u/henkieschmenkie

Finally finished the upgrade/refurbishment project of my new-to-me X1 Carbon Gen 9 today. It already got a new WWAN C-cover and keyboard, WWAN bottom cover, trackpad, WWAN antennas and 4G modem, mobo with 32 GB RAM, and today a gorgeous new screen.

It's the AUO B140QAN08.K, a 120 Hz 2880x1800 screen. I specifically chose this one because it allows for 200% UI scaling, is 100% sRGB and not DCI-P3 (DCI-P3 requires gamut taming or accepting oversaturated colours in too many places) and has a modest power consumption of 3,7 W at maximum. An easier alternative would have been the AUO B140QAN03.H but it would have been a compromise on all those three points, especially power consumption (6,15 W maximum, ouch).

More images here: https://imgur.com/a/9mpPJXY

Fitment required some creativity. This panel has the eDP connector at the very bottom of the screen, while the stock options have it way higher, leaving you with a tight bend for the cable to make and lots of cable that needs to go somewhere. Stripping the new 4k eDP cable of its protective tape near the screen end made it flexible. Routing it behind one of the supports for the bezel made the bend way less tight. Tucking the remaining surplus cable under the motherboard finally allowed it all to be connected.

The controller board also is at the very bottom of the panel which places it slightly on top of the hinges, lifting it up slightly when the panel is shifted more towards the bottom but everything luckily turned out fine when the panel was aligned well with the bezel. Alignment again requires some creativity because there are no spacers or whatever.

One final hurdle was the DisplayID (the new EDID) detection on Windows. For some reason, the Intel drivers only pick up the base EDID and not the DisplayID extension, leaving you with only the 60 Hz mode. Custom Resolution Utility saved the day and allowed the panel to work on 120 Hz. On Linux, the DisplayID extension gets picked up as it should.

From left to right: Mick Makker, Dieuwke Fetter, Gert-Jan van Doorn, Ruben Knab, Sander de Graaf, Jacob van de Kerkhof, Ralf Rienks

Bought a 2nd-hand X1 Carbon Gen 9 that I knew had motherboard issues so I was going to relace it anyway. One USB-C port not working was not among the issues listed but found out quickly. I did inform myself about the charging IC failure due to overheating, reading stories about the ICs being black or otherwise discoloured so I was curious to see what mine looked like. But didn't quite expect this: that USB-C port's IC had desoldered itself!