T400 LCD Panel Dithering

I have a display issue called dithering.
I run a T400 (2768 GP6) with Windows 7 Ultimate and Lenovo drivers through System Update. It is a switchable graphics model (Intel GMA and ATI HD3400).
No matter which graphic card is set to prior, I get dithering on the LCD Display (1440x900). Most noticeable are color gradients "stepped" and "grainy" colors. It is particularly disturbing on JPG images with compression artifacts on white background, that you usually don't see, the laptop displays dotted areas. Bright areas are like "white burnt", probably because the screen is not able to display light grey.
The dithering doesn't appear on an external display, I thus conclude it is not a software or hardware issue linked to the graphic card.
The dithering appears when running a Linux LiveCD, I thus conclude it is not an issue linked to the Windows installation.
I found in the Lenovo Community an article advising to downgrade the BIOS , when the ATI HD 3400 is set to prior. No matter which BIOS I use (3.13, 3.18 or 3.25), the issue persists.
Do you believe through your experience with these models it is a software issue ? Or a hardware issue where a display replacement might solve the problem ?
Thanks for your attention.

welcome to the forum!
you'll need to reference your defective pixel(s) with the current replacement policy to know if it falls under warranty:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-69856.html
ThinkStation C20
ThinkPad X1C · X220 · X60T · s30 · 600

Similar Messages

T400 LCD dim issue - Need help!!

I'm having a LCD dim issue with a T400. Have changed the LCD panel, LCD cable and systemboard but still having same issue. If i removed the lcd card, then the display is working fine. I've tested the lcd card in another working unit and it's working as well (means the lcd card is working). I use a working lcd card and plug into this T400 but LCD still dim.
I've try to switch the problematic lcd cable and lcd panel to a working systemboard and it kills the systemboard. Have try to switch a few things but still unable to find the root cause. Urgently need help on this. Any advice will be appreciated.
Model : 6475-RM5

hey bhoh
i suggest uninstalling your current graphic card driver, let windows install its own generic drivers and see if that makes any difference
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T400 LCD problem

hi guys, my t400 lcd does not included led backlight, and i feel it is terribly dim compare to other notebook such as compaq v3000 and hp dv2000, what is going on? i heard someone said t400 lcd without led backlight are good too, but my lcd seems dim even though i switch to screen brightness to the max, it is not totally dark but it looks dim, can you guys help me?

also do you have the switchable graphics card version? if so switch to intel by going to the power saving mode, and see whether the internal LCD still have this problem.
But what you are describing sounds like an issue with the LCD panel itself, you can get a new LCD for around 150 to 200 dollars on the net.
Regards,
Jin Li
May this year, be the year of 'DO'!
I am a volunteer, and not a paid staff of Lenovo or Microsoft

T400 LCD problem possibly connected to power

I have a T400 and recently I have been getting a turqouise flashing line at the bottom of my screen (not more than 1 mm thick). It flashes consistently once every ~4 seconds, and it only flashes when the battery is less than 100%. When my computer is plugged into the adapter and fully charged this is not an issue. I have tried restoring my computer to a point before this issue started, reinstalled the BIOS, reinstalled the video driver, and done a SFS scan, but at this point I am not sure what else I can do. Any suggestions?

also do you have the switchable graphics card version? if so switch to intel by going to the power saving mode, and see whether the internal LCD still have this problem.
But what you are describing sounds like an issue with the LCD panel itself, you can get a new LCD for around 150 to 200 dollars on the net.
Regards,
Jin Li
May this year, be the year of 'DO'!
I am a volunteer, and not a paid staff of Lenovo or Microsoft

Lenovo T400 LCD Problem (shut off and bezel light abnormality )

Hello !!! This is regarding a problem with the Thinkpad T400. The problem is -- When the lid is at ~65 degrees , everything works fine. Whereas , when the lid is raised to viewing angle of arounbd 90 degrees , it goes to sleep AND , I noticed that the bezel lights (wifi , bluetooth , Cellular , Caps Lock etc...) also turn off , this normally never used to happen before. Even while the laptop is about to go to sleep, it will keep the bezel lights on till you can see the moon light. Now, even while sleeping , I can't see any moon light. If you have a valuable input , please do share it with me. Excuse me for any spelling errors as I have to bend my head doewn to peek under the display and tyoe .. -- it's painful Thanks a Lot!!!! Matt

Hi ChrisMatthew,
Welcome to Lenovo Community!
I find this issue could be with LCD cable, if you have enough knowledge on system hardware you can check with reseating on both the ends (On LCD panel & System board).
If you are want to try on that then you can also do it with the help of Hardware Maintenance Manual.
Please click here to visit the link where you can get the list of support contact numbers, select the respective region and give a call.
Hope this helps.
Best regards,
Hemanth Kumar

T400 LCD TFT display specifications

Hey everyone,
I was wondering if anyone would have on hand or know where to find information on the display specifications for the T400 LCD TFT display (WXGA, LED backlight).
Specifically I'm looking for:
Model Name/Manufacturer:
Display area:
Pixel Pitch:
Synchronization
Horizontal: (kHz)
Vertical: (Hz)
Display Color: (24bit, 16bit)
Cheers,
J

Welcome to the forum!
Do I understand correctly that you bought a complete new LCD Assembly? Do you have proof from the seller that it was working properly before you bought it?
Can you see a picture if you use a torchlight over the panel?
A faint dark picture could be a defective LCD cable, inverter/LED card or a defective LCD backlight. Since you see a picture I would rule out a motherboard fuse problem.
Edit: Richk was faster!
/L40SX/240/240X/2*340CSE/360PE/365XD/380D/380E/380XD/380Z/390/560E/560X/2*570/2*600/600E/750Cs/755C/760CD/760EL/760XD/770E/A20p/A22p
A31/i1600/G40/R50p/R61i/S30/SL510/2*T22/4*T4x/11*T6x/6*T4x0x/6*T5x0/3*W5x0/W700/3*X2x/4*X3x/3*X4x/5*X6x/3*X6xT/10*X2xx/2*X200T/4*X30x/Z60m/3*Z61x
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Are T4X0s lcd panels a complete fail?

At first we had the "vertical band" in our displays:
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/t410s-vertical-band-in-my-LCD/td-p/245040 (12 pages)
And now, people are coming up with bright spots on their displays. Some of the users already replaced their displays before due to the "vertical band"!
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T4-T5-und-neuere-T-Serie/T410s-Wei%C3%9Fe-Flecken-auf-dem-Display/td-p/4... (german)
I know those T4X0s series ThinkPads are thin as hell. But they break much too often. Lenovo has to find a solution for this. A friend owns his T410s for 5 months now and it's the second time he has to carry in his ThinkPad due to display issues.
Just wondering, when the first thread with desperate T420s owners will emerge... Is this really such a hopeless situation?

My T400 has had a bright spot since about the first week, so issues might not just be with T4x0s. I haven't had a chance to ship it back yet to have it fixed (ship it as it is under 3yr warranty) as the machine is in constant use.
While my T420 was being worked on recently (on-site service) I asked the tech about display issues. He also services Sony and other models. According to the tech, he sees display problems more often in other brands of laptops. He said that it generally happens to students or other highly mobile people, and they notice it after the machine is removed from a backpack or other bag. He finds these odd as the lcd panel will be spiderwebbed or have other issues but the glass/ plastic in front of the panel will have no damage. He blames the trend of thin & floppy displays for these issues.
When asking for help, post your question in the forum. Remember to include your system type, model number and OS. Do not post your serial number.
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If you find a post helpful and it answers your question, please mark it as an "Accepted Solution"! This will help others with the same question in the future.
My TPs: Twist 2HU: i5-3317U Win 8 Pro, 4GB RAM 250GB Samsung 840 | T420 4177CTO: i5-2520M, HD+, Win 7 Pro x64, 8GB RAM, Optimus, 160GB Intel 320 SSD, Intel 6300 WiFi, BT 3.0 | T400 2764CTO: P8700, WXGA, Win 7 Ult x64, AMD 3470, 8GB RAM, 64GB Samsung SSD, BT, Intel 5300 WiFi | A20m 14.1" PIII 500 (retired). Monitors: 2x Dell U2211h IPS 100% sRGB calibrated w/ Spyder3.

T400 LCD screen black after replecement

History - T400 (2767-31U), Win 7.
LCD screen broken due to a drop. Laptop still worked with an external monitor via VGA slot and I ordered a replacement LCD.
The replacement finally (used-off ebay) arrived and I followed the HMM manual and replaced the LCD. But it still does not work. I can continue to use the ext monitor without any issues. The replacement LCD was the full assembly not just the LCD screen.
Here is what I noticed:
1. When booting up, I see the Thinkpad logo very very faintly before it goes fully black again.
2. All the LCD panel lights work fine - Wireless, BT, HDD, Battery, Power etc etc including the reading light.
3. The laptop recognizes when I open and close the lid and switches on the ext monitor accordingly.
Here is what I did (I followed the HMM to the detail):
4. When I replaced the LCD, I noticed that the original LCD had 2 black wires insulated at the ends originating from the bottom left area of the LCD that were not actually plugged into any area of the MB. I did the same on the replacement LCD and left them as it is. I don't even know what these are.
5. I connected the other 3 wires(white, grey and black) and the main connector as the original LCD/HMM.
6. I uninstalled the display drivers and restarted and Win 7 automatically installed the drivers again.
7. The Most important part - The original LCD when powered on, DID have backlight showing me the mangled area of the screen so I know it worked before replacement.
I have read quite a bit of posts regarding T400 black screen issues, pointing me towards a faulty MB, blown fuse or faulty inverter. I know the replacement is an exact replica of the original LCD.
Could it be that I didn't connect the wires correctly to their respective slots on the MB?
Any inputs would be highly appreciated.
Edit:
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Welcome to the forum!
Do I understand correctly that you bought a complete new LCD Assembly? Do you have proof from the seller that it was working properly before you bought it?
Can you see a picture if you use a torchlight over the panel?
A faint dark picture could be a defective LCD cable, inverter/LED card or a defective LCD backlight. Since you see a picture I would rule out a motherboard fuse problem.
Edit: Richk was faster!
/L40SX/240/240X/2*340CSE/360PE/365XD/380D/380E/380XD/380Z/390/560E/560X/2*570/2*600/600E/750Cs/755C/760CD/760EL/760XD/770E/A20p/A22p
A31/i1600/G40/R50p/R61i/S30/SL510/2*T22/4*T4x/11*T6x/6*T4x0x/6*T5x0/3*W5x0/W700/3*X2x/4*X3x/3*X4x/5*X6x/3*X6xT/10*X2xx/2*X200T/4*X30x/Z60m/3*Z61x
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Weird scratches in lcd panel (23" acd)

Well, i'm back. This 23" is the third one I got from Apple, the two previouso one's exhibited ghosting & the pink issue.
This one doesn't have these, only some backlight leaking when viewing black images fullscreen.
The thing is, the build quality on this one is below par, I think.
1 - If I tap the lcd panel itself on the right top corner, it moves about a mm. It's a little loose, and I can 'push' it inwards about 1 mm.
2 - There is 1 stuck pixel (red) in the bottom left corner, that doesn't bother me that much actually.
3 - There seem to be 2 scratches in my lcd panel. I can't describe it very good, but a picture will do the trick. Here are 2 of them. They're not stuck pixels, the shape doesn't match up right.
http://users.skynet.be/bk318948/screen4.jpg (the largest scratch)
http://users.skynet.be/bk318948/screen2.jpg (small one in the bottom)
Should I take this back again? The build quality doesn't resemble my 2500 euro I paid for it back, in july 2004.
This is my third replacement though, and I don't want to go through that process again, so either they give me a complete refund, or they compensate me in any way for this lower build quality.
Am I overreacting with this issue or not?
Powermac G5 dual 2.5 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

"I'm running Windows XP through Boot Camp"
You're probably better off posting your question in the Boot Camp discussions:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1165

How to connecttwo external 19" LCD panels over DVI to MBP

Hi,
Is it possible to connect two 19" LCD panels over DVI to a MBP and run them as a single extended desktop?
I've not been able to find an answer in the many posting and I get the impression its possible, but I'm not sure. I get more doubtful when I start to figure out how to do the cabling (daisy-chain the panels, use a DVI splitter?).
Any help is greatly appreciated!
F

Do you use this set-up with multiple monitors and the extended desktop?
I ask because I followed your suggestion but at the Matrox site (http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/cadgis/products/th2go/th2go.php) all the indications are that it only works with Windows. Even the user handbook doesn't reference Apple at all.
It sounds like a great idea, but I'd like to verify it works before spending the $300.
Francis

What's the latest Jan. 2010 spec LCD panel model #? (e.g. 9CBD, 9CA0, etc.)

Just wondering if anyone who has a 2010 assembled 13" MBP or recently warrantied MBP can confirm the latest Apple display spec model # (e.g. My MBP was built in Sept.09 and has a 9CBD panel) that is being used?
Got the dreaded light leak developing on the side and hinge edges of my MBP -- but considering that my colours/calibration are pretty much bang on for my eyes as well as the fact that I've painstakingly applied an Anti-Glare film 100% free of lint bubbles LOL -- my conundrum if the latest spec'd panels are really any better or if it's still a lottery on whether you get a good panel if replaced under warranty. The last thing I want is to go backwards in quality!
Also if you've gone through the warranty process I'm curious on whether you have any say on whether it is another 9CBD that goes in or if you can specify to them that you're only satisfied if a Jan. 2010 9CA0 (or whatever # it is) is put in?
I am planning to wait to see if Apple quietly updates the LCD panels in the MBP line at the Jan. 27 iTablet/iPhone OS4.0 event before taking it in anyways, but hopefully someone can shed some light into how Apple have been going about dealing with the light leak issues. Thanks again.

Thanks for your kind cmments matrixxzero. I agree rockykoston I will replace my keyboard eventually myself too, with all the stories here I'm terrified to hand my laptop into service, apart from not having the spare time, Idon't want it to come back scatched, damaged and/or unfixed. That doesn't augur well for Lenovo guarantees. I am fully cpable of servicing it myself but many customers aren't and shouldn't have to.
As I say the other issue is model lines. Our Chinese friends have proven they can maintain quality and innovate now but their shere manufacturing muscle means it's all too easy to have too many models and too many variants with too much crossover.
Why drop a great design like the Z710, only let down by a middling to poor Nvidia chip and introduce new 17.3" models with absolutely no maintenance covers and sealed batteries!! They should have upped the Nvidia chip (the same as the Y50) and a better WLAN card. Same with the 15.6" models - evolve the Z510 to have a case like the Z50 but the same or better components again. Similarly the Y50 should have been an evolution of the Y510 not a step down.
Lenovo has definitely gone cheap in the upper end of the consumer range, when they needn't as there are tons of cheap laptops from the brand.
Most of the reviews I came across for the Z510 described it as having very good build quality and since I changed laptops three times from the same store within my purchase period I had chance to compare closely, with at least Toshiba and Acer. I would not agree with these reviews it's OK but not great. The metal upper case fooled me a bit but it's less sturdy than a cheap i3 HP laptop it replaced. Again for around a $1000 it should be better.

Some LCD panel info

Hello all,
Like quite a few people on this forum, I recently purchased a new MB 13" aluminum and have been very disappointed in the quality of the LCD panel. In particular, I feel like the viewing angle on this display is significantly worse than my old Thinkpad X41 tablet, which is going on 4 years old. So, I went in search of some technical information, which I figured I would share...
There are three main technologies for TFT (thin-film transistor, or "active matrix") LCD panels. Twisted Nematic (TN) is the most popular type of panel because it's cheap to manufacture and has very fast response times. However, image quality on the TN panels is the worst of the three technologies. In Plane Switching (IPS, S-IPS) is the best quality panel, but is expensive to manufacture and has relatively slow response times. Vertical Alignment (VA, PVA, MVA) is a mid-range technology, somewhere between the cost of TN and quality of IPS.
This site provides a very nice explanation of the pros and cons of the three technologies:
http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/lcd-panel-types.php
The vast majority of displays (notebooks and desktops) use TN panels because it keeps costs down and because the fast response times are better for games and movies. This trend was probably reinforced by the explosion of LCD televisions: for TVs, good response time is critical and vertical viewing angle is totally irrelevant.
There seems to be a consensus that all three lines of MacBooks use TN panels, but possibly with different levels of quality. I could not find much information on what causes quality to vary between panels that use the same technology (i.e., why is one TN panel better than another.)
Most IPS panels go into high-end displays, such as the Apple 30" Cinema display, for applications where image quality is crucial. It turns out -- and I did not know this at the time -- my old Thinkpad X41 is one of the few notebooks ever made with an IPS panel. I suspect they chose this panel because a tablet PC must be reasonably readable from a wide variety of angles (for example, laying flat on a desk), or it's useless.
So, maybe we just have to wait for a MacBook Tablet...Jobs, are you reading this?

SZGuy, nice digest of LCD info. You had me with every point except the one about viewing angle being irrelevant on a television. How so? When a family sits distributed around a room, all are entitled to a good view of the telly.
Every TV of at least 32" or larger uses a wide viewing angle technology panel. IPS and PVA are still hugely important in television and I don't see that changing soon. In fact, it is TN that is irrelevant in the world of TV.

MegaPC 180 - Programming LCD Panel

Hi All,
I recently built my MegaPC180 and what a lovely machine she is too!. My old machine sounded like an aircraft taking off!, this is nice and quiet with lots of mod-cons in a SFF barebone.
One thing I'd like to take advantage of is the LCD panel at the front. I know the PCAlert tool uses this, and by the looks of things it doesn't make any direct calls to the dll file which I thought may be the API for the panel.
I'm very familiar with C++ and VB and want to use the panel in several utilities I've created.
I found the msidrvif.dll file in the Program Files\MSI\Common\Bin folder. It exports the following functions...
DIF_CheckHardware
DIF_CheckMBType
DIF_CheckModel
DIF_CheckOEMModel
DIF_FS_SetAPStats
DIF_FreeDrvIF
DIF_GetDriverSelect
DIF_GetModelName
DIF_GetVideoFormat
DIF_InitCheckDevice
DIF_InitDriverSelect
DIF_InitDrvIF
DIF_RD_AudioOff
DIF_RD_AudioOn
DIF_RD_CheckLock
DIF_RD_GetDefMem
DIF_RD_GetRemtKey
DIF_RD_LMute
DIF_RD_PanelOn
DIF_RD_QueryLockLevel
DIF_RD_RMute
DIF_RD_RadioOff
DIF_RD_ScanFreq
DIF_RD_SelHWMem
DIF_RD_SetArea
DIF_RD_SetBand
DIF_RD_SetDefMem
DIF_RD_SetEQ
DIF_RD_SetFreq
DIF_RD_SetHCC
DIF_RD_SetHWMem
DIF_RD_SetLCDTime
DIF_RD_SetLEDPanel
DIF_RD_SetMono
DIF_RD_SetSIJ
DIF_RD_SetSNC
DIF_RD_SetSRS
DIF_TV_AudioOff
DIF_TV_AudioOn
DIF_TV_FineTune
DIF_TV_GetFreeScanStatus
DIF_TV_SetChannel
DIF_TV_SetCountryCode
The unfortunate thing is....I don't know the syntax of the functions, such as params, and returns.
I'm hoping someone from these forums, or from MSI technical could tell me the declarations so I can get over this hurdle?

Hi Andy,
Perhaps you have already read the posts regarding control of the LED panel. Anyway, I have done a little research myself and was able to obtain the specifications of the Bluebird VL+ controller which actually controls all the pc-off functions (and the LED panel). In theory this controller can perform more tasks than MSI used!
I also contacted Liteon Optoelectronics for the design specifications of the MSI LED panel. Unfortunately they are not allowed to release them (prohibited by MSI). However, I found the blueprints of another LED panel from Liteon with a comparable product code. I think it is likely that Liteon used the same design basics when building the MSI panel.
You can send a p-mail when you are interested in these .pdf files.

Purchased a LG FHD LCD panel and broken.

Hello everyone, I am using T520 4242- RU2 model in Thailand. I tried to upgrade my LCD panel from 1366*768 to 1920*1080. I bought a panel in e-bay and I replaced by myself. After few months, it becomes yellowish color on white image. So I removed it and replace default one. Well, I would like to buy a new FHD panel again. Do you know which one is recommend? AUO or LG or Chimei or whatelse...?? if you have recommended P/N or FRU, could you let me know? thanks and best regards,
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Thanks again Tasurinchi
I checked it is "bingo" and brand new P/N:42T0764 FRU:42T0765.
confirmed with seller. So I already purchased it.
I just don't mind about even if seller will send me compatible one.
it's just like gamble. I believe my luck. :-)
This is very helpful forum for ThinkPad users.
I am so happy that I meet a nice person like you.
Now I have 2 units of ThinkPad. and they work good.
X100e dual core model with SSD + 4GB Ram
T520 4242RU2 i7-2720QM with SSD + 8GB Ram

T500 WXGA+ LCD Panel Adjustment Challenges

Does anyone have any LCD Panel adjustment tips for a T500 with 1680x1050 screen and Intel 4500HD GPU?I am trying to make adjustments through the Intel Graphic Media Accelerator Driver Control Panel. I am running Vista Home Basic.
A number of different calibration programs such as Calibreze start by having you set the contrast to maximum. When I do this it washes out the screen so I back off on the contrast and try to proceed through the test but the result is that the color saturation is lacking. I am further frustrated by the video settings button on the same control panel. When I change the settings here it appears to have an effect only on the small test photos provided in the adjustment window. It has no effect on the display itself. I found a bunch of color management options in Vista but I have no clue as to where to begin with these. Lastly, I tried to find a user guide for but came up with nothing.Does anyone know where to find one?
I am left wondering why I didn't just buy a machine with a dedicated graphics card.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi Doublej,
You don't say what is your purpose in adjusting your screen. If it is to have a truly calibrated monitor for the purpose of photo editing, then I recommend that you just give up on the laptop's screen anyway, and use an external monitor. The external monitor should be of type IPS or MVA or PVA (Wikipedia / Google these if you're not familiar with them) if a flat panel, or a (gasp!) CRT. All of those options are expensive, except the untrendy CRT. Just about every laptop screen these days and most external flat panels too use TN technology, which is great for gaming (fast response time) but utter garbage for viewing angles and color accuracy. Don't believe me? Load up a color photo on your laptop, then try looking at it from slightly above center, slightly below center, left of center, and right of center. See the color and brightness shifts? How can you possibly calibrate that? (You can't -- there's no way to always look at the screen from exactly the same angle, even if you could position your head perfectly, your eyes see different parts of the screen at different angles.) A good external monitor will also give you far better contrast ratio (brightest / darkest areas).
After getting a decent monitor, it's still a good idea to calibrate it. (I've seen some monitors from Dell and Apple come pretty close without calibration, and others that were way out of calibration by default.) The X-Rite i1 Display 2 screen calibrator comes with easy-to-use calibration software for Windows and Mac. (Other calibrators may be just as good but I haven't used them so don't know.)
The FlatPanelsDK Online Monitor Test is great for a quick visual check of your screen's calibration.
One last thing: discrete graphics have NO color calibration advantage over your fine Intel integrated graphics.
Results of Your Ideal Business-Class Laptop survey, concluded 2009-07-29.
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T400 LCD Panel Dithering

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