I'm thinking of executing the "picture frame" case mod on an old Wallstreet PB that is just taking up space. (My daily driver for years. *snif*)
There's something that seems striking about laptop LCDs as compared to desktop LCD panels, and it's that the desktop panels seem brighter across the board. I'm suspecting that this comes down to a power-demand tradeoff. (Battery power vs wall-wart power, yada yada yada..)
So here's my Question. Given that this Wallstreet is gonna spend the rest of its days plugged into the wall, is there any way I can swap in a brighter (higher power) cold cathode flourescent lamp? Or am I 
off base on my assumption, or (b) not even asking the right question?
Any thoughts or suggestions apreciated!
To do the swap you may need to put in a higher power inverter too. One option m ay be to do a white LED swap. That should consume less power, and you can put in as many LEDs as needed to have an even brightness and as much power as you want.
Soooo, you're implying that the answer is "yes", right? Can you aim me toward a company or modding site that discusses this? (I'll go out a-Googling, but any short-cuts you could suggest would be WAY helpful. Thanks for the encouragement to pursue this!
I don't know of much off hand, but many backlight inverters for CCFL tubes run off 12v. Thus, if your particular panel does as well you can just drop in a more powerful inverter and tube. And hope the 12v rail it's coming from was designed with some leeway... You'd have to figure out how brightness is controlled and hack that in too, unless you want it max at all times. Most older models use a hardware slider or turn pot. to control brightness. Many newer ones do it in software.
For an LED hack, you'll probably still take power off the 12v that the original inverter does, but instead of stepping it up many times, you might leave it as-is or step it down, depending on the design of your intended LED setup. I'd think several LEDs in series might get the voltage drop necessary to keep from over volting them, and then you could do a second series set in parallel to the first for the other side of the display, if it uses two tubes. I'd be sure to figure out some way of protecting the LEDs from too much power, inc ase the 12v or whatever you tap into isn't very stable.
Keep in mind that brighter LCD panels almost certainly have better contrast ratios then the older dimmer versions. I suspect if you just pump up the brightness of the backlight you'll find the panel will look rather washed out. (Think "medium gray" instead of "black".) Admittedly for some purposes that may not matter much.
--Peace
I've since found more-than-a-few sources for CCFL tubes, (googling "LCD repair",) but I cannot find any references for replacing the CCFL with an LED array of any kind. Jon, (or anyone,) any bread crumbs leading that way would be GREATLY appreciated.