will older laptop screens work to replace broken newer laptop screens?

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For example, if I have an old p4 acer laptop with a perfect screen, and a newer dual core acer laptop with a cracked screen, can I swap the screen in to the newer unit (assuming it's the same size)? Or, do they change the cables/interface technology so they are not compatible?

Scott Szretter

Posted 2012-01-23T12:46:30.133

Reputation: 1 433

Answers

6

Yes you can, but...

Look at this picture, and the connector on it. It is pretty common connector on newer model notebooks... after Celeron ones. Any really older notebooks have varying, and propriety connectors that will not be compatible.

enter image description here

I think these are called PPI but many distributors call them 40PIN Data Connectors. I never actually thought about what it is called, i guess I must have a photographic memory.

That type of connector works with any size LCD, so you can use a 13" in 15.6"- obviosly it wont fit in the frame it was built for.. but the picture will work fine, because it uses the same protocol and image processor on the LCD chip.. So it can handle the scaling, refresh rates and all that mumbo jumbo directly on the LCD, making it an easy standard to work with.

  • Dell uses vendor specific inverter and it determines if the LCD installed is the original one. So sometimes swapping it on the DELL, you will see an image but the backlight will not come on, or it will be very dim... also the BIOS will moan about LCD fault. Using the original inverter will solve this problem. So do not use the invertor with the screen, but the one with the laptop and in 99% cases it will work fine, including brightness regulation

This is how the inverter looks like...

enter image description here

Notice this cable has golden fingers, not pins.

enter image description here

Here are some old connectors are are not cross compatible

enter image description here enter image description here enter image description here

LVDS (Pins)

enter image description here

Then you also get this weird PCB, that is exactly the same as the cable in the first picture (PPI), it is the same connector, and these are usually found in Dell's and Acers, sometimes a WEBcam connector comes off it too.

enter image description here

Piotr Kula

Posted 2012-01-23T12:46:30.133

Reputation: 3 538

@ppumkin I just wanted to say Thank You very much for this answer. I have ivy bridge 14inch laptop whose display got damaged few months back. I had old damaged 15.6inch laptop from year 2010 . When I checked lvds connectors of these two laptops they are of different size even though both are 40pin. All these months I was struggling with external monitor. Recently I checked the inverter pin of both displays and noticed they are the same. After seeing this post, I connected the 15.6 panel to the inverter pin of 14inch laptop and display is working. – Bharat G – 2017-02-13T17:59:29.273

I now made physical adjustments to fix 15.6 inch display to 14inch laptop. Apart from that it is not very portable, I'm happy that it worked. I now can access bios settings and get rid of the hell with multiple displays. With damaged display I can never access bios and os (without graphics driver) on the external monitor. Thanks again :) – Bharat G – 2017-02-13T18:00:01.007

Cool. I'm glad you managed to recycle a screen. It's very rare you can do that. Enjoy :) – Piotr Kula – 2017-02-13T18:48:02.307

I seem to think the same connector is also referred to as LVDS – Journeyman Geek – 2012-01-23T14:15:35.597

Hi, by looking at the picture LVDS is the one with pins, and is common in Macintosh Screens and older PC/Notebooks.. and are not cross compatible/ but it might be the Parallel Version of LVDS... but i cannot find any data relating to it really.. – Piotr Kula – 2012-01-23T14:25:45.677

LVDS is just the electrical interface's name. It's not the actual connector which yes, is some proprietary NIH stuff prior to the 40-pin ones. ;) – None – 2013-08-12T10:20:17.617

0

NO, YOU CANNOT.

Look at this pic (stolen from ppumkin): enter image description here

Now, look at this other one (same pic): enter image description here

The interface used to connect laptop displays is called LVDS. The one in the picture is one of the most common connectors for LVDS (the other one is 30-pin, looks the same but different size).

Now, unless you can find an exact part number or model code for the screen, you should consider it as incompatible. Yes, they may use the same connector, but there are no guarantees whatsoever that they're using the same pinouts.

Manufacturers usually use different pins for each model even though they're the same connector.

Heck, even the same screens may use different pinouts! (hence why the same two pictures above). I could not reall the specific one, but it did happen. There are no guarantees that the pictures above use the same pins.

Compatible screens are pretty rare, so the safest bet is to get the exact, same screen. An even safer bet is to get the exact same laptop, and do a screen transplant.

PNDA

Posted 2012-01-23T12:46:30.133

Reputation: 139

Asked: 2012-01-23T12:46:30.133

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Active: 2017-01-12T05:09:27.430