[T21] Strange LCD Resolution and Display Issue

[kirk444]

Hello,

I am working on a T21 for a family member, it's a 2647-4AU for reference.

I am experiencing a strange issue with my display. Often, upon reboot, the display will be the wrong size, and shifted down and to the right. During the POST process the IBM logo is visibly larger, and off to the bottom right (the press f1 and press f12 prompts are no longer visible, they are off the bottom of the screen)

In Windows a similar effect is seen as the entire desktop (or user logon screen) is similarly shifted. A black border is visible on the left, and top, of the screen and portions of the screen are missing on the bottom and right side. In addition, colors on the desktop (especially deep blues) can be seen to "shimmer" between light and dark.

The behavior started shortly after (though not directly) I installed Windows XP (to a freshly partitioned HD), upgrading from Windows 98SE.

My initial reaction was to roll back the BIOS, as I had recently updated to the most recent version, 1.16, in order to support Windows XP. I tried rolling back to 1.15 with no success.

Various reboots or shut-down and power on cycles will cause the problem to disappear seemingly at random.

I can't seem to track down the cause!

Of note, even the BIOS setup window is positioned incorrectly, it appears in the bottom right corner of the screen.

I have tried toggling the video expansion option in the bios, it does not seem to alleviate the problem.

I'm at a loss for what to do! Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks,
Scott Silverman

[egibbs]

I'm afraid that if it is doing it in BIOS, chances are 90% or better it's a hardware issue. It's probably just coincidental bad luck that it started going bad when you started messing with it, but you'll never convince the family member of that...

Are you absolutely sure you burned the right BIOS? Have you tried loading BIOS defaults? Have you tried reloading the old BIOS?

You could try taking it apart and reseating everything - especially the RAM and the LCD cables. Beyond that it's wanting a trip to the shop.

Ed Gibbs

[sctyboy]

Thanks for the reply.

I had pretty much conceded to it being a hardware issue myself. I have not reflashed to the original bios (1.03) as it is not cited as being "windows XP compatible". I did, however, reflash to 1.15 (from 1.16) with no luck.

I'm hoping (foolishly) that the issue will just "go away", but I might poke in there and see if I can reseat the LCD cable, I've had my own 600E apart enough to be mostly familiar with IBM's innards.

I actually ran memtest86 last night for a few hours, hoping to uncover something, the whole memory subsystem seems quite stable.

Something I forgot to add to my original post, the display on an external CRT is perfectly fine. Also, it seemed to be an issue of the LCD reporting that it was a 1400x1050 panel (it's not) the first time the problem appeared.

I have to be honest, I've worked with a lot of computers and this one has me a bit stumped.

Thanks again,
Scott

[Ari]

That's the EXACT problem I'm having - any luck with it?