Thread

Macintosh Portable 5120 with backlight upgrade

Macintosh Portable 5120 with backlight upgrade Hardware 12 posts Dec 11, 2013 — Dec 11, 2013

#1 Wed, 11 Dec 2013 - 18:12

Just got this today.

A Macintosh Portable 5120 with backlight upgrade. It didn't power up (as expected). Unfortunately, battery is dead and the motherboard needs recapping. I heard one faint beep once after hundred of tried resetting it and it looked like it tried to start but then died. I did have to wipe off some capacitor goo from the underside of the board (must have went through a via) but I was able to swap parts with another one and get everything including the hard drive going.

Question: Is this the same as the 5126 backlight screen? Just curious as it looks to be he same shade of grey as the non-backlit.

Here's a couple of terrible looking pics.

#2 Wed, 11 Dec 2013 - 18:31

Nice score!

Where'd you find this machine, anyway?

#3 Wed, 11 Dec 2013 - 18:40

The LEMSwap list. Shipping was a killer as usual but it's a semi-backlit that I didn't have.

#4 Wed, 11 Dec 2013 - 18:57

cool man could you take a couple high rez pic's of that back light card front and back?

Great find. yeah the screen looks like a normal BackLit screen.

#5 Wed, 11 Dec 2013 - 19:14

Absolutely. I took a couple of pics before but they didn't come out good (I need a new camera because I broke my better one yesterday by dropping it on the extended lens

). Here's a couple from my phone.

#6 Wed, 11 Dec 2013 - 19:39

LOL AWESOME.

can you also take a better picture of the patch pcb that connects monitor cable to the cable from the card?

#7 Wed, 11 Dec 2013 - 19:51

Nice conquest! I like it. :approve:

HRMMMMM???????????????? How about some pics detailing the actual Backlight section in the lid? [}

] ]'>

#8 Wed, 11 Dec 2013 - 20:18

LOL AWESOME.
can you also take a better picture of the patch pcb that connects monitor cable to the cable from the card?

You're going to make me break it, aren't you? Unlike the normal screen above with the blue ribbon cable that goes into the display, this has a rust colored mylar flat cable. The white connector connects to this mylar flat cable as does the short blue ribbon cable piece that connects to the normal 5120 motherboard.

Here you go.

#9 Wed, 11 Dec 2013 - 20:24

HRMMMMM???????????????? How about some pics detailing the actual Backlight section in the lid? [}] ]'>

If someone tells me for certain that this is not a regular backlit display, I can be persuaded to take it apart. I have taken my other display apart before because I have a black horizontal one pixel line about 90% across the screen. Couldn't fix it but the display electronics was impressive.

#10 Wed, 11 Dec 2013 - 21:03

ah ok i see… yeah looks like the monitor cable is unique. for these…

I'm thinking the screen is a normal back lit screen but with a unique monitor cable that includes 2 connections. one from the Back Light card… and the LCD data cable. interesting.

i bet it would be super easy for anyone to retrofit a LED back light strip into 5120 or 5126 screen.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LED-Trailer-Light-Clear-White-Reverse-Back-up-Utility-20-Diode-18-5-8-long-/291032919022?pt=Motors_RV_Trailer_Camper_Parts_Accessories&hash=item43c2e9ebee&vxp=mtr

lol or maybe other hackish ways. i mean there is a 12v rail

Screen shot 2013-12-11 at 4.01.33 PM.jpg

#11 Wed, 11 Dec 2013 - 21:25

That is interesting. So the upgrade would have included the card AND the screen. That would have been expensive and probably why these are rare. Cosmo had one a few moths back and the serial numbers on the card were not that far off. From the sticker on the front, I would guess his is #509 and mine is # 618 of the ones made.

#12 Wed, 11 Dec 2013 - 22:00

i bet it would be super easy for anyone to retrofit a LED back light strip into 5120 or 5126 screen . . .< snip >

. . . lol or maybe other hackish ways. i mean there is a 12v rail

Aha! Are taking note of, decoding and extrapolating form my "HRRMMMSSSSS????" now, uni? :lol: