Thinkpad SL500 - external monitor resolution

[dennisparrish]

My client has a 19" monitor connected directly to his Thinkpad SL500 laptop. The highest resolution setting is 1400 x 1050 which he would like to use, but when that is selected, we cannot see the entire desktop. I hope I can describe this accurately - it appears that his START button would be about an inch to the left out of the viewable range. His OS is XP Pro. Currently, he is using it with a resolution od 1280 x 1024 which then shows his entire desktop the way it should appear. If anyone has any suggestions to make the 1400 x 1050 show the whole desktop on the 19" monitor, it would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. - Dennis

[Neil]

Welcome to the forum!

My guess is that the native resolution of the external monitor is 1280x1024. That's the resolution of my 19" monitors, and was fairly common for that size monitor.

[dennisparrish]

Hi and thank you Neil. Actually when it is booting, and before it ever reaches the OS, a message comes up generated by the monitor itself mentioning the optimum resolution being the 1400 X 1050 which confuses the matter even more in my mind.

[Neil]

Hmm....that is odd. What is the model number of the monitor?

[dennisparrish]

Hewlett Packard 19" Wide Monitor
Thanks again!

[Neil]

Well...1400x1050 is not a wide resolution. That's a 4x3 resolution. If we knew the model number for the monitor, we could look up it's native rez. But, the 1280x1024 that you say "shows his entire desktop the way it should appear", is not a wide resolution either.

Another thing to check is whether the proper graphics driver is installed. If he's using the standard XP graphics driver, it may not correctly read the EDID on the monitor.

[dennisparrish]

Neil, the model is L1908w - product GP536A8 and I apologize because I had the initial resolution wrong. It should be 1440 X 900 @ 60 Hz

[Neil]

OK, I'm back. Sorry to leave you hanging, I had to go off and try to earn a living and stuff. Since it looks like no one else has tried to fill in the blanks we left, I'll give it another shot...

So the native resolution of the monitor is 1440x900, which is not unusual for a 19" wide screen. If this SL500 is operating on the factory installed XP, then it will have the proper graphics driver already installed, but may be lacking the monitor inf for the external display. So, we need to get into display properties and set up the monitor. Right click on the desktop > properties > settings tab > Advanced button > Monitor tab. If the "Monitor type" shows the HP model connected, great! But, it probably won't, and if not, you will need to add the monitor .inf file that you can get from HP (sometimes called a monitor driver, though it's not really a driver). Or, if it's using the XP standard "Plug and Play" monitor, un-check the box "Hide modes that this monitor cannot display", and the resolution you're looking for might then be available.

Best solution though is to get the correct monitor inf file on the machine, so that XP can recognize the monitor and set it up automatically.

[dennisparrish]

Neil, thank you so much. That is excellent information and I hope to have this solved today. I downloaded the specific monitor driver install file from HP and will install it when I can reach the client.