T42 Screen Flickering in Vista

[Immortal LuD]

Hey guys! Long time lurker, first time poster. I will have another post to ask some silly questions.

My T42 has:

Intel Pentium M Processor @ 1.8GHz
2GB of PC2700 DDR
80GB 7200RPM
ATi Radeon 9600 Mobility 64MB
1400x1050 High-Res Screen
All the extras!

It originally came with Windows XP Pro, which I should have left on there, but installed Windows Vista Business, and it ran BEAUTIFULLY! Only problem, is that about 95% of the time the computer came out of standby, or was just turned on, the screen would flicker rapidly.

This happened with the default Vista drivers, and Catalyst drivers as well. Has anybody found a work around for this issue? I really wanted Vista on there, but ended up going back to XP Pro, and all works great!

Any help on this issue would be appreciated!

[Harryc]

Try different video drivers. Since the T42 and it's drivers are not designed for Vista, these types of problems would be common IMHO. Try straight ATI drivers or the Omega drivers.
http://www.omegadrivers.net/ati.php
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 8e062b15cc

[Immortal LuD]

I tried the Catalyst drivers like I said, with the Mobility hack so they would install, and they didn't work.

I also tried the Omega drivers with no luck.

[frankiepankie]

Go to the monitor configuration panel, and change your monitor frequency.

I think it is something like 43Hz or 50Hz, i had that problem with Vista Ultimate on my T40.

Whole image was garbled, i changed the frequency, and set resolution to 1024*768 and all was fine

[SHoTTa35]

yeah, had that problem with mine too sorta. It seemed that the LCD was stuck at 50hz and couldn't be changed. Lenovo never made any proper drivers for it it seems. Then again i've had other T42s with Vista on them and there was no flicker so i'm not sure what the issue was. Totally crazy if you ask me.

[Immortal LuD]

Yeah that sucks. My refresh rate was stuck, and couldn't be changed.

I LOVE the way Vista Business runs on these machines. I prefer that since all I use my laptop for, is browsing the internet! It definately looks nicer than XP!

Oh well. Guess there's nothing I can do!

[Immortal LuD]

I wanted to bring that topic back up to see if anybody else is still having this issue. I was using Vista for a few hours just fine, and after coming out of standby mode, the screen flicker is back. I've been using Windows XP for quite some time, and it works perfect, no problems.

My refresh rate is stuck at 50Hz, no matter what graphic driver or monitor driver I'm using.

I'm the only person with this issue on my T42/T43, and just wanted to see if anybody else had any input!

[Edward Mendelson]

This problem seems to be almost impossible to sort out. It seems to depend on the motherboard. I have two T42s - both flickered with Vista. The motherboard on one of them failed; I sent it back to EZServ for a replacement. With the replacement motherboard, Vista didn't flicker any longer.

The interesting thing is the replacement motherboard had a LOWER serial number than the original one, so the motherboard that works with Vista was presumably older than the one that didn't. Can't explain that...

The version numbers for the BIOS and embedded controller are all exactly the same on the old motherboard and the new one.

[Immortal LuD]

Ah, well that sucks for me I guess.

Oh well. Guess I'll have to stick to XP, even though the machine runs Vista like a champ!

[skchoe]

I had same problem(okey for XP, flicker w/50Hz in VISTA). I sent it to EasySrv and received. Still same problem happened.(They thought they
fixed because at the first boot time, it's okey). What they did is to replace
mothorboard, LCD cable, inverter change. I reissue the ref. no and
this time asked them to replace LCD(not w/ Samsung). See what will happen.

[agarza]

In my experience is not the motherboards fault, simply some models LCD does not flicker, I also installed Vista on my T42p about a year ago, and the solution I found is using a 3rd party software, i don't remember the name but basically what it dos is that you can manually change the refresh rate, it works, you can set it up startup. It works. Let me find the name of the software

[Immortal LuD]

Argh. Went ahead and installed Vista again because I was going to try some utilities out, and most didn't work.

I had PowerStrip, and it allows you to mess with all kinds of screen settings, and any time I changed one, it would fix the flicker, but if I used any settings after that, it would get even worse.

It has to do with the video card / monitor settings. I just wish there was a fix. I'm so anxious to use Vista on this thing, because it runs beautifully, and handles better than most current PC's that I've used!...

This sucks.

[skchoe]

Did you try changing monitor frequency?

Here:
HKLM/Software/Microsoft/DirectDraw
ForceRefreshRate DWORD 0x0000004b (75)

Refered:
http://www.realgeek.com/forums/thinkpad ... 10166.html

[Immortal LuD]

I had heard on this forum and another that it didn't work... So I didn't try it. I already put Windows XP back on last night, but now I'm anxious!

[gunston]

something is wrong with vista driver

[skchoe]

They suggested to use Windows XP.

Because they are working for hardware problem with their
own HDD on which XP is installed, there's no way to determine
HW issue under Vista.

Even I have a hard time to use ATI Catalyst driver from ati.com.
Looks like to stick to XP driver from Microsoft.com.

[gunston]

think xp is still the best OS compared to Vista

[Immortal LuD]

I disagree.

I like XP, but Vista is so much better for pictures, videos, music, and general use, not to mention much more stable.

When Vista is installed on the Thinkpad, it runs great, but functionality is better for what I use the laptop for.

There's no way I would ever run XP on my desktop, but on the notebook there's a difference with performance with 3D graphics, and games.

I still like Vista better. Mac OSX didn't boot up fast enough for me to want to keep using it, and I had no success installing Ubuntu on it either!

[veppo]

Try to use the XP drivers to get rid of the 50Hz flickering available here :
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-41918
Set the refresh rate to 60Hz.
Once the card is set to 60Hz, either you stick with this driver (but aero and the hardware acceleration are not available) or you can get back to the vista driver.

Tell us if it works with Vista, at least that is what I've done with Windows 7 : flickering was there just after the installation and after 7 automatically installed the WVDDM firegl driver. Now it's gone.

[Omegaboost]

Did anyone figure out a fix yet? I tried installing the XP driver in Windows7 and it just gives me a blank screen whenever I boot

I even tried using PowerStrip to force 60Hz but it goes blank.

I installed XP again with the ATi drivers provided by IBM and even though I could run at 60Hz, the catalyst control panel stays that the LCD reports a maximum refresh rate of 50Hz.

I have a feeling that the LCD panel's maximum physical refresh rate is 50Hz but the XP drivers are just showing a fake 60Hz?

[snabjab]

Did anyone figure out a fix yet? I tried installing the XP driver in Windows7 and it just gives me a blank screen whenever I boot

Omega,

I assume you're having the same flickering problem? I'm having it too with Win 7. There is a thread with some more info here:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=79721

The proposed solutions there didn't work for me. At the moment I'm minimizing the number of times I have to turn the machine on and off and usually I'm able to get the flickering to stop by switching between video modes (via the Windows key + P method) until it miraculously fixes itself. The problem does reappear sometimes when I go into standby/hibernate or restart, sometimes not.

Still hoping there will be a permanent fix...

[sktn77a]

There are several Vista drivers which work with the T4x. Try the ATI7500, the ATI 9000 - one of them has a refresh rate adjustment available and this cured the problem for me. Trouble is Vista was so slow, I went back to XP!

[snabjab]

Thanks for your suggestions. It seems like this should be obvious, but can I ask where you downloaded the drivers? I looked at the ATI website and couldn't find the drivers for the 7500 or 9600. Does Lenovo actually provide them for Vista/7?

[moebiius]

any updates?>

[snabjab]

Unfortunately no. I couldn't get the Mobility Modder fix to work in spite of others' successful reports. When I have the flickering screen issue I just switch between video modes (Win + P) until it gets resolved. It is somewhat annoying but hasn't been a huge problem. I would like to find a more permanent solution.

[snabjab]

Has anyone found a more sure-fire solution to this problem now that the Win7 release has expanded?

Many thanks...

[sktn77a]

Thanks for your suggestions. It seems like this should be obvious, but can I ask where you downloaded the drivers? I looked at the ATI website and couldn't find the drivers for the 7500 or 9600. Does Lenovo actually provide them for Vista/7?

They are native to Vista but you must first uncheck the box "show only compatible drivers" (go figure)!

[snabjab]

Thanks for the suggestion! I'm a little unclear on the drivers you have in mind. By "native to Vista" you mean that I should allow windows to automatically find the driver? Or that I should dry the non-mobility Radeon drivers? A little confused here, sorry for the hassle!

[sktn77a]

"Native to Vista" means they are there in the OS. Unfortunately, you have to manually install them as described above ("update driver", etc).

[lexicon]

I got the same problem with my T42p 14" SXGA+ (ATI FireGL) running W7.
The screen flicker almost all the time, I've been trying with some drivers, registry editing, refresh rate utility -- it's still exist.

Been frustrated, I swap entire LCD including the inverter with my spare T42 14" SXGA+ lid, and the problem is gone.
If I'm not mistaken, my previous LCD was made by BOE, and the new one was Samsung made, I guess the problem is in the LCD.