Strange issue with FHD over VGA (X61, Windows 10 - works in ubuntu)

[iamdmc]

Hello fellow ThinkPadders & X61 lovers

Has anyone gotten the X61 (965 express / X3100) to play nice with Windows 10?

THE PROBLEM: I'm trying to drive an external 1080P LCD from my X61 by VGA on Windows 10, but I get black bars on the sides (not full 16:9 widescreen)-likely due to hsync or vsync issues but I can't figure out how to fix. It displays in widescreen at 1680x1050 with no black bars.

Strangely, it outputs correctly when viewing the Windows 10 desktop through a remote desktop (Anydesk) so it's definitely a VGA-related issue, but a software one rather than hardware because... It works perfectly on Ubuntu 20.04 - no config needed.

CONNECTIONS (panel to X61)
1080P LCD --- eDP board with HDMI --- VGA out from X61 to HDMI into the eDP board using an active VGA to HDMI adapter

I've also tried several active VGA to HDMI adapters, replicating the same issue on Windows 10 but working perfectly on Ubuntu 20.04

Please let me know! And thanks for reading


I've tried every 965/945 express and X3100 driver that I could find and nothing has worked in Windows 10. Any ideas?

[Fierelier]

I suspect it's that nasty thing that W10 does where, instead of actually applying the resolution you select to the display, it scales it to what it thinks is your native resolution.

When you are in the resolution selection, there is this link called something like "Display adapter options", something with advanced adapter options, basically. You are searching for a button called "List All Modes" on the "Adapter" tab. Try selecting your resolution from there, if it is already selected, go back and fourth between two resolutions. This should hopefully fix it. I think changing your resolution from the Intel control panel should also go around this.

[iamdmc]

I suspect it's that nasty thing that W10 does where, instead of actually applying the resolution you select to the display, it scales it to what it thinks is your native resolution.

When you are in the resolution selection, there is this link called something like "Display adapter options", something with advanced adapter options, basically. You are searching for a button called "List All Modes" on the "Adapter" tab. Try selecting your resolution from there, if it is already selected, go back and fourth between two resolutions. This should hopefully fix it. I think changing your resolution from the Intel control panel should also go around this.

thanks for your reply

unfortunately, that doesn't help. It seems to be an Intel GMA driver issue on Windows 10. It works perfectly out-of-box in linux

[Fierelier]

See if the Intel control panel is set to use the panel for scaling instead of the GPU ("Maintain aspect ratio" and whatever), if that is a thing. If that doesn't help, maybe try making a custom resolution in there. Thinking 1920x1080 59hz?

[iamdmc]

See if the Intel control panel is set to use the panel for scaling instead of the GPU ("Maintain aspect ratio" and whatever), if that is a thing. If that doesn't help, maybe try making a custom resolution in there. Thinking 1920x1080 59hz?

Thanks - I tried making custom resolutions in "custom resolution utility" but it was no help. There was no such option in the "list all modes" window

Think this will need Linux as the fix

[Fierelier]

List all modes should be a thing, unless it was recently removed. In the W10 display settings, you press "Change adapter settings", and then from there you should be able to list all modes. If it's not a thing, it could have moved slightly. But yes, you will be better off with Linux on that machine either way. If you don't need to use Windows 10, don't use it.