I'm not sure whether or not this thread belongs in this forum, as this forum appears to have more questions than anything else. If you're a mod of this forum, and you believe this thread belongs elsewhere, feel free to move it.
For a while, I've had an IBM Thinkpad T42p. It broke sometime in February due to the graphics chip on the motherboard becoming loose. I got it fixed about 3 weeks ago. Instead of buying a replacement motherboard for around $180, I was able to get it repaired for $45.
Since I was able to save a lot of money on the repair, I decided to perform a mod I've been dying to try. I wanted to do what
this guy did in which he installed the 2048x1536 (QXGA) LCD designed for a thinkpad R50p into his T43p (a model very similar to my laptop).
Having a 2048x1536 screen is like having 4 1024x768 (XGA) screens packed into one.
To make this work, I needed the QXGA display cable from the R50p and, of course, the QXGA screen.
I searched the model number for the LCD (IAQX10N) on ebay and found a few listings for around $140. They also had an option to make an offer. Then I searched the model number for the LCD cable (91P6837) and found a listing with 6 available selling for around $25 each. (these QXGA cables are hard to find)
Over time, I noticed they weren't selling any LCDs, so I decided to make a rather low offer of $85 and see if they accepted. They accepted the offer the next day, so I bought the LCD cable as well.
Once they arrived, I proceeded to disassemble my laptop. I removed both the keyboard and the keyboard bezel, and removed the entire screen assembly. I opened up the assembly and removed the 1600x1200 (UXGA) LCD and cable and replaced them with the new 2048x1536 screen and LCD cable. The new panel was thicker than the old one, and thus was harder to fit inside the LCD assembly since it wasn't even designed for my laptop.
Once I finished putting that back together, I temporarily connected it to the motherboard and started the computer up. I was amazed by how sharp the picture was. I now have 170 pixels-per-inch rather than the 133 pixels-per-inch I already had with my 1600x1200 screen. Most screens have around 85-100 pixels-per-inch.
There was one problem I had to solve before I could put the entire laptop back together. Since the small button that detects whether the laptop is closed or open is attached to the cable, I had to de-solder it because it was in a different place on the R50p cable than on the T42p cable. The solution
this guy came up with was to remove the small mechanism attached to the keyboard bezel that presses the button when the screen is closed, but I decided not to use that method, because I plan to attempt to re-solder the switch back onto the cable in the correct position for the T42p by using tiny wires to connect it.
After de-soldering the switch, I put the entire laptop back together and turned it on. After it completely booted up, I started using the computer with the new screen installed. I was slightly surprised at the fact that I could read the text with my eyes at a normal distance from the screen, because most people claim to have needed to increase the font size due to it being too small to read without being 12 inches from the screen.
Here are two screenshots of it, copied and pasted from the "post your desktop" thread
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/3984/desktop1v.jpg - my plain desktop... Yes, I'm still using the default background. (just a high-res version)
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/6245/desktop2r.jpg - lots of programs open
Here's a picture of the actual computer after the upgrade
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/4657/p1010053m.jpg
EDIT: someone wanted to see this:
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8772/wholeow.png - the entire OW editor open on the screen
EDIT2: I recently re-soldered the switch onto the proper location using small copper wires to connect the contacts.
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