Thinkpads Forum

Getting a maxed out ThinkPad W540 in a few days, it has everything maxed from the factory - the Intel i7-4930mx, 32GB of RAM (4x8GB), the 512GB SSD (I plan to upgrade that but still use it as a secondary), Nvidia Quadro K2100m, etc, even the Pantone Colorimeter in the palmrest. But for some strange baffling reason this machine, from the factory, has the 1920x1080 TN FHD panel in it and I honestly haven't got a clue why someone would max it out but gimp on the display panel and not get the 2880x1620 IPS one.

Anyway, I'm not really interested in getting a replacement 2880x1620 IPS panel, but I would like to get a 1920x1080 IPS and I'm looking at various parts at this time. I would love to find out with 100% certainty that there is a 3840x2160 QHD IPS panel that could work in the W540 as well, but if not then a proper 1920x1080 IPS is fine with me. I know Lenovo gimped out and never offered the 1920x1080 IPS option for whatever dumbass reasons they had at the time, but I *should* be able to get such a panel into this machine without any issues.

Just wondering if anyone else has done such an upgrade, or does everyone just grab the 2880x1620 IPS panel and be done with it. The 3840x2160 would be nice 'cause I'd still run it at 1920x1080 and just get the better looking image quality overall.

If anyone has any input I'm all eyes... and yes I do plan to replace the craptastic W540 trackpad with one from the W541 soon too, got a docking station on order as well.

Thanks for any advice or suggestions...
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I think you'll have to look in the frubom/partslist from the T560 before you'll find a 15.6" FHD IPS screen.
00HT624 N INX15.6”HDTNAG,slim220nit
00HT919 N 15.6,FHD,AG,N-Touch,IPS,SDC,slim
00HT920 N 15.6,FHD,AG,N-Touch,IPS,BOE,slim
00HT921 N 15.6,FHD,AG,N-Touch,IPS,LGD,slim
00NY534 N LGD15.6FHDIPSAGIn-Cell
00NY640 N 15",HD,non-glare,non-touch,AG
04X4064 N Panasonic15.5"FHD++AG

This is assuming your W540 has at least 2-lane eDP 30-pin with the same pinout as those newer screens.

Yah, it is truly odd why Lenovo would gimp not only the LCD options on the W540 but that darn trackpad as well so I suppose my work will be cut out for me as I attempt to track down a proper 1920x1080 matte IPS panel that could be a suitable swap. The chances of me discovering a proper 3840x2160 matte IPS panel are so slim I don't suspect it'll happen but I have some hope.

Thanks for the response and the info...

I was able to get an AUO B156HAN01.2 as I'd hoped and successfully installed it in my W540 in about 6 minutes, gotta say that was the easiest panel swap I have *ever* done in my 4 decades of working with computers overall. Picture quality is quite nice, specs say it's 300 nits with a 700:1 contrast ratio. I had to tinker around with the Pantone calibration software because it's coded to work only with LENOVO panel HardwareIDs but I did get it functional. Unfortunately when it does a calibration with this AUO panel everything looks washed out so I suppose there's an issue somewhere with the configuration data which basically renders the colorimeter absolutely worthless now, sadly.

Anyway, I found an icc/icm profile for this panel over at NotebookCheck from one of their reviews and it's about as accurate as I suppose I'm going to be able to get it unless I find someone locally with a professional calibrator from X-Rite or Datacolor to do it properly.

So far so good...