T41p ATI problem with blurry/ghosting display via VGA out...

[muckz]

recently bought a refurbished T41p 2373-GGU, which has ATI FireGL T2 graphics card. i also have a port replicator with DVI and VGA out.

connecting a CRT monitor with 1600x1200 to thinkpad's VGA out is clear.

problem #1: connecting an LCD monitor to the thinkpad's VGA out (right side of the laptop) produces a blurry picture with ghosting. the LCD monitor is a 19" non-widescreen that has a native resolution of 1280x1024.
update: tried another 19" monitor (same model though) with a different VGA cable, and it works clearly.

problem #2: connecting an LCD monitor via the replicator's VGA out produces a less blurry picture, but it is still blurry nonetheless. i tried connecting my home 20" widescreen LG monitor with resolution of 1680 x 1050. it's not as noticeably blurry as directly from the laptop.
update: waiting to get home to try with a different cable. or perhaps the cable was not inserted fully and tightly. however, the same analog cable that gives trouble on thinkpad works well with my home PC


if I use DVI cable from my LCD monitor to the port replicator's DVI out, everything is crystal clear.

question: why such disparity?

thanks for all your input!

by the way, I'm running a KVM at home, between my desktop and my thinkpad. the KVM switch is analog, and that's why i'm interested in obtaining a good analog signal. the switch is DLINK (bought on Wednesday), and I don't think its analog cables are crappy. they're also new.

[pianowizard]

Welcome to the forum!

Have you tried pressing the LCD monitor's "Auto adjust" button?

[muckz]

Welcome to the forum!

Have you tried pressing the LCD monitor's "Auto adjust" button?

Yes I have... It generally repositions the screen to make sure it fits, but blurriness / ghosting is not affected. Sigh... I love this notebook, but this issue is killing some of my love for it

[pianowizard]

Yes I have... It generally repositions the screen to make sure it fits, but blurriness / ghosting is not affected.

Try manually adjusting the LCD monitor's phase. The fact that the VGA port drives a CRT monitor perfectly well suggests that there's nothing wrong with your VGA out.

[muckz]

OK, just tried a different 19" monitor (non-widescreen) at work, with a different VGA cable. And guess what? IT WORKS!

Basically, two identical monitors, one works well, the other one doesn't. Could it be the VGA cable?

edit: just tried the first 19" monitor that didn't work, and used a new analog cable (from the 2nd monitor that did work), and voila! the monitor works. thus, the cable is the culprit. phew.

now will troubleshoot cables at home.... can't wait to get home.

[muckz]

Tried my KVM cable (it has also keyboard,mouse, and sound cables integrated into one connector). The 19" LCD monitor that worked well with a regular cable now displays blurriness and ghosting with the KVM cable, even after running automatic adjustments on the LCD.

I guess it's time to take the KVM back to the store...

Still cannot explain why my home widescreen LCD monitor works perfectly clear with my home desktop PC via KVM cables...

[rkawakami]

Blurriness and ghosting are typically due to signal crosstalk in the cabling. Be it the VGA cable or any switch (KVM) you have in line with the display. Length also plays some part in the degradation of the video signal but if your different cables are of the same (or close) length, then I'd blame the construction of the cable.