Laptop Screen Upgrades

@ Aka Coo

Depending ont he laptop you can grab a 30 <> 40 cable that just snaps into place of the existing 30<>3- cable. I did this with my panel swap upgrading from FHD to 4K and it was painless other than pulling additional screws to route the cable through the hinge on the lid. The cable was ~$15 when I ordered the panel + cable from kreplacement.com Otherwise ordering elsewhere would require a delay in shipping arrival of both items. KR is a bit slow to respond to e-mails though so some patience is needed but, you get what you want and not some compatible model. If you have something specific in mind that they don't carry they can source it for you from another local vendor in CN. The issue then becomes if you can find the model # of the cable offering the 40 pin output. Otherwise there are adapters you can find as well as @Pedro69 did with his replacement.

 

@Tech Junky
https://tr.aliexpress.com/item/1005001876816611.html
I think this is a 30 to 40 & 40 to 30 converter adapter?

 

@ Aka Coo

Looks like an option. If you want to keep it simple ask kreplacement.com if they carry one or the actual cable that fans from 30 to 40. Less breaks in the path is more ideal if something goes haywire.

When I was panel shopping AE was a contender until I tried to place an order and then they wanted copies of my DL / CC front/back to process the order. I backed out and found another dealer but, then ended up with KR.

 

@Tech Junky
I sent an e-mail to KR and also sent a message from WP. Could you find a guide video or post about this suggestion and share it? So it's about replacing the screen of a 30pin laptop with a 40pin... :3

 

@ Aka Coo

The 30 pin EDP on the Laptop can handle higher pins on the output side to the panel.

It's really simple though it throws people for a loop trying to imagine how things connect. The main reason for putting a 40 pin connector on the panel side is to provide more bandwidth from the EDP connection.

Not all of the wires are used in these cables anyway or they would be significantly thicker and harder to route the way they do. If your GPU specs support x/y/z then it's up to the cable to provide the correct output pins to the panel.

For instance I have a GTX1650 GPU and my version of this particular laptop never came with a 4K option. I went hunting for the specs from the CPU/GPU/eDP to confirm they all supported a 4K panel being used even though it wasn't offered from Clevo. Moving from the CPU >>> Panel the chain was able to support 4K. Since I'm into details I had the part # of the OEM 4K option and supplied it to KR and they got one for me.

Replacing the panel / cable took ~15 minutes and fired right up. I needed to adjust the resolution and it was off to the races. Tricky part was threading the cable through the hinges along the same path but, take your time and it works out fine. You need to flip the laptop a couple of times / balances it on your knees / do a summersault / rub your head and tummy at the same time to get it done. JK it's really not difficult but you do have to flip it / balance it if you want to test the panel before putting everything back together. Sometimes cables don't seat all the way and then you're left pulling everything apart again to reseat a cable.

 

@Tech Junky
You are great my mate. You answered all my questions! I'm currently waiting for KR to reply to my email. I hope I succeed! <3

 

@Aka Coo

I'm sure you will. If you do a write up it might help others

 

I work on a laptop in the sun often. I hope to buy a HP ZBook 15 G5 with a low end FHD LCD and upgrade it to the highest end UHD LCD (600 nit) offered for this model. Apparently it's a B156ZAN03.3. I think I can persist to get a seller with the exact panel, yet I'm having difficulty finding anyone else who has done a FHD to UHD upgrade on this model.

HP service manuals seem to indicate the unit uses the exact same 40 pin cabling for all FHD and UHD offerings for this model. HP chat support advised the same. I'm excited this could be an easy upgrade. From what I understand this model is 1-2 years after HP ceased doing LCD whitelists. B156ZAN03.3 doesn't have different HW versions either so that shouldn’t be able to cause possible headaches. Since I'd be installing the exact LCD panel that corresponds to the OEM part, PWM brightness control issues shouldn't be a possibility.

Is there anything obvious I'm failing to consider about this effort?

I originally hoped to buy a Precision 7520 or 7530, but the limited 300 nit panel offerings and .4mm pin pitch limiting the options for upgraded panels ruled that out. I ruled out Lenovo P52 for other reasons.

 

Go on panelook and get the dimensions and you might be able to find something brighter in UHD. 600 though might be bright enough. Daylight though might need closer to 1000 to not wash out too bad. The one I went with is IIRC 500 and indoors I keep it at 50% or less.

 

Will do. Assuming this goes well, I'll likely setup my brother with a similar good laptop with upgraded LCD. What model laptop were you able to upgrade to that 500 nit panel?

 

It's a Clevo NH58RAQ. The panel I went with is NE156QUM-N66 And the write up is @ http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/nh58raq-np6855-screen-upgrade-experience.833976/

 

Epic write up. Good to know about kreplacement.com. Bummer that HDR isn't allowing full brightness with your setup. I've also observed HDR being a PITA with my PC/TV setup and regular PC monitors. I sure hope HDR with PCs becomes problem free in the coming years.

 

I'm not too worried about the HDR part as going from 262K colors to 1.x billion colors made quite the difference anyway. HDR in general even on my TV seems to be dim in comparison to not using it. Eventually they'll work out the kinks with some new acronym that costs more.

 

I am trying to see if I can put a QHD display on my laptop, particularly the B173QTN01.5 with eDP 1.4.

Right now, I have the N173HGE-E11 panel with eDP 1.2.

The current cable is a 30 pin eDP, and the new B173QTN01.5 is a 40 pin EDP. In theory, I could put a 40 pin display on my laptop as the 30 pin cable has two eDP lanes and the 40 pin is four lanes. But I am not expecting to run the B173QTN01.5 at 120Hz but 60Hz.

That being said, I bought a 30pin to 40pin adapter: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373582662757
https://photos.app.goo.gl/wwrRoc2v8y8ye95v8
But of course, it doesn't work!

Why?

When I put the adapter cable with the new display, the power adapter will always go dark as if there is some power surge or short.

The new display, in theory, does not consume more power than the old one.
https://www.panelook.com/modelcompare.php?ids=20840,39952

 

I attempted something similar and purchased that exact same adapter from that eBay seller. I imagined I would be able to connect a UHD 40 pin display with that adapter and a 30 pin EDP cable and just operate the UHD display at FHD 60hz resolution.

What happened was it burnt out a mosfet on my motherboard (Dell Precision 7510) within about 5-10 seconds of power on. Very very frustrating that EDP 4 lanes isn't necessarily downwards compatible to use just 2 lanes. My scenario didn't involve any touchscreens, however my laptop in question was using one or more of the pins for an integrated webcam.

I'll let the experts elaborate on use cases where such an adapter actually works (apparently some particular intel NUCs). I encourage you to not make any more attempts powering it on with that 30->40 pin adapter as it's clearly shorting out. Hopefully your laptop is more resilient than mine and your motherboard isn't harmed.

 

My motherboard is fine. I placed back in the old display and currently typing from the laptop. I will no longer try to make this upgrade. For now I just need to confirm that the screen I bought is working so that I may sell it.

 

@Blacky

I would dig through the service manual and see if there's a 4K cable associated with it. That's how I found my 30 <> 40 cable. Then I picked it up w/ the new panel through kreplacement.com The cable was ~$15 bit, shipped w/ both items FedEx expedited ~$150.

Adapters introduce weird things in my experience. with some devices. Others it's not an issue. The quick flash of the power button leads me to believe there's a short or mismatch w/ the cable + adapter.

 

I've checked the manual, there is no 4K cable associated with it. I believe the problem may due to the difference in power consumption. Both panels are 3.3V, but one has 0.5 A while the other has 1.37 A at peak. I think that's what tripping the power source. I used 3 different 30<>40 adapters so far and on all of them, two of the lines seem to burn up probably due to the extra current. It's just a theory though.

 

Hey guys, been looking into upgrading the screen on my M4800 and I've come across the 1440p 240Hz LG 156QHG display from the Alienware X15 R5/6.
I currently have the 1080p eDP model of the M4800 which should work with this screen if I change it for the 40-pin QHD eDP cable and apply a 0.4 to 0.5 pitch adapter if necessary. (The M4800 has 0.4 pitch).

Does anyone see any issues with this?
Will the 40-pin eDP 1.3 connection be enough to drive this display?

 

@ M4980

You should really verify the actual model w/ HWINFO and then looking up the specs and go from there. There might be an easier match w/o using an adapter for the pin pitch. If you provide the CPU / GPU it's easier to assess compatibility by looking up the specs for each of them. QHD shouldn't be much of an issue with a recent CPU/GPU but, still better to verify before jumping in head first.

 

No need, I already know the specs of my display.
The issue is that the LG 156QHG doesn't yet have a panelook page meaning I can't check the signal interface, therefore I'm currently assuming it's going to be compatible with a 40-pin eDP cable.
I don't mind using a pitch adapter if I need to.
Don't worry man I am not worried about GPU compatibility or anything.

 

You shouldn't have any problems with the pitch adapter. The only issue might be with the adapter itself that may burn-out in time, but that's nothing you can control.

 

Cool, thanks.
Still not sure if I should try this rare and expensive Alienware X15 display, might settle with the N156KME-GNA instead. Anyone got any experience with that display?

 

okay, found a new hurdle. Anyone know where I can actually get an adapter to convert from 40-pin eDP 0.4mm pin pitch cable (M4800) to 40-pin eDP 0.5mm pin pitch connector on N156KME-GNA? Can't seem to find any like that on aliexpress?

edit: Think I've found one, it looks like what I'm after from the diagram photos... We'll see
https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z10.5-c-s.w4002-3470266908.65.4d427e3crFix6G&id=616527232665

edit 2: I copped the Alienware LG 156QHG display, hope this works. Got the pin pitch adapter too.

 

Hi M4980, were you able to find an adapter that will work between 40-pin 0.4 pitch and 40-pin 0.5 pitch? Did it work?

 

hi, its still in delivery bc I had to use a middleman service (Superbuy) to purchase it from the link in my previous reply. It will soon arrive and i will post my results once i test it.

The minimum purchase quantity is 5 as shown in my quality check pic attached

 

I dont know where to ask this, but I am looking for one of those 3ms response time or lower IPS panels in a laptop with g-sync. Any recommendations?

 

There is no such thing as 3ms response time IPS display, it's mostly false advertising. The best response time I know for an IPS panel is around 7 ms.
This is an old article but should still help you: https://noteb.com/?content/article.php?/2019/03/06/information-on-15-inch-144hz-displays/

If you want a true 3ms response time, you need to buy a TN display.

 

Where the milliseconds come into play more are on the network side. Delay / Jitter cause issues w/ live feeds for video / audio \\ transmit / receive. Sure having a higher RR on your panel is part of the overall picture / quality but, there's more to it than simple numbers. You could have a TN @ 3ms but only 262K colors vs 1.07B colors. The color saturation might only be 30-40% giving you a splotchy look to objects being rendered.

Either way your specific device might not have an option out there that has the ability to hit those speeds anyway due to sizing of the panel. Getting caught up in the specs / hype costs you time and money. If there's a specific need for X/Y/Z to complete tasks then it's worthwhile to spend the time to do the upgrade. If it's just bragging rights you can do that as well. Going through the process though and not gaining anything tangible from it seems a bit pointless though.

If you want more assistance then we'll need some more info specific to your laptop to come up with some options that fit and work. Grab your existing panel info using HWINFO and that's a good place to start looking for options on paneloook to potentially upgrade to.

 

Lenovo claims 3ms response time for their laptop displays. I was under the impression that there was better then 7ms personally. For me, I am very sensitive to screen response time and can see it when it goes past about 30fps in a 16.6ms panel. In theory that should only be the case past 60ms, but something about half the value in that order makes the response time noticeable.

 

I am currently in the market for that, and I got no replies in laptop suggestions so I am here. Lenovo claims 3ms response times in their legion laptops which I believe are IPS. I would like to think they already chose the best IPS panel for this though maybe I am mistaken, and they dont give a model number for the panel. This with G-sync would be ideal.

Other choice is the Eluktronics Max-15, if anyone can comment on these two.

I dont recall the name of this, but there is a name for panels with either undetectable PWM in the panel, or using another technology. There was some forum threads around here awhile back on it I will have to find given the fatigue PWM is known for, however your probably already aware of this.

As for G-sync, thats something of an aggravating issue for many. I have seen people pay 3000+ for a notebook only to realize it doesnt have it. Kind of annoying lol, I was one of them, minus the 3000 part.

I cant do much about networks other then support my providers.

 

@ Casowen

Ok, so you don't have the laptop already and it's a toss up between Lenovo / Eluktronics.

If you take the specific model numbers and search on Google for them you should be able to get the details of the panels on a couple of sites. The good thing is if you purchase either laptop based on the other specs you can upgrade the panel to one of your liking yourself. Getting the panel specific part number is key to getting the right size that fits. The options vary for each panel though which makes it difficult to impossible to make a recommendation without the info.

 

I wont be doing the Lenovo, however from what eluk told me on the max-15 panel and board, this below is the only panel certified g-sync capable for the max-15, so other g-sync panels wont work it seems based off of licensing I guess. Here is the stock g-sync panel https://www.panelook.com/NV156FHM-NY4_BOE_15.6_LCM_overview_45536.html

I was under the impression that g-sync was a license and that any g-sync certified panel would work. Are you aware of anything like this? I was hoping to retain g-sync and get a lower latency panel.

 

Out of curiousity, is this a good list for panel response times? https://jarrods.tech/list-of-laptop-response-times/

From what it seems, the NY4 boe isnt as bad as I thought it was, and quite good at this. Though out of curiousity, this lenovo legion panel boost, can that work on other laptops? I assume someone made a crack

 

@ Casowen

I looked at this when thinking about changing my panel a while back. For brightness though it wasn't the best option @ 300cd/m. I ended up going 4K instead figuring I wanted the extra real estate to move things around instead of using an external monitor.

If you're stuck on sub-4K then I would probably go with the B156HAN10.0 off my short list for a brighter experience when needed and the same high contrast @ 1000,



https://www.panelook.com/modelcompare.php?ids=38454,36617,40445,41166,45536 -- comparison link of above

 

Can I swap my US model 11th gen GE76 Raider 11uh-006 screen fhd 17.3" 144hz 1920x1080 screen part # innolux n173hce-g33

to:

France model 11th gen GE76 Raider 11uh-008fr screen Uhd 4k 17.3" 120hz 3840-2160 screen part # b173zan03.3

im wondering if the bios has all models whitelisted or what?

both of those ge76 models have 11980hk cpu and rtx3080 gpu Im searching for the screen now and will eventually find one. Im just hoping some can chime in and let me now that this will work?

 

@ BeeRock69

https://www.panelook.com/modelcompare.php?ids=37006,45254

Only difference that stands out is 144 vs 120hz and bumping from FHD >> 4K

Pretty good chance the bios in both models would have the same white list options. Nothing is 100% though until you try it.

 

Got an email from MSI support.. looks like the bios is the same a cross all countries for the 11th gen GE76. I'm only interested in upgrading to the 4k screen so he sent me links for the bios for the French and US versions as far as they go they're the same.

So that means the 1 UHD screen and the 2 QHD screens(french models) are swapable the QHD has a 240HZ and a 165HZ option(although I couldn't find the 240HZ option

Here's the links to show both bios for US and France are the same


https://fr.msi.com/Laptop/GE76-Raider-11UX/support?sku_id=73531



https://us.msi.com/Laptop/GE76-Raider-11UX/support?sku_id=78254

The only thing im not sure about is if my 40pin wire will have all the wires needed to work with the 4k screen. Ive heard that sometimes manufacturers will not have wire on certain pins to save money not sure if this is applicable to this model. has anyone had this come up as an issue when swapping 40 pin panels?

 

@ BeeRock69

If the BIOS is the same then you won't lose any additional features like g-sync if that's something you use. 4K 120 should be optimal. I wanted that but couldn't find a reasonable in stock option when I was doing my swap and ended up with a 4K60 which has been great.

I'd just order the 4K and do the swap. Something to make sure to do though is make sure you get the model you want and not a substitution / compatible swap out. i went through a few different sellers dealing with these practices before ordering from kreplacement.com

 

Where are they based out of? It says they have a warehouse in California.. how long did it take to get your screen?

Was it the same screen or a 3rd party screen for instance if I order a au optronics b173zan03.3 will I get that or will it be a different manf and model?

 

They're in CN. I ordered mine and it took a week from CN via FedEx Air.

The CA must be something new since then though as it wasn't an option when I did it.

 

Was it the same 4k 60hz screen that comes with a msi or a 3rd party screen for instance if I order a au optronics b173zan03.3 which comes with the french model will I get that or will it be a different manf and model?

also what model screen did you get? I know it was the 4k 60hz but what part#?

I ask this because it seems the model numbers kreplacement use are much different and im not sure if they change the model numbers for there company or its a "replacement" screen that isnt as good as the OEM supplied screen? I spoke with one company that said they do 3rd party replacements for screens. so they look for a similar third party screen that will work but it is in fact NOT the oem manf or model screen.. hoping you can shed some light on this. sorry for all the questions, just trying to make heads or tails of this screen adventure as it isnt easy to find the 4k 120hz. thansk in advanced


were there any quirks when you installed it connection wise and software wise? or did all the software for brightness contrast etc work like the original screen? Ive heard some people swap panels and the brightness wouldnt work or something else.

 

@ BeeRock69

I'm running a Clevo variant laptop and 15.6" panel....

I looked up the 4K120 you're looking at on their site and it's listed for $350. If you want confirmation e-mail them before purchasing to make sure they have it in stock.

I had a particular model in mind after researching dozens of different options and ordered one from one company and they sent a compatible but entirely different spec panel. Returned it and went looking again but, making contact w/ each place before ordering to not have to keep shuffling panels in the mail.

 

So kreplacement got the exact one you wanted? I'm trying to figure out if they make panels or just purchase from distributors it's hard to figure out.. was your screen from a specific manf that you wanted or different?