retrofit full HD IPS panel to older HP 250 G4 laptop - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / repair

author: rob77
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 21, 2021, 12:47:05 pm
content: Hi Guys,someone might be interested... i have a old HP 250 G4 with a i3. but it had a terrible HD screen... so was interested in retrofitting the laptop with a full HD panel. (have 16G RAM and a SSD drive, so the laptop is definitely not a throw away candidate).there is no standard for embeded displayport pinouts, there is just a recommendation by VESA. but i believe no-one is stupid enough to create a custom pinout for the eDP 30pin connector.so started to investigate... and sure enough the pinout of the cable in the laptop looked pretty much like the vesa pinout recommendation.. and the connector had wires for both data lanes (FHD needs 2 lanes, HD is happy with single lane)all the forums were full of answers like - no it won't work, FHD works on HDMI out but will not work on the eDP port, chances are next to zero, good luck with that... etc...but eDP signaling is the same as DP + brightness controll...so why it shouldn't work ? if the GPU can do FHD over one port (HDMI) surely it does over another port (DP) ... if the cable has the wires for 2 lanes it should work.so took the "gamble" (was 95% sure it works) and ordered a new FHD panel which had it's mounting holes similar to the original panel and had the connector roughly in the same place. turned out mechanicaly the panel was a perfect match (mounting holes, bezel.. spot on)... and of course it worksexact laptop model : HP 250 G4 , SKU Number: M9S80EA#BCMretrofitted IPS panel: NV156FHM-N48 V8.2hope someone finds this useful

author: abdulbadii
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 21, 2021, 12:57:48 pm
content: Picture please ?

author: rob77
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 21, 2021, 01:07:15 pm
content: is a screenshot with dmidecode data indicating the laptop model and xrandr output indicating the internal e-DP port running at full HD enough enough ?

author: rob77
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 21, 2021, 01:32:08 pm
content: + some more proof for orthodox nonbelievers

author: DavidAlfa
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 21, 2021, 03:06:34 pm
content: You can, the panel has a its own memory, just like any other monitor, that tells the system its capabilities.Standard 1366x768 or even 1600x900 panels only required 2 LVDS lanes.FHD bandwidth requires 4 lanes, however most laptops didn't have them connected.I hacked a Toshiba P850 about 8 years ago, searching the disabled lanes and running twisted pairs all along to the panel, as the cables also missed these pairs.FHD showed to be too much for 15.6", everything was just so small! Scaling made everything blurry, although latest Windows 10 and 11 versions have made some progress.So in the end it was a good hacking experience, but unpractical. Maybe for 17.3".

author: voltsandjolts
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: December 21, 2021, 03:37:59 pm
content: elementary OS?I tried that a couple of years ago and it was unstable for me, how do you like it?

author: rob77
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 21, 2021, 03:56:29 pm
content: Quote from: voltsandjolts on December 21, 2021, 03:37:59 pmwanted a mainstream underlying base (because of apps) with a simple , clean, yet good looking user interface while able to install ontop of LVM (many "modern" distros can't ) ... and eneded up with elementary on my daily drivers. using it for almost a year and no objections so far. all apps i need work as expected and runs stable.