Optimizing XGA

[DennisGordon]

Hi everyone...

I'm the new owner of a T43. Fairly average specs: 2.0 / 512 / 60G / Intel 915 / XGA / 15". I bought it for my wife; new (warranty until 7/09) for $650 delivered from an Ebay merchant. All in all a pretty good deal, although I bit the bullet for the XGA display which looks pretty bad next to my UXGA 20" HP LCG (actually my son's high rez Z61m doesn't look much better when compared to the HP...

Anyways, the relatively low resolution isn't all that bad. I cranked the panel brightness up all the way and adjusted the gamma/brightness/contrast controls to get a decent enough display. Are there any other tweaks, themes or schemes that might help more? I want to optimize this before I spring it on her xmas day. Any tips appreciated...

[DennisGordon]

Kinda answering my own question...

I set the monitor properties to run high on the battery. I know it'll kill the battery time, but it looks much better to me. Guess you can tell I don't know much about these things....

[pianowizard]

How about:

right-click on "My Computer" --> "Properties" --> "Advanced" --> "Performance Settings" --> "Adjust for best appearance"

[Kyocera]

Just don't put the two side by side, at least till a while after christmas. I get the same results with my sxga+ and xga, it's really is a big difference. I run my xga on max brightness on battery too because it just looks way to dull otherwise.

[DennisGordon]

Yep, I opened the box 2 days ago, put in the battery, turned it on and thought "Oh well, I guess this is what XGA looks like..." A while later I plugged in the A/C adapter, not really paying attention. Came back a few minutes later, and thought "Hey, it looks a lot better, maybe the panel needed to warm up...". It hadn't occurred to me that there was a power saving mode. It took several more of these "Oh it's dim...Hey it's bright" cycles before I figured it out. That's when I finally thought "RTFM..." I'll just blame my ignorance on fatigue...

Now I find the display to be quite appealing. Next up I need to figure out the power scheme for best performance before I relinquish this to my spouse and return to my speedy, but not as cool, X2 homebuilt desktop....

[DennisGordon]

How about:

right-click on "My Computer" --> "Properties" --> "Advanced" --> "Performance Settings" --> "Adjust for best appearance"

I tried that. Not much difference. I found tweaking the coilor setting in the Intel 915 CP gave me the best results

[dsigma6]

I'm assuming by describing it as bright while on battery that you've changed the bios setting for brightness?

[DennisGordon]

Nope, I changed the LCD setting in the Thinkpad Configuration CP. "Brightness when running on batteries." It defaults to Normal. Set it to High. Just a world of difference.

What does the other setting for "Screen expansion" control?

[dsigma6]

The BIOS and XP startup screen will either be stretched across the entire screen, or a smaller box in the middle. I like expansion off so that the XP logo isn't so pixelated.

[GomJabbar]

Nope, I changed the LCD setting in the Thinkpad Configuration CP. "Brightness when running on batteries." It defaults to Normal. Set it to High. Just a world of difference.

Same as changing it in the BIOS. Actually when you change it in ThinkPad Configuration, it changes in the BIOS as well. ThinkPad Configuration can change some BIOS settings. Sometimes you have to reboot for the changes to take effect though.