t43 + port replicator II + external VGA monitor problem

[yaygabe]

friends,

i have a t42 replaced with a t43 motherboard, radeon x300 64mb. i bought the PN 74P6734, FRU 13R0292 dock. should be port replicator II.

the power port on my TP is dead so i have to use dock to get power. obviously i also want to use an external monitor (with extended desktop), but the VGA port on the dock doesnt seem to be working.

situation:
if monitor plugged into TP, TP on DOCK: monitor gets some sort of signal, but completely black screen
if monitor plugged into DOCK, TP on DOCK: monitor gets no signal at all.

if monitor plugged into TP, TP OFF dock, no problems. second monitor works great (but i get no power b/c i need to be hooked up to dock!)

i updated to the latest catalyst drivers, have tried presentation director, ultramon, and the normal stuff. i would conclude it is a problem with the dock, except that today in the morning i randomly had it working once, don't know how i did it and haven't been able to reproduce it. i have restarted the computer in the dock, out of dock, etc, no results.

suggestions?

thanks
gabe

more info: with std windows operations, if i have it set to single monitor and then reboot, have monitor plugged into dock and then try to get it to extend desktop it doesnt detect the monitor at all and won't even try to send a signal.

[zdriver]

Gabe
What effect does holding down the Fn key and pressing F7 have...
Are you connecting the external monitor with the standard vga port or are you connecting it with a dvi cable?

[yaygabe]

thanks for the reply

STD vga port

fn-f7 shows nothing. i dont think i have all the necessary services enabled for that, but it shouldn't matter, i have been able to use dual monitors for years without it.

[CZOLG]

I had similar issues with VGA out on my T43p.
No matter whether using mini dock or the output from laptop.
The driver did see the external monitor, could recognise the type, resolution, etc.. but no picture was sent.
I had the mainboard replaced under warranty and now everything works fine.

[yaygabe]

that was the problem. got a new dock all is well.

cheers
gabe

[davidspalding]

I have a related question. I've installed the trial version of Ultramon, and thought that with my T43 in a Dock II, I could hook up a 20" LCD via DVI, a 17" Sony CRT via VGA, and use all three screens (counting the TP internal LCD as well). No dice. With the Ultramon configuration, it seems to only want to offer two: LCD + DVI, or LCD + VGA, or DVI + VGA. Is there something I'm missing, or is the X300 only capable of 2 monitors at once?