Help Please - External DVI 1600x1200 on T42(MiniDock)

[Inky]

I spent my Sunday on this and got nowhere. Argghh!

For my new T42, I just bought a MiniDock so I could provide quality DVI output for my external flat panel monitor.

The external monitor is a 21.3" LCD with a native resolution of 1600x1200 (Samsung Syncmaster 213T)

In theory the DVI output on the minidock is limited to 1280x1024 but it's really just a driver limitation. I know some people in this forum have gotten this setup to work with the right drivers.

So, I did my research and read a bunch of old posts...there was talk of some "November Drivers" from IBM that worked and Bill apparently hosted those November drivers on his website for a while when it turned out that the December drivers TOOK BACK the ability to do 1600x1200 via DVI.

But then, someone said the very latest drivers (ones that came after December) worked okay so you no longer needed to go back to the November drivers.

So, since I got my T42 (2373 M2U) recently I tried it with the drivers that come with it. And here's the STRANGEST thing:

According to the ATI Radeon 9600 software that came with my T42, it WAS running my external LCD at 1600x1200, but judging from how blurry it looked, there's no way it could've been 1600x1200.

I KNOW how sharp my flat panel monitor looks at 1600x1200--I use it that way all day. There had to be scaling going on of some sort. Like instead of putting out TRUE 1600x1200 the Radeon must've been putting out something less and "stretching" it to fill my 21.3" screen, then calling it 1600x1200. Very wierd.

Any help on this would be extremely welcome. But I better call it a day for now. G'nite.

-Inky
P.S. to those who replied to my Hibernation topic, thanks and I will respond tomorrow. Now *I* am going into Sleep mode.

[antelope]

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... padjes+mod

I haven't been tracking this forum closely lately, but back in April when I got my T42 and Port Replicators (one home, one work) I used Padje's Modding software to get my driver working well in 1600x1200 DVI on my external monitors (Dells).
At least back then there was quite a bit of chatter on the subject.
You might try using the search feature w/ 'Padje' and 'Mod'.

[hotwheels]

I recently added the same Samsung and MiniDockII to my system. I had the same concerns, read the same posts, and first decided to update again all video drivers and hope for the best. In my case it all does work. At first I thought there was a problem, but I just did not have the DVI connector securely seated. You might try that just to make sure --- I thought mine was in well, but when I double checked it was slighly askew and when that was fixed, then I had the sharpeness I expected at 1600x1200.

[Inky]

You might try using the search feature w/ 'Padje' and 'Mod'.

Thank you. Whew, I searched and searched--it took a while because the only reference to Padje was this post. Some people were spelling it Petje and others Patje, but I finally found the link for the mobility modding tool, which is:
http://www.driverheaven.net/patje/

I downloaded the modding tool, but then I noticed my T42 actually comes with ATI's HYDRAVISION drivers rather than their CATALYST drivers. It makes me nervous to replace them with CATALYST drivers (which is what the modding tool requires) because right now images on the ThinkPad screen itself are SO beautifully sharp, so crisp and vivid, I wouldn't want to lose that. I'm not sure why IBM chose to put the HYDRAVISION drivers on my T42 rather than the CATALYST drivers.

I thought mine was in well, but when I double checked it was slighly askew and when that was fixed, then I had the sharpeness I expected at 1600x1200..

Thanks for that suggestion, I will try it!
Edited to say: It isn't a loose cable connection. Even with the DVI cable plugged in securely I get the same blurry text on the screen at 1600x1200 dpi that looks just like an anolog signal being scaled to a non-native LCD resolution.

-Inky

[Inky]

I will try fiddling with drivers, but... Does anyone know why the current crop of T42's (and T43's?) ship with ATI's HYDRAVISION drivers, rather than the so-called CATALYST drivers?

All the driver modifications out there are for the Catalyst drivers, but my T42 might need the Hydravision drivers since that's what it came with.

I suppose I need to learn more about video drivers. Any video driver experts out there?

-Inky

[wwarlock]

Inky it is just the older drivers verses the newer drivers. ati is very good at making shure you can not install drivers on a card they will not work on. I tried and the drivers came back and told me they did not support the video card I had. so install see if they work at worst you can role back the drivers.

william

[Inky]

Ok, I finally figured it out myself. Here's what I learned:

ATI's new Catalyst drivers are specifically for the mobility x700 and x800. ATI's website states:
---------------------
Catalyst Mobility 5.7 for Windows XP
Notebook Manufacturers Supported:
Clevo
Mitac
Uniwill
Arima

Graphics technologies supported:
Mobility™ Radeon® X800
Mobility™ Radeon® X700
---------------------

HOWEVER, That is where the Patje's modification tool comes in. The tool is not just to allow 1600x1200 resolution via a DVI port. The modification tool is also what enables these drivers to work with graphics cards other than the X700 & X800.

When you run the mod tool, you tell it what type of graphics card you have, and you don't actually INSTALL the driver until AFTER you've modified the driver files. You extract the driver files to a folder on your hard drive, and the mod tool performs its modifications on that folder.

I tried it and it worked. After I installed it, it allowed me to run my external monitor at 1600x1200 via the DVI port on my minidock.

BUT... I could no longer play DVD movies! I'd get a message from WinDVD telling me that my video driver won't allow the creation of an "Overlay" and therefore it can't play the DVD.

So, I uninstalled the Catalyst drivers and downloaded the latest T series drivers from IBM. I installed it with no modifications and here's the scoop:

It DOES allow me to run my external monitor at 1600x1200 via my minidock's DVI port, but it won't allow one thing that the Catalyst drivers did.

The modified Catalyst driver allowed me to run BOTH the ThinkPad AND my External flat panel at UXGA (1600x1200). Since my T42 is SXGA+(1400x1050) this meant the TP LCD was running at SXGA+ resolution and looked sharp, but I had a UXGA sized "virtual desktop" meaning my ThinkPad desktop extended beyond the edge of the LCD screen and I could scroll past the edge of the screen to see it. Meanwhile, my flat panel ran at 1600x1200 native.

The IBM driver would not allow that. I could either have SXGA+ on BOTH the TP and External monitor (which meant I had a little desktop with black borders sitting in the middle of my 21" flat panel), or I could have the ThinkPad screen off, and have full UXGA on my External monitor. I chose that, because I don't need to run the ThinkPad LCD at the same time anyway, plus the IBM driver DID allow me to play DVD movies, and the DVD problem was kind of a fatal flaw of the modified Catalyst as far as I was concerned. I hope that helps somebody out there.

Key links were...
ATI's Catalyst Drivers:
http://www.ati.com/

Patje's Driver Mod Tool:
http://www.driverheaven.net/patje/

IBM's Latest Drivers for the T series(w/Win XP)
Either do a search for MIGR-41918
OR go to:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-41918


-Inky

[ehsu]

I use omega drivers and it does allow me to run DVI output at 1600x1200 on my 20" LCD.

www.driverheaven.net

[bhuiyan]

Hi all,

I understand that you all are trying to get the 1600x1200 output to an external monitor from a ThinkPad having Radeon 9600 GPU. Does anyone know whether it is possible to get the same output with same resolution on a 20 inch external monitor from a T41 or T42 having the older 7500 or the 9000 GPU also? The machine spec says yes, but is the 7500 Radeon card able to do it?

Regards

Shoaib

[wwarlock]

Hey inky if that is what ati told you then why am I using the catylist drivers with my 9800pro that I have in my desktop. the catylist drivers are the newest drivers for all radeon cards. That is what I was told from a tech at ATI. so what you siad is confusing. at least to me.

William

[Inky]

Hey inky if that is what ati told you then why am I using the catylist drivers with my 9800pro that I have in my desktop. the catylist drivers are the newest drivers for all radeon cards. That is what I was told from a tech at ATI. so what you siad is confusing. at least to me.

William

You're talking about the Catalyst XP Desktop drivers versus the Catalyst XP Mobility drivers. The desktop drivers may very well support ATI's 9800 desktop graphics card.

The Catalyst MOBILITY drivers are the ones where ATI states that it's only for the X700 and X800 (see my quote from ATI's website in the previous post). But as I said, that's where Patje's driver mod tool comes in--it modifies the driver so it CAN work for a mobility 9600.

Come to think of it, it's possible I confused the desktop and mobility drivers myself and possibly used the Mod Tool on the DESKTOP drivers instead of using it on the mobility drivers which would explain why the end result was quirky (it worked with the mobility 9600, and even let me output UXGA via the DVI port, but I could no longer play DVD movies.)

-Inky