Re: [Thinkpad] 390E with red screen

At 05:47 PM 2/6/2006 +0100, Alex Wenzel wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I picked up a heavily disassembled 390E that was almost complete (hd and the
>little panel above the keyboard missing), and when I hat put it together
>(still with no hd), it booted up with a red (instead of black) background on
>the screen. The letters in the BIOS are still readable, though.
>My question: I this more likely to be a defective LCD panel, backlight or
>cable?
>I found some old posts concerning red screens, but with contradictory
>findings.
>
>Thanks in advance
>Alex

If the screen is orange-red, it's probably the backlight (CCFDs), which you
can replace if you're handy with hunting down replacement part numbers and
possibly a soldering iron as well. You might want to ask the person you
got it from if this problem suddenly showed up, or if it became worse over
time. If one of the signal wires is failing in the cable, the problem
would likely have come and gone more or less randomly, and jiggling the
signal wires might get the full colors back for a bit. If it's a failing
CCFD, the display will be orange-red when the laptop is first turned on,
and then become a normal white color after a couple seconds to a couple
minutes (with the orange-red time increasing as the CCFD progressively gets
older).

You'll need to disassemble part of the LCD panel housing to get access to
the CCFD tubes. The cause is the CCFD tubes are basically fluorescent
bulbs with an estimate 10,000 hour life, and they've worn out, even though
the LCD panel they're attached to is likely still fine. Replacement parts
cost about $20, and you'll want to be careful not to shock yourself with
high voltage from the inverter or get fingerprints on the LCD.

Here are some URLs to check out (the jkllamps link has links to several
other pages with howto photos):
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/38119/?o=40
http://www.jkllamps.com/index.cfm?action=fam&tid=2&fID=45
http://www.inventgeek.com/Projects/shorts/lcdfix.aspx

I believe JKLLamps will help people locate the proper CCFD replacement
parts even if the laptop/LCD model isn't specifically listed on their page,
and last I checked Thinkpads weren't listed so you'll need to measure the
CCFDs in your LCD panel.

If you do decide to replace the CCFD's, and it works for you, you might
consider creating a 'how-I-replaced-the-CCFDs' web page (or at least
sharing photos).

Good luck,

-Haudy
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Received on Mon Feb 6 14:45:59 2006