Inspiron 7720 motherboard - LCD Connector specification

Sorry, i know this is a kind of newbie question. Apparently my cable is an LCD eDP, while the port is LCD LVDS. Does anyone know if there is a eDP to LVDS converter that would fit inside a 7720?

Thanks

There are such converters, but whether one will (a) fit and (b) work is open only to experiment.

You're  in all likelihood going to need to swap either the mainboard or the display panel and wiring harness to make this work.

There are two different boards used in these systems -- one with hybrid video and one with discrete 3D nVidia video.  

I can't make sense of this.  I have board DA0R09MB6H1, but unlike the pic above, it does NOT have a eDP connector, rather, the 40 pin LVDS connector (like posted in the DA0R09MB6H3 pic above).  And in fact, I have scoured the web, ebay, etc. and do not see any of either boards with that eDP connector at all, anywhere but this forum thread!

The board ID does not indicate what components are actually soldered on to it, that much I have determined, but I don't know what the diff is between these two (6H1 vs 6H3).  Anyone know??

Here is the confusing part:  

My LCD is LP173WD1, which supposedly is eDP, and yet it has a 40 pin (not 30 pin) connector, and plugs right into this LVDS spot on the motherboard.  I also have a B173RW01 LCD which is labeled as LVDS, again, same 40 pin cable and connector, and ALSO plugs right into this MB and works.

I thought eDP and LVDS are not compatible, even if you happen to have connectors that work out. Aren't they different protocols, signals, etc?  I also heard you can overheat things (GPU?) if you run the wrong one.  If anyone here can make sense of what Dell has done here, that would be appreciated.

The version of the board that supports nVidia 3D video is the one that has an eDP port.  The others use LVDS ports.

If you need the board with an eDP connector for the 3D screen, it's this one

www.parts-people.com/index.php

Oh wait, you re talking about "3D Vision", not merely 3d graphics.

Further confusion clarified: Both my LCDs are LVDS, which is why they work on my MB. I knew you cannot rely on the MB PCB ID and revision as a way to know what the MB supports, but I did not realize the model number labels also cannot be trusted to differentiate. The LP173WD1 screen I have can be EITHER eDP or LVDS!  There is another part of the label that actually indicates which one. Ugh... these components are so not straight forward.

Mystery mostly solved. Thanks for pointing out the 3D difference specifically. labels and IDs are still a good mystery. :)

Yes, the 3DVision used a different (actually two different -- one with two memory sockets and the other, four) mainboard from the lower-spec models in this series.

That can't be right. I have an LVDS screen and cable with 40 pins plugged into the connector clearly marked as LVDS on the MB PCB, and this board has the nVidia GT 630M chip.

Furthermore, you can see these MB's all over eBay with and without the nVidia chip, all with the LVDS connector. As mentioned, the only place I've ever seen the eDP connector actually on the board is in this thread above.

I am having ongoing issues with my Dell Inspiron 5720 (Intel Core i5 2.5GHz processor) freezing up frequently but in spurts. I can go a whole day with no issue and then suddenly my screen will freeze when I move the laptop or just touch it, but it only occasionally goes to BSOD. I haven't installed any new hardware recently and don't use any peripherals. I've used Windows repair tool (running Windows 7 Home Premium SP1) and run Bios diagnostics but everything checks out. I have a relatively new Samsung SSD which checks out fine in the Bios test also. The problem does go away after that temporarily, but returns within a day. I've dismantled it several times to try to diagnose any hardware problems visually, but cannot see any physical signs of damage or scoring.

A friend suggested refreshing the thermal paste, but I'm not sure how that would be causing the problem. Any thoughts?

My next step, if necessary, is to try replacing the motherboard. I have the DA0R09MB6H1 model which is version with the onboard Intel HD Graphics 4000, but I am wondering if I can convert to the DA0R09MB6H3 motherboard which I think from previous postings on this thread has the nVidia GT 630M chip instead, but I'm not sure whether that is integrated or dedicated and in either case whether that may cause problems with not having enough physical space inside the casement since my model originally had an integrated graphics card. It sounds like these two models use the same connector type since I don't have a 3D vision screen and wouldn't be switching to that version of the nVidia card, but I don't know whether they are configured similarly enough that I wouldn't have a problem just swapping them out.

@jatnlcc, you need a new board. You described exactly what mine was doing.  I believe it is due to the video chip itself actually having bad solder that fails.  When flipping the screen up and down, it flexes the MB and tends to aggravate the failing connection.  Eventually it will fail completely (no boot).  

You could try reflow (heating the video chip, or the entire MB to a specific temp and remelt the solder), but I tried that to no avail.  I bought a NEW board off ebay (forget used) for about $60 and it's working great.  My system was and is configured for nvidia, and @ejn63 above is correct about other components (especially power/heat sink) that need to change.  It may also require a video cable change.  

Be aware, the ID numbers of the boards do NOT tell the full story about the components actually on them.  For example, DA0R09MB6H3 comes with and without 2 hard drive connectors in place. In fact, I think it even comes with and without nvidia.  I don't remember how you can tell the difference, but it's not by that number. I had to study the pics carefully to make sure it matched everything I expected (I literally looked for the video chips in their place, the right video connector, etc.)