Brightness and wifi replacement on T4x

My Thinkpad's display screen looks like it got dark(er). I don't know if it's just me or if it really did. But, it looks a lot darker to me and the only thing that changed is that I was working on it. Well, sorta. I wanted to replace the wifi card but I got stopped after taking off/out the battery. I couldn't get the HDD compartment off. Anyway, that is not really important right now.

I have some complaints. The Lenovo/IBM hardware maintenance manual is awful. Also, there is no user guide you can download? I read that on the Lenovo site.

I am wondering if I can make it any brighter. Since it didn't seem to be a problem before, I wonder if something happened.

I am comparing to my LCD monitor though but even if the Thinkpad wasn't right beside it, it still looks dark.

I am really disappointed and depressed right now. I just bought this and I'm just glad it was one of the cheaper refurbished Thinkpads. It was just to hold me over until I got a new notebook. I doubt I'll consider a newer Thinkpad now. It has me really turned off them.

I suppose I'll have to take it in to get looked at but if anyone knows anything about this or can comment, that would be great.

 

Comparing almost any notebook screen to a desktop screen, the notebook is going to come out the loser. That's the reality of buying a notebook. My own 14" R60, which probably has a similar panel, is dimmer than most notebooks. I personally don't mind it on the upper levels. ThinkPad displays of that era are dimmer than the average notebook, with the exception of the IPS and even that isn't super bright compared to a LED.

LCDs do get dimmer over time. You can replace the backlight, though if you just gotten it, it's hard to say whether it's functioning properly or not. It'll probably cost between $10-20 for the part, but it will involve completely ripping apart the LCD housing and the LCD itself, if you're comfortable. I personally don't find it too hard. Just take your time. I find the HMM pretty easy to follow. If you're really interested in doing this, I might suggest posting over on ThinkPads.com. You'll probably get more help over there with regards to upgrades and replacements than here, where the crowd tends to be much newer to ThinkPads. Good Luck.

 

Did you check whether the display brightness was reduced by the control key (Fn-Home increases, Fn-End decreases)?