Thinkpads Forum

Are there any Thinkpad models sold today that are dual monitor capable? We would like to use two 19" monitors with a Thinkpad and would need two VGA ports. Would rather not have to use the Thinkpad's built in display.

You can do so with a dock; it does depend, to an extent, on the power of the video card you have in the Thinkpad though and whether or not it has the ability to drive two monitors at their native resolution at the same time.

I am not sure how I would connect two monitors into a dock. I see only one vga port. I was always under the assumption that in order to have two monitors you would need to video cards.

We primiarly have A31 computers but there are a few R51s around also. I thought that I would have to purchase a USB video adapter in order to have another monitor connected. Is there another way without purchasing another video adapter?

cwirth wrote:I am not sure how I would connect two monitors into a dock. I see only one vga port. I was always under the assumption that in order to have two monitors you would need to video cards.

We primiarly have A31 computers but there are a few R51s around also. I thought that I would have to purchase a USB video adapter in order to have another monitor connected. Is there another way without purchasing another video adapter?

You can use two monitors with a setup like that, the only thing is that one will be VGA and one will be DVI if you choose to do it that way since, if I recall correctly, the VGA port on the Thinkpad will be disabled for the one on the dock to work.

You can do this with either the Dock II or the Mini Dock.

We are using the port replicators with our A31s. There is a vga and dvi port on the port replicator. Will I be able to connect a monitor to each of these ports and still be able to use dual monitors in an extended desktop configuration?

While I'm not sure if the port replicator would let you send to both simultaneously, I'm pretty certain it wouldn't let you do so in an 'Extended Desktop' arrangement. For that you'd need to either use the lcd as one of the displays or get a full dock with a PCI video card (which would probably need to be the same chipset manufacturer as your Thinkpad's built-in solution).
Of course, you're the one with the hardware, so the surest way is to try it and see.

The best option is using synergy with a third desktop
The second best option is buying an adapter for DVI to VGA.

HOWEVER, take note, standard dvi to vga adapters dont work with the thinkpads/accessories. You need to purchase a special adapter from IBM/Lenovo. But that will give you the dual LCD setup you are looking for. However, if you can afford dual LCD's you could probably afford a desktop with better performance for them too.

I have used the port replicators with the t40p and t60p. One monitor is connected via dvi the other is connected via vga.

The issue I had with the t40p was the max resolution was 1280x1024 (or so) for the dvi so I didn't use this feature much, since my dvi monitor is capable of 1680x1050.

With the t60p, it can drive both, the dvi at 1680x1050 and the vga at 1280x1024 (for the vga, I can drive it 1600x1200 but I find that it's hard to read on the 19' vga monitor).