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IBM Thinkpad 365X issues

H

Half-Saint

Experienced Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2004
Messages
322
Location
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Hi,

I bought the abovementioned laptop recently for about $30. Cosmetically it's great but there are some hardware issues.

The OS loads fine however the LCD is somewhat dim with a very bright area in the upper left corner. It's not evenly lit and it looks like there are very tiny little black particles beneath the glass... hard to explain so I'll try to add a photo tomorrow.

The 2nd issue is the keyboard. While the trackpoint works, mouse buttons don't as well as a few keys; for example: Esc, left arrow, up arrow,...

Any ideas? Is it worth fixing?

Cheers
 
thinkpad_display.jpg

This is what I get. The video output is very dim and looks like a very high ISO photograph. When I connect the laptop to an LCD monitor, it works fine.

Is this the case of a bad bulb or a failing inverter? Can anyone help diagnose the problem?

P.S. It looks brighter in the photo than it actually is. Brightness level is at its highest.
 
Last edited:
The dual sliders for contast and brightness means it is a passive matrix LCD. Those were always dim and ghosty even when new. But usually a passive matrix LCD will become almost totally white and washed out when you turn up the brightness all the way, so you could have a failing backlight.
 
Half-Saint said:
View attachment 13166

This is what I get. The video output is very dim and looks like a very high ISO photograph. When I connect the laptop to an LCD monitor, it works fine.

Is this the case of a bad bulb or a failing inverter? Can anyone help diagnose the problem?

P.S. It looks brighter in the photo than it actually is. Brightness level is at its highest.
Click to expand...

looks normal to me for that type of old screen
 
It looks horrible. Something is definitely wrong with the screen because I have a Jornada 720 which is also using a DSTN screen and it's not nearly this bad. It's actually quite OK.
 
Looks normal to me like K said. Reminds me of a Sega Game Gear. In more recent laptops, when a backlight starts to fail it will give off a pink or red hue and maybe flicker, just like a florescent light bulb. When inverters fail the screen just goes dark.
 
There is nothing wrong with the screen in the Thinkpad. The only problem here is that you seem to think all DSTN LCDs are created equal. They are not. The fact that the Jornada screen looks better simply means that the Jornada has a better screen. And the smaller size and different aspect ratio plays a very significant role in that quality difference... it's much easier to get bright and even backlighting when there is less area to backlight.

Here are a few examples of DSTN screens in Thinkpads of that general era. A 560, a 365ED, and a 530CS. Notice that they all share a common property... specifically, that they all suck.
 
All DSTN suck, some just suck less then others. IBM used pretty decent screens even on their cheap models (back when Thinkpads were IBM anyway). DSTN doesn't age well either.
 
Honestly, swapping the backlight probably isn't worth the effort. There's only so much you can do to make it look more even (since some of that unevenness is inherent to the panel itself), and making it brighter is going to have the side effect of making the colors look (more) washed-out.

However, if you're feeling particularly adventurous, and you can find the relevant parts for less than the cost of just replacing the whole laptop, I believe it's possible to swap out the DSTN for a TFT. Note that it can't be done on all laptops, but I think on those particular models, it's as simple as changing out the lid assembly (though you would have to change the whole lid assembly, and not just the panel itself)... the service manual seems to confirm that, as the DSTN and TFT variants share all the same part numbers in the bottom half, it's just the screens/lids that are different.
 
Old Thrashbarg said:
However, if you're feeling particularly adventurous, and you can find the relevant parts for less than the cost of just replacing the whole laptop, I believe it's possible to swap out the DSTN for a TFT. Note that it can't be done on all laptops, but I think on those particular models, it's as simple as changing out the lid assembly (though you would have to change the whole lid assembly, and not just the panel itself)... the service manual seems to confirm that, as the DSTN and TFT variants share all the same part numbers in the bottom half, it's just the screens/lids that are different.
Click to expand...

That suonds like a better option.
 
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