have to find some transparent tape to replace that electric tape.

For the bottom of the front plastic bezel, I havn't used anything at the moment. But I'll have to use some 2 sided tape like you did. What's funny enough, is that the stock screen had the 2 sided tape, but the glue of the stock tape used couldn't handle the heat coming from the exhaust of the laptop, so I already had the swelling on top of the SONY logo. I'm thinking of some king of aluminium tape right now, but 2 sided. What tape did you use or would you recommend?

Another note, I havn't had to tape my screen to the back of the display cover. The screen fitted perfectly between the standoffs on the sides, and thesmall clips on top and bottom that you didn't cut down. So basically, what makes the screen hold, is the front plastic bezel and those littles clips and stanoffs from the back cover. No glue, no tape, and it doesn't moves.

One last thing I did ddifferently, was the rerouting of the Webcam cable. Your way was too painful for my nerve, each time I tried to put the webcam cable under the left hinge bracket, the Wi-Fi cables were coming out and I was goind mad. I opted to go aroung that bracket and pass it just on top of the screw. There's a small space between the screw and a clip that we didn't cut down. I'll provide a picture too of this.

I'll also have to look for some glue to hold the rubberpad on the two screws at the bottom of the screen. At the moment they're holding, even if there's no glue at all, but I do not want to lose them while traveling. Right now it's freaking cold up here in Quebec, the temperature difference between outdoor and indoor could make the rubberpad fell easily. Do you have any suggestion for the glue to use? I'd prefer something that do not destroy carbon fiber and bond easily with metal and rubber.

On a side note, I've tried to use the laptop without the battery, and it works like any "normal" laptop with a removable battery. I might start using my laptop without the battery, this would make it lose some weight.

Thanks,
Phil

 

Hey Phil, Congrats on the mod and thanks for the suggestions! Can't wait to see the pics of your new screen.

My screen also has some stuck pixels (no dead pixels), but they are barely noticeable and only on a black screen. There's also a strange red pixel that shows up from time to time...not sure what's up with that. My feeling is that the secondary distributors we got our screens from may be selling lower grade stock from the manufacturer and that's why they can sell at such a price point. I have never in my life seen an a laptop or phone screen with dead pixels before...I thought those were history. Like you said though, the overall screen quality far outweighs any of these imperfections though.

If your bezel is bulging on the sides, you might want to re-check the webcam and wifi cable routing. Sometimes the wires might ride on top of each other causing increased thickness. Also, the metal mounting tabs on the screen itself might be adding a bit more thickness to the bezel.

As for the tape, I just used some Scotch permanent double-sided tape. I had also thought about re-using the adhesive that was on the original panel. The original adhesive is basically a very sticky tape. You can use a chunk of it for attaching the rubber pads back on the screws. I tried this and the rubber pads have not fallen off since.

 

I finally had time to take some pictures. Here they are: https://picasaweb.google.com/117887570503925809876/SonyVaioS13IPSScreenMod .

I will take pictures of the rerouted webcam cable the next time I open up the screen again, right now I am lazy. I've added comment below each pictures so that you know what exactly I met in my previous post.

As you can see, the swelling is below the screen, where the SONY logo is actually is. The sides of the bezel are ok, If I remove the tape they will swel, not because of the cables, but simply because I shaved off completly the clips that used to hold down the bezel to the back cover.

 

interesting...
Thanks

 

Can anybody confirm you can actually see the bios screen after the mod? I am just testing the new LG IPS panel, the panel just lid up sony logo for 1 second then goes into totally black (seems no power), then it lid up again and stays when goes into windows desktop. it is working completely fine under windows but the panel seems cannot lid up in dos mode. very strange.

 

Mine does that whenever I boot up since I installed Win 8 (unless you mean you're trying to get into the BIOS config and it just boots to Windows instead?)

 

For those interested, I sucessfully performed a similar mod on a Vaio VPC-SB(3S9E) laptop. For this, I needed the following materials:

1) A LP133WD2(SL)(B1) panel as I could not find the LP133WD2(SL)(B2), which is supposed to come with a narrower bezel.
2) A 2-channel LVDS cable, replacing the stock 1-channel LVDS cable. The part number for the new cable was: V030 LVDS 2CH CABLE (A1841202A). It was quite expensive too.

In contrast to the SVS13A290X mod described above, I did not cut any parts of the panel. Instead, I cut the internal frame of the lid in order to accommodate the slightly bigger (on the down side) panel inside the lid. It was actually impossible to cut the panel board itself for the VPCSB mod as it would result in cutting parts of the panel board's circuitry, rendering it useless. Cutting the lid was unfortunately the only solution here. A dremel did the job fine.



After modifying the lid, the next step was to replace the LVDS cable with the 2-channel equivalent and modify the dip switches on the board for the higher resolution display. The original dip switch positions for the 1366x768 panel were at positions 0100. For the 1600x900 panel, the positions were changed to 0010 as also shown in the picture.

Just an extra word of advice. If you decide to perform this mod, unplug power and also remove the laptop's battery before doing anything, as it is quite easy to burn the display fuse by just unplugging your existing panel! This actually happened to me and I had to completely remove the mainboard (as the fuse lies on the down side of the board) and replace the SMD fuse.

When everything was finished, the display results, were actually impressive. Realistic colours, impressive contrast and much better viewing angles!

 

Can any of you guys who replaced their screens please take a moment to check the Vaio Z thread where the Vaio Z screen is shown?

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/561458-sony-vaio-vpcz1-lcd-replacement-disassembly-guide.html

It's only Z1, but as I considered to buy it once and saw it in person, I get the impression the screen quality was better than the S13? I got my S13 and while the screen is bearable on its own, it hurts my eyes seeing it next to the old RGB LED screen of the Dell M6400. The brightness is noticeably lower and the contrast is dreadful.

Seems like the Z1 screen is of the same format and it would make an easy fit. I seem to recall it was 1600x900, but can't remember much else. Still trying to find photos of a Z2 or Z3 disassembled..

 

I'm considering the mod myself, but worried about dead pixels. Can't bear even one. I noticed this:
Original !! Brand New A+ LP133WD2 SLB2 N133FGE L31 LP133WD2 SLB1 LP133WD2 SLB2 LP133WD2 SLB1 LP133WD2SLB1 LCD Screen-in Laptop LCD Screen from Computer & Networking on Aliexpress.com
which is cheaper than most ($106 incl. shipping to USA from China).
They claim "All LCD screens that we sell are ZERO DEAD PIXEL and ZERO SPOT. Other vendors sell screens which has dead pixels and spot.".
is this too good to be true?

Thanks

 

There's only one way to find out for sure Some people seem to have got burned, but most seem pleased so it might be worth a shot. I would also hate to go through all the installation troubles and then have dead pixels.

 

If the seller is in China, forget about it, everything I bought from a chinese seller, either on AliExpress or eBay, have always been bad products. And since shipping back the parts to China cost a lot, they know we won't ask for a refund and return.

To answer your question, having bought 2 screens + the one of prone, this makes 3 out of 3 screens of the same model with dead pixel bought at differrent places. I would think that LG-Philips have manufacture problems with this LCD panel.

Back in 2005, I used to work for a small local computer retailer, and I remember that we used to have one model of Philips desktop LCD monitor in stock and customers were all returning them back because of dead pixels. I think this panel might be manufactured at the same Philips factory.

If you can find out what laptop model ships with this LG-Philips panel, then you could check user reviews to see if they have lots of dead pixels on their laptop. But based on the 3 screens we got me and prone, it doesn't look good.

 

As kanuk said, this is the normal behavior of the Windows 8 based BIOS. They only way you'll be able to get into BIOS, is if you shutdown the computer completely, and then push the Assist button instead of the power button. This will boot the computer into a boot menu which will allow you to enter BIOS, boot from DVD, boot from USB and other things.

 

Well guess what, my cat jumped on my laptop while the lid was closed and it totaly destroyed my newly installed screen...

So I've taken the webcam cable rerouting image while I was re-opening the computer. I also added a picture of my broken screen.

https://picasaweb.google.com/117887570503925809876/SonyVaioS13IPSScreenMod

Now I just found out that the extra LP133WD2-SLB2 I had ordered (the one with the "BIG" dead pixel, as been thrown into the garbage by my girlfriend... she though it was the old Innolux panel that came with the laptop. Guess with what screen I'm writing this on? Yup, you guessed right, the grainy fuzzy stock Innolux!

This is not my day... need to order another screen. I would have had spent a third of the laptop value now just in screen extra, this is crazy!! Next time I buy a laptop with a good stock screen, I'm so pissed.

 

Dude, sorry for your bad luck. Damn cats (and girlfriends who like to clean)!

On the bright side, if you order a new LG panel, maybe you'll get a screen with no dead pixels!

 

That really sucks man.
I am wondering though, you cut away quite a bit of the bezel.

 

Yeah, maybe third luck's a charm? But, can someone take a look at the Z1 disassembly link I posted please? It seems there's some electronics on the bottom left which might be in the way for the installation in the S13 chassis.. So, if someone can verify that, it would be great. Thanks in advance.

BTW, what height did she jump from? I have the S13 and two cats so I need to know how sensitive the lid is.. Couldn't have Sony just install some aluminum panel on the lid?

 

Hi all,
Can anyone tell me how to identify what type of fuse the motherboard require or value it is? Where can I buy the fuse? While I was checking if the new screen worked fine, I unplug the connector without unplugging the power supply. So now my motherboard fuse is blown. If anyone can help me, it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

Are there any 1080p screens that will work with the SVS13? I just upgraded my Z1 from it's 1600x900 to 1920x1080 and now I'm wondering if the S13 could be upgraded to 1080 as well. Input would be awesome! Thanks.

 

Haha, that's exactly what I though. I ordered 2 other screens (one extra just in case), I should receive them later today. But something tells me that I'll have dead pixels.

In the meantime, I fixed one of the problem I had with my S13 with the hinge back cover coming out. When I disassembled the display, I noticed that the pin that used to clip with it(in the interior of the back cover of the display) was gone. I used epoxy glue to make the repair instead.

I've also decided to put my cat on a diet. :hi2: , It's my way of getting back at him.

@ijozic: The height was about 2'6". The laptop was on my bed (a futon that is almost on the floor level) and the cat was on my bedside table (they don't make bedside table that low in height!!)

 

+1, because that would be awesome.

 

My laptop is now repaired : https://picasaweb.google.com/117887570503925809876/SonyVaioS13IPSScreenMod#5855269897844604914

For those of you guys wondering if there's a 1080p panel compatible with the S13 Premium, I've read about this question on another thread, I think it was in the official thread for S13 2012 owners.

In this thread, all the 1080p screens were 13.1 inches, but the S13 use 13.3, so it might not fit correctly. Another user said that the pinout of the LVDS connector was not te same on the 1080p screen. I don't remember all the details, but if I find the post again, I'll post them here for your info.

 

Any dead pixels on that new one?

 

Oh, so it's not that high.. Or maybe the cat is overweight? Hmm, mine have jumped from about one feet on my wife's Samsung Series 9, but nothing happened to it (has the lid of the same thickness or even thinner than S13, but it's very rigid - maybe that's why the replacement screens I've seen all come together with the lid, maybe it's closed up solid).

 

No dead pixel noticed at the moment. I'll have to look at it more closely, but at least there's none easily noticeable like the 2 other display I had previously owned briefly. I ordered 2 panel just in case, but didn't try out the extra one once I saw that the first I tried was in perfect shape.

@ijozic: My cat is definately overwright, he most be between 15 and 20 lbs with a big belly. My father still got his two brothers and they're about 10 lbs each. They all have 3.5 years old. The funy thing, is that he only eat cat kibble and won't eat anything I gave him from the kitchen table. On the other hand, my father's two cats are eating a lot of table food: peperoni, smoked meat, minced meat, steak, even Doritos (original Nacho style), and don't overweight. But he is so lazy, always sleeping. Here's a picture of him sleeping on my old bed, if I would have kept this bed, I wouldn't have had this screen destroyed, who knew!

https://picasaweb.google.com/117887570503925809876/SonyVaioS13IPSScreenMod#5855313171682972530

 

Awesome recovery on the screen. Put the cat on a diet.

 

Where did you buy this LCD? Care to get rid of the other one?

That's an enormous cat!

 

I bought the screens from laptopscreen.com . You need to specify on the order page a note that you need the exact model you're ordering, otherwise they're sending a compatible screen with the same specs. It's mentioned somewhere in their policy.

I'll keep the extra screen I ordered just in case my fat cat destroys my laptop again.

 

LMFAO That's so funny, I'm so posting this on my facebook page!

 

After thoroughly destroying my bezel as well as one display, finally got this sucker modded. Man I've missed IPS display viewing angles. Thanks a lot for the guide!

As for battery life, I'm pretty sure the display brightness will probably make the battery life drop a fair amount (I'm pretty sure the backlight is about the same brightness, IPS just lets through less light)

Photos soon.

 

Photos of viewing angles (very little gamma shift as you can see):



Destroyed Bezel held together only with Electrical tape:


Small Defect on my new Screen:


I actually had another dead pixel, but it seems to have gone away after warming up.

So it turns out I didn't have to mod either the hinge or the screen at all! The silvery stuff is still 100% intact on the screen. Slight bulge at the bottom of the bezel but everything still fits ok.

 

How did you destroy the bezel? I see that you need tape on top of the display, you broke the locking-pins on top ? I got the same bulge at the bottom, but I don't care aobut it, I simply make sure no dust/pet hait goes into it. If you didn't mod the bezel at all, how can you have no bulge on the sides? I had to sand off the locking pins on the sides, otherwise I would have had bulge on the sides. did you leave the screen in the metal frame or did you remove it from the metal frame?

PS: Just finished Mass Effect by the way, what a great serie, but I found ME3 lenght short compared to the two other title of the franchise. I'll get the DLCs when they come on sales.

 

Yeah I managed to break off almost all of the locking pins by trying to jam them in lol go figure. So yeah, there's no more locking pins. The screen remains in the metal frame (if you mean the foily stuff).

Also ME3 was short, but it still rocked

 

So I'm having trouble adjusting the brightness of the new screen; it doesn't change no matter what I do. Also, when I boot up into BIOS, nothing shows up on the screen. Anyone else have this problem/have a fix?

Also, the screen is doing some kind of funny autobrightness adjusting. It's not related to the OS; I unchecked Adaptive Brightness in Power Options and checked and the brightness according to the OS stays the same when the brightness adjusts itself. Could this be related to the new HD4000 drivers?

 

First of all, congrats on the mod and joining the club!

Do you have an older Win 7 S13A? You might have the same problem as wwiktor, the original IPS modder. I believe he had a Win 7 version and he also couldn't get into the BIOS. Not sure about the screen brightness issue, though.

Maybe you could upgrade to a newer BIOS and see if that works. Don't do though if you have that 640M graphics mod!

 

Yeah I've got the original S13A. I guess I'll just have to live with my BIOS settings - shrugs -.

 

external screen?

 

Hmm, OK, I bit the bullet and ordered the SL-B1 (didn't have the B2 where I was checking). If it arrives on time and my friend brings it for me, I might have it in 20 days so we'll see.

Hopefully, it won't be plagued by dead pixels, but anything would be an improvement over this garbage they use on the S13A (maybe even that CLAA133UA01 - TN or not, my biggest problems with this screen are the screen door effect, occasional moire, extremely "dirty" look from the AR coating and obvious changes in contrast with slight movements of the viewpoint; even my 11" Acer which has a cheap glossy screen has a much more enjoyable picture quality than this piece of crap). I wonder what screen will be used in the Haswell refresh (if there's a Vaio S still)..