Old Dell 2001FP Ribbon Cable

[Nucklez]

Hey everybody! Sorry that my first post is a question, but I've recently ran across your forums with an issue that I had with some shotty caps on an old Sapphire video card. I saw your display section here and thought I'd throw this out there. I saw a post from 2010 on this particular issue, and wanted to see if you guys have any suggestions. My ribbon cable to the far side of the display has come loose, causing the display to show the 3" or so set of green vertical lines down the side of the screen. The more I mess with that cable, the worse it gets. I'm wondering how would one go about attaching this cable back? I'm pretty sure it isn't soldered, and there is no plug. It looks like it would be some sort of glue or something sticky to stick it on. I'll post some pics so you all can see what I'm talking about. Thanks for your help in advance, and I hope to lend some help in the future.

[momaka]

Re: Old Dell 2001FP Ribbon Cable

This issue is usually bad news for the panel - i.e. not repairable. The ribbon cable is soldered at the factory with special equipement.

You may be able to get the TV fixed temporarily by placing something on the ribbon cable to keep pressure on it. But there's no guarantee that this will work, or that if it does it won't appear again if you move or bump the TV.

[Nucklez]

Re: Old Dell 2001FP Ribbon Cable

I've had a piece of rubber pressed between it and a metal panel on the back. It fixed it for just a few hours, then it suddenly got extremely worse. That is why I took it apart again to find that it is actually loose from the center of the cable all the way over as you can somewhat see in the pictures. Now, I can't get anything with pressure in just the right spots to clear it up. Oh well, I guess I'll look into replacing the entire thing. Thanks for your help!

[jetadm123]

Re: Old Dell 2001FP Ribbon Cable

I also had a 2001fp with the vertical line problem. Apparently, it's a problem that inherent to this model due to bad welds on the flat ribbon connectors on the LCD panel. Sell the inverter and logic board on Ebay to help offset the cost of another monitor.

[Nucklez]

Re: Old Dell 2001FP Ribbon Cable

I was pretty close to giving up on this, when I stumbled across the heat gun -> pencil eraser "fix." I can see this being a temporary fix since the back of the LCD does get rather hot, and it will just do the same thing. Which made me wonder, why in the world would a manufacturer rely on a heat activated compound on something that gets as hot as these things do. I did some research, and found a couple of articles on what this compound is, and it is rather interesting. Looks like 3M is a major manufacturer of it. It goes by two names from what I've found so far. Z-Axis Conductive film as well as Anisotropic Conductive Film (ACF). Here is a couple of links I've ran across while doing the research.

3M's Product Page
http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3...nductiveFilms/

Flipchips tutorial describing how the stuff works. It's actually rather interesting.
http://www.flipchips.com/tutorial05.html

[CDGraves]

Re: Old Dell 2001FP Ribbon Cable

I believe the adhesive used is called Anisotropic Conductive Media (ACP). It is made by 3M. It is a glue with tiny metal balls in it. It makes an electrical connection in the Z-axis when the ribbon is pressed on to the board but does not conduct between the connectors in the X and Y axis. I have a similar problem with a ribbon cable that became unglued to the LCD glass in a Sanyo DP42848 TV. I have spent many hours online trying to acquire some of the ACP. It comes in a big roll and it seems you have to be a big company and buy many hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of it. There are special machines that press the cable on to the circuit board while heating the adhesive. From what I have learned so far, it seems there is no way for a one man home repair operation to reattach one of these cables.
If anyone knows of a way to acquire ACP in small affordable quantities or of some other way to reattach a polyimide flat cable, I would like know about it.