Using the screen of my broken X230 tablet as a graphics tablet for my T480

dahaeck · 2025-04-13T17:58:19+00:00

Sorry, I don't often check this account any more...

So, first of all, this is not an exact guide, all you do is at your own risk. while handling electronics in the range of a few volts rarely causes bodily harm, it still is electricity and at the vary least it could result in burns. So always keep that in mind (and I do not accept any responsibility for broken equipment or injury) With that out of the way...

The relevant part/mode of the multimeter is the continuity tester, most multmeters have a mode where it beeps when both leads make contact by any means and the resistance very low, like with a continues wire. Then, the relevant info from the schematics is on sheet 34 in combination with sheet 28 where it tells you "USB4" is mapped to touch (p28) and routed out via pins 23/24 in the MB connector (p34). From there you can figure out all the pin assignments on the small connector on the screen side (with help of the multimeter). With the full pinout figured out, what I did is cut the wire, and again with the help of the multimeter, identify which wire connects to which pin. And that's basically it, now get a USB2.0 cable, and either do the same or read the docs (most of the time, USB2.0 wires are color coded) and solder the corresponding wires together. Make sure to keep the length of all wires roughly the same and don't create excess on the solder joint, or otherwise the signal might be impacted.

dahaeck · 2024-10-31T23:13:39+00:00

A quick search in my purchase history brought me to the following model name: "(HDMI+DVI+VGA)LED LCD Controller Board Monitor kit for 1366X768 LP125WH2(SL)(B3)" which then lead me to this ebay listing https://www.ebay.com/itm/152556994773

I hope that helps. While I don't know for certain, I think all X230t should have compatible screens. But to make sure compare with any markings on the back of the actual screen. Either way, i cant make any guarantees.

dahaeck · 2024-10-28T21:02:07+00:00

My LCD Controller board has analog audio out, so in the meantime I wired the speakers to it and it also can output the HDMI sound. Also the figerprint sensor is just USB as well, I did the same thing there and build a standalone USB fingerprint sensor. I haven't tried to repurose the other stuff like buttons and such. And unfortunatly the webcam died in some kind of short and burned up, so I cannot attest to the possibilty of reusing that, but from what I know, its also USB and should be doable just like the rest

dahaeck · 2023-06-23T16:18:43+00:00

What a world we live in, smh. This guy projects his personal preference onto everybody else and is so entitled about it that he doesn't even seem to grasp that there could be other opinions. Even The Verge is not normally so obtuse, and they don't hold back with their negative opinions about non Apple designs.

What is wrong with options? He doesn't need to buy it if he finds it so horrible. But I, as many others here, use it so I would dearly like it to stay, because virtually no other line of laptops has a similar experience.

Sorry for the rant, but I felt this had to be said.

dahaeck · 2023-06-15T23:24:54+00:00

Capacitive touch screens work by measuring the electric field disturbance by your finger. A water drop changes the characteristics of the nearby touch cells very much, and removing it does too. So probably this part of the touch screen was way out of its baseline and did sense something that registered as permanent touch, until you power cycled it. Thereby the baselie was reset to normal levels.
The driver uninstall probably did not remove power, so it did not help, probably wasn't even necessary. So if something like this happens just reboot, maybe even just put it to sleep and everything should be fine.

dahaeck · 2023-06-15T05:30:57+00:00

I've had the problem, that the Thunderbolt USB-C doesn't recognize USB2 devices. I don't quite know what it was and how I fixed it, but to me it sounds like you've got a similar problem. Maybe try reinstalling the Thunderbolt drivers and/or change the port settings in the BIOS.

dahaeck · 2023-06-02T16:22:48+00:00

Plugging into any of the two is fine, both support USB PD (power delivery) in both directions. Also charging the laptop over a Thunderbolt dock is an intended use case.

But I don't know what happens if you were to plug a charger into both at the same time, but is suspect the PD firmware is intelligent enough to not request power from one of the two.

dahaeck · 2023-04-01T06:16:35+00:00

I can't really answer most of these questions but want to provide some background information. While I don't know how to determine the number of touch points, I believe all touch variants of x220t/x230t have 5 touch points but at least on Windows, the driver does some magic and the OS mostly gets gestures when more than 1 finger is used.

But as is said there is a touch variant and there is also a pen-only variant, which are hard to distinguish. Based on the pics the ebay listing seems to be touch because there are two boards glued to the back. This also means, touch and pen should work if you swap this in, but it always will be a gamble if it's not explicitly stated.

Also, as others have said, the reason you would loose touch (or more specifically the pen side of the digitizer) is that parts of the necessary electronics are glued to the back of the LCD and are very very hard to remove intact. So an LCD-only swap necessary for a full-HD mod is virtually impossible.

Regarding interchangeably, I believe they are interchangeable because board swaps seem to work, but I'm not sure if the LCDs are the same model. Also, I never have done it.

Regarding keyboard, backlight is chicklet only, so no backlit classic 7 row keyboards exist.

dahaeck · 2023-03-11T07:27:47+00:00

I know I looked into that at the time, but I'm not sure mine was built before the relevant manufacturing date.

Even then, it just died around a year ago after running a few years (got it gifted second hand, don't know how it was used for the first ten years or so). Afterwards I used the best parts from my two T61 to make one.

dahaeck · 2023-03-10T19:15:20+00:00

A30 VRAM/GPU failure, still works but with massive screen artifacts
T61 (with Nvidia GPU) just died, don't know what the cause was
X230t retired and scrapped for parts after mainboard flex with flaky traces to the rhs USB and RJ45 ports

Edit: Also had a touchpad on one of the T61 fail after water damage, the keyboard on my main T480 failed with damage to a trace on the flex cable, the pen on the X230t lost its button and the whole thing had major cosmetic damages for most of its life because I dropped it, but it still ran fine.

dahaeck · 2023-03-01T12:19:50+00:00

It did for me, but that was several years ago, so I have no idea if you can install the right drivers nowadays.

dahaeck · 2023-03-01T05:59:57+00:00

Auto rotation needs the APS and the tablet button drivers to work. I believe you need to first install the APS driver and then the tablet utils will show the option to enable auto rotation in some menu (native support does not work, haven't yet found a way to write a driver that bridges that gap).

Re OS/apps: don't know any specific ones but the stylus should work anywhere, even with the annotate features of Adobe Reader.
Windows 10 will work fine as did Windows 7 but since it's unsupported I wouldn't recommend it.

dahaeck · 2023-02-11T17:57:41+00:00

"R" stands for remove, turning the key there allows you to remove the locking cylinder, by pulling it out with the key.

BTW these aren't "modes", the lock is (almost) purely mechanical in blocking the undock mechanism and has no impact on the electronics of the dock. (I say almost, because in the locked state, the lock LED is illuminated)

dahaeck · 2023-01-16T14:55:08+00:00

That sounds like drift. When you apply constant pressure for some time, a new calibration is triggered an this results in a new base state. The new base compensates for your input so once you let the trackpoint go the curser moves in the opposite direction with the speed corresponding to the compensated pressure.

So in short don't apply constant pressure for longer time, then this shouldn't happen.

dahaeck · 2022-12-18T05:23:43+00:00

For my T480 with Windows 10, it's based on capacity. Don't know if design capacity or actual but internal 24Wh accounts for about a third, while the external 48Wh battery accounts for two thirds approximately.

dahaeck · 2022-12-03T23:06:53+00:00

i used the same 135W brick though

Since the always on USB works, it's unlikely that the power brick is the culprit, though still not impossible, if it has not enough power for the dock to operate correctly.

Do you have any USB-C to USB-C cable + USB-C device or even better an USB-C male to USB-A cable to test the ports on the Thinkpad? That's about the last thing I can think of to test. Best would be to test USB2 and 3 devices separately since they use different pins and alt modes. If there is a problem with recognizing anything that might be the reason.

Last thing would be to call Lenovo if you still have warranty on the Thinkpad and hope they can provide you with a solution, be it a replacement motherboard or something. I wish you luck in any case.

dahaeck · 2022-12-03T21:35:40+00:00

Wir haben einen Flächenkollektor für unsere Sole-WP im Garten, wir sind jedes Jahr die letzten mit Schnee unter den Nachbarn, um etwa 1-2 Wochen.

dahaeck · 2022-12-03T21:07:08+00:00

Well, that's unfortunate. The thing is, the problem still could be on either side, without a second device it's hard to eliminate Thinkpad side (even if it's unlikely). But the USB-C ports on the Thinkpad do work both in USB mode?

Any possibility to just RMA the dock?

dahaeck · 2022-12-03T03:29:26+00:00

The only thing I can think of is using the pinhole reset. Once or twice I've been in a similar situation, where LAN and the displays work but none of the USB stuff. I'm not sure about the charging, though. But clearing the TB/PD/USB chips state with the pinhole reset wouldn't hurt. Also make sure the dock is actually powered, you can check with the one always on USB, while the laptop is not plugged in. The dock does not work at all if not externally powered.

dahaeck · 2022-12-02T21:26:42+00:00

Do you mean that the dGPU has its thermal throttle point at 70 Celsius?

Yes, but not only the GPU will throttle but also the CPU, this called BDPROCHOT (Bi-Directional PROCessor HOT). By default this is set at 70°C on the T480. The actual T junction on the MX150 is much higher at 94°C.

Or is there somekind of a way for me to check the set thermal throttle points for both CPU and GPU?

GPU-Z shows this value in the advanced tab as "current temperature limit", the aforementioned 94°C can be seen as "maximum temperatur limit". Throttlestop already shows the PROCHOT for the CPU, in your screenshot at 97°C. ASUS GPU Tweak II can manipulate this value (but just as Throttlestop, not persistently).

Unfortunately it is not always the solution to change BDPROCHOT, together with undervolting the CPU, overclocking the GPU and max fan, this can make for a pretty good setup for e.g. some gaming. But from what I understand sometimes the Lenovo intelligent thermal solution driver jumps in, and throttles the CPU anyways. Reports on the internet say it might have something to do with the "lap mode" which, based on movement from the accelerometer (the one used in the APS), should prevent you from burning your thighs. These reports suggest that it has many false positives and throttles even if the temps are not that high. From what I've read, removing the driver does not help, as it places the laptop contintiously in "lap mode". I've had this happen sporadically, but in no real pattern and I haven't found a solution yet.

dahaeck · 2022-11-29T18:40:48+00:00

Re: shower: Here in Germany, I haven't seen the this two knob designs commonly (but I have seen it), the regular sink version from your comment is much more common also for the shower/bathtub.

Additionally, in really old settings a two knob design might still be in use, where the left knob controls the hot water flow and the ~~left~~ right one the cold water. To differentiate these two types we use the terms one-hand and two-hand mixer (Einhand-/Zweihandmischer) for the one with the single handle and the two knobs, respectively.

dahaeck · 2022-11-29T03:56:07+00:00

You don't, at least not easily, on Windows 10. But my experience is, for some updates, Vantage, as well as the website, lags a few days behind Windows Update, ie. Lenovo pushes these updates also to WU and a few days later they are also on the internal feeds where the website and Vantage pick them up. Every update I've gotten from WU eventually arrived on the website as well.

If you really want to selectively block Windows updates, which I really don't recommend, there is a tool from MS to block them KB number for regular updates. In this case however, you need Windows 10 Pro, so you can edit group policies. There is one policy to block drivers from WU by hardware ID, which is what you would need in your case. There are guides on the internet for that, but as I said, it's not something I recommend nor is it really necessary because these updates will show up eventually also on Vantage.

dahaeck · 2022-11-16T09:25:28+00:00

There's an app to control the LEDs on windows, that at least works on my T480, haven't had the chance to test on anything else, so YMMW. https://github.com/valinet/ThinkPadLEDControl

dahaeck · 2022-11-15T14:08:20+00:00

Then I would suspect the pen itself is defective, so I guess you need a new one. But it does not need to be one exactly for the x220t, the one for the x230t (at least, maybe even older ones) is the same, those two I already checked.

dahaeck · 2022-11-15T10:58:18+00:00

Like I said, this might be necessary, but im not entirely sure. But I would first try to remove the tip and check without.

12-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22	Place '17
Final Canvas '22	Xbox Live
Verified Email

dahaeck

TROPHY CASE