As promised, here’s the article on upgrading your Studio 155x from a 720p screen to a 1080p one.

First, I should caution you that I did this on a Studio 1558 with the ATI Radeon HD 5470 graphics option and a 720p LED panel. I can’t promise that it will work on models other than the 1558, or with the older ATI HD 4750 or built-in Intel graphics. If you have success with any of those, comment here and I’ll add that information.

Some people might ask why I didn’t purchase my 1558 with the 1080p screen in the first place. By the time I was ready to buy the laptop, Dell had cut way back on the available configurations as they were phasing out the Studio line. Also, if you look at used / refurbished 155x systems on eBay, you’ll see that most of them have the 720p screen and that 1080p units cost more (and have less selection) than purchasing a 720p unit and upgrading the screen yourself.

Refer to the service manual (or DCSE if you have it) for detailed disassembly procedures. With some practice, you can do this without dismounting the lid from the base, but for first-timers I’d recommend following the service procedures.

If you have a lid without the wireless broadband or Bluetooth antennas (see earlier post), this would be a good time to change lids since you’re going to have the system apart anyway. A spare bezel (interchangeable parts W440J or 06DV9) may be useful to have, in case you break any of the latch tabs when removing the old one.

Assuming your 1558 has discrete Radeon HD5470 graphics, you will need a W805M cable. Refer to the parts list at the end of this article if your 1558 has integrated graphics. This connects the mainboard to the flat panel, and also includes the cable for the camera. You cannot re-use the W439J cable from your 720p display – it has different wiring. If you purchase a used cable, you will also need some double-sided tape to attach the cable to your new panel. Be careful when purchasing this cable – many eBay sellers think these 2 part numbers are interchangeable – they aren’t. To help you identify a cable in an eBay listing (watch out for “Picture may not be of the actual item” in the description), here are extreme close-up photos of the 2 cables.

This is the W439J cable for a 720p display (LED panel end). Note that there’s a big gap in the middle of the connector with no wires, and a sequence of blue and black (some look white due to the camera flash) wires to the right of the gap:

This is the W805M cable for a 1080p display (LED panel end). This cable has wires spaced pretty evenly throughout the connector. The sequence of yellow and blue wires indicates that this is for a 1080p panel:

You will also need either a H162K (gloss) or C088T (semi-matte) 1080p LED panel. Watch out for “compatible” panels – these 2 part numbers have a display ID (EDID) coded into them, and the notebook won’t accept the display panel if this ID is missing. If purchasing on eBay, you might want to ask the seller for a photograph of the back of the panel, and/or a guarantee of a 100% refund if the panel isn’t compatible.

Here is what the back of the C088T panel looks like:

This is a close-up of the label with the Dell part number:

The first thing I suggest doing is plugging your new cable into the new panel and running a few tests. Do NOT stick the tape on the cable to the panel yet. You can lean the new panel up against the lid (in front of the old panel) and plug the cable into the mainboard.

Your first test will be to run a panel power-up diagnostic. To do this, press and hold the “D” key on the keyboard (D for display) while pressing the power button. The display should cycle through a series of solid colors and then go dark. With this test, you’re verifying that you have the cable attached properly and that there are no bad pixels (or an acceptable number, if you purchased a panel with possible pixel defects to save money). A brief flicker before the panel displays the first solid color (white) is normal and not a defect with the panel.

If that test passes, power off the system and then power it back on. You should see the Dell logo and the system should then boot into Windows (or whatever operating system you are running). If you get a black screen and the system appears dead, you have a panel that does not have its EDID programmed (most likely), an incompatible panel, or you have a system that doesn’t support 1080p (not likely, at least if you have the same 1558 with HD 5470 graphics that I do).

At this point, you can shut down the system and commence the panel swap. Set your new panel aside while you remove the old panel from the lid. Be sure to carefully unplug the cable from the camera before pulling the old panel away from the lid. Set the old panel face-down on a padded surface (to prevent scratching it). Place your new panel on the padded surface in the same orientation. You should now see where the sticky tape holds the cable to the old panel (3 places – by the panel’s 40-pin connector, at the edge of the panel where the cable changes to round, and at the edge of the panel where the camera is located). Carefully peel the backing off the new cable’s sticky tape and stick it to the new panel. This will involve pressing (gently!) on two areas of the panel that have “Don’t Touch!” warnings.

Now, remove the mounting brackets from the left and right sides of the old panel (2 screws on each side) and transfer them to the new panel. Left and right are NOT interchangeable, so keep track of what goes where. If you are building a whole new lid, you could use a set of spare brackets, part number W981J. You may need 4 screws to go with the brackets if they aren’t included. You might also want the camera, part number 7RGXF. With all of those parts, you can build a whole new lid and keep the original as a spare.

Carefully re-install the new panel, taking care to plug the webcam cable in before trying to seat the panel all the way. Re-attach the lid to the base of the PC if you removed it. Plug the display and camera cables into the mainboard and boot your operating system to ensure functionality. Be sure to test the webcam as well as the display – you don’t want to have to disassemble the lid once you put the bezel back on. Make sure that the display cable is routed under the tab at the point where it makes a 90-degree turn toward the connector. If the cable isn’t properly located, you’ll get a bulge in the keyboard surround because it won’t seat properly. I’ve observed this on new systems from Dell as well.

If the display and camera are operating correctly, you can now attach the bezel to the lid and replace any other parts that you removed to work on the lid, such as the keyboard surround.

You may find that the default Windows text size is too small when using a 15.6″ 1920 x 1080 display. You can refer to this Microsoft article to select a larger text size. Dell ships their 1080p 155x systems with this set to 125%. Dell also modifies the login screen font size, which requires editing the Windows Registry. You can find an article describing the procedure in Microsoft Answers.

Here are the most common part numbers you will need:

• 4DKNR – 1558 motherboard with discrete Radeon HD5470 graphics
• G939P – 1558 motherboard with integrated CPU graphics (no quad-core support, often doesn’t have WWAN connector)
• 2X6C1 – heatsink/fan assembly for discrete Radeon HD5470 graphics
• 644D0 – Heatsink for integrated CPU graphics
• W956J – Fan for integrated CPU graphics
• W805M – display cable for discrete (1920 x 1080 display only)
• W439J – display cable for discrete (all except 1920 x 1080 display)
• NHKMC – display cable for integrated (1920 x 1080 display only)
• RWH6V – display cable for integrated (all except 1920 x 1080 display)

Converting a system from integrated graphics to discrete Radeon HD5470 graphics will require a 4DKNR motherboard, a 2X6C1 heatsink/fan assembly, and a W805M or W439J display cable, depending on your screen resolution.

Edit: Updated 24-Mar-2021 to fix dead link to Dell service manual and add a section on motherboard and display cable part numbers and upgrading from integrated to discrete graphics.

Two years ago I wrote about the second set of replacement batteries for my APC Symmetra RM UPS. Those batteries are still working, but at 8+ years old the various fans in the UPS were getting a bit tired and making various high-pitched whines and grating noises, so it was time for a complete set of replacement fans.

There are 3 different types of fans used in the Symmetra RM – ones in the SYPM2KU power module (2 fans each), ones in the SYTF2 transformer (2 fans each – see footnote), and one in the Symmetra RM chassis itself.

The fans used in the power module are Mechatronics F8025X24B-FHR which is rather hard to find. I purchased mine from Online Components. You will have to splice the connectors from the old fans onto the wires of the replacement fans. If your UPS has sufficient redundancy to allow removal of one power module at a time, you can replace these fans without shutting down the UPS.

The fans used in the transformer are NMB-MAT 3115PS-12T-B30. These are widely available and I purchased mine from Newark Electronics. Note that it is perfectly normal for only one of the two fans to run – the other one is used only when the transformer detects an overheating condition. The cable for these fans just plugs into the fan – no re-wiring is necessary. You will have to shut down the UPS and disconnect the transformer to work on the fans, however.

The main Symmetra RM fan is a Comair-Rotron FE12H0X-039453 which is a semi-custom part for APC. This fan also has a sensor to report its speed, so you can’t just substitute a random 80mm fan. Fortunately, APC makes it possible to order this part at a reasonable price. It is APC part 490-0024B. I ordered mine from CDW, and despite it being a special-order item, it shipped rapidly. This fan comes with the necessary connector pre-installed. It can be replaced while the UPS is running, however the UPS MUST be placed into bypass mode via the switch on the rear panel, or the UPS will shut down with a “System fan fault” error when you unplug the old fan.

The old fans provided nearly 9 years of continuous service, and not all needed replacing – I just decided it would be better to replace them all at once rather than one-at-a-time as they became noisy.

Today I’m going to start a discussion regarding the late-model (1555/1557/1558) Dell Studio laptops and their wireless and networking options. This started when I ordered a Dell Wireless 5620 card for a Studio 1558 computer I had purchased. This is the combined mobile broadband / GPS card intended for the Studio 155x systems.

I was quite surprised when I opened the access panel on the bottom of the computer to install the card and discovered that there were no antenna cables for it in there, despite the service manual saying there would be.

As I continued to investigate, I found a number of places where the service manual was flat-out wrong, and a bewildering array of Dell part numbers. Let’s get one thing out of the way – the “Service Manual” that Dell makes available on their web site is NOT the manual that their techs use. Their internal manual has a lot more information and goes into things in a lot more depth than the customer service manual. Dell doesn’t make their internal manual available to the public, but you might have some luck with search terms like “Dell Certified Systems Expert” or “Dell Foundations 2009 Portables”.

Anyway, let’s get the easy stuff out of the way first. That will be Bluetooth. The customer service manual claims that there are 3 mini-PCI Express sockets underneath the bottom cover. That is only true for some systems. On both of my 1558’s there was a soldered-in chip where the manual says the Bluetooth socket is located. I am not sure what that chip is (it is under a heat sink). It isn’t the ATI graphics chip as that is next to the CPU and handled by the main system heat sink and fan:

That’s OK, because that card needs an external bluetooth antenna, which your system probably doesn’t have. Fortunately, there is a second Bluetooth socket on the other side of the motherboard. That socket takes a Wireless 365 bluetooth card that doesn’t need an external antenna:

Unfortunately, getting to this location involves a near-complete disassembly of the laptop. For the gruesome details, look at the service manual in the link above.

The first picture in this article shows an Intel Ultimate-N 6300 MIMO (3-antenna) WiFi card and the Wireless 5620 card installed in the card bay. Careful observers may have noticed that the 6300 card doesn’t have a Dell part number on it. That’s because I purchased a generic retail card, not the Dell one, as I could get it for a better price that way. Installing the cards is the easy part. If you didn’t order your computer with the 5620 option, you won’t have the antennas you need. When I asked Dell why they sold a card that couldn’t be used, they just sort of mumbled “dunno”. I don’t understand why they did this – it created a huge assortment of part numbers for them to inventory (aside from making upgrades harder). The Studio 155x was available in at least seven different lid colors. Each of those has at least three possible antenna configurations – WiFi only, WiFi + mobile broadband, and WiFi + mobile broadband + Bluetooth. That creates 21 different part numbers to stock instead of 7 if they built the systems with all the antennas.

Dell won’t sell you a replacement lid (even if you could figure out the correct part number) because it isn’t considered a customer-replacable part. So it is off to eBay, where I discovered that sellers had no idea what options the lids they were selling included. I received flat-out incorrect answers from a number of sellers I’ve found to be reliable in the past.

The next part of this article could be called “A Field Guide to Studio 155x Lids”. It will teach you what to look for in an eBay auction, as well as how to tell if a lid is really new as the seller says. Later on I’ll tell you the part numbers for the most common lid and bezel to help your searches.

This sequence of four photographs shows the four corners of the inside of a Studio 155x lid. I’ll start at the top left and proceed clockwise. This first picture shows you the WiFi antenna. It will have 2 wires, a black and a white, that connect to the WiFi card in the base. This particular antenna also includes one of the mobile broadband antennas which is black with a gray stripe. Note that this is one particular style of lid – others can have silver-colored foil instead of the copper you see here, may have black circuit boards instead of green ones, and may have different markings. The important thing is whether or not there is an antenna at each location, not what it looks like:

Next is the antenna at the top right. If your lid has this antenna, it supports mobile broadband. This antenna has one wire, gray with a white stripe:

Now we have the bottom right antenna. If your lid has this antenna, it supports Bluetooth. This antenna has one wire, which is blue:

Last is the bottom left. This is the MIMO (3rd) antenna for WiFi. All lids have this. The antenna has one wire, gray:

Now that you know how to tell what antennas are included on a lid, I’ll show you how to tell if it is new or used. New lids will have clear plastic caps on all antenna wires (anywhere from 3 to 6, depending on what antennas are installed):

If your lid doesn’t have all the caps installed, it is almost certainly a used lid. Next, the antenna wires and the wire from the power switch will be taped near the middle of the lid with masking tape:

The outside of a new lid will also have a piece of protective clear plastic on it, with 6 cutouts for 6 pieces of masking tape:

One thing to be careful of is sellers who mark their listings “Photograph may not be the actual item”, or who list the condition as “New – Other”. I’ve found lots of New – Other listings which were actually parts stripped off of systems.

The part numbers you probably want are W855P (sometimes written 0W855P) and W440J. The W855P part is a lid with every possible antenna installed, in the “Black Chain-link” color (which seems to be the most popular color). The W440J is the black bezel that snaps on the inside of the cover. You’re almost certainly going to damage at least one of the latch tabs on your old bezel when you take the display apart, so you may as well order a new one with the lid and just use that. Part number 06DV9 is an interchangeable part number for the bezel.

If, for some reason, you want the part number for some other combination of color and antenna (like Plum Purple w/ mobile broadband but no Bluetooth), add a comment to this entry and I’ll post it.

The next 155x article will be the highly-anticipated tutorial on replacing a 720p display with the 1080p one.

Edit: Updated 24-Mar-2021 to fix dead link to Dell service manual and provide currect motherboard part number (in comments).

Just got back from the TSO show in Newark, NJ. I’ll update this post with a more detailed write-up and some video later on, but I wanted to get some of the pictures I took posted right away.

Update: Added a video and some additional text.

My camera (a Fujifilm F300EXR) had a lot of trouble with the lighting at this show (compare with the same camera shooting the Rush concert in the previous blog entry). The problems were due to the stage either being dark or flashing brief bright lights / fireballs. These are some of the best shots:

To give people in the “cheap seats” a better show, various performers would run to a second stage at the other end of the arena floor, or out on catwalks suspended above the arena floor:

The finale – there were lots of streamers and sparklers, including pinwheels:

At the end, various performers gave away items to people in the first dozen or so rows – drumsticks, violin bows, guitar picks, and so forth. One boy was presented with a guitar used in the show.

Here’s a video I shot of Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24. Sorry about the poor focus and the streaks in the video – the camera was having a very difficult time in the show’s very dim lighting. Hopefully the sound will make up for it:

(The above video is the full 720P version. Click the icon on the top right to go fullscreen.)