[NO] T42p ATI MOBILITY FireGL T2 supports display rotation?

[voxano]

I have a 15" UXGA(1600x1200) T42p with ATI MOBILITY FIRE GL T2 card using ATI 2/6/2007 6.14.10.6547 driver. I've installed ATI Catalyst Control Center Version 2008.0512.1133.18639 [the latest that will work on this thinkpad, I think] and see the rotation options, but they are "greyed out". Does this laptop support display rotation? I wasn't able to locate the documentation.

Thanks.

[RealBlackStuff]

Using the Omega drivers will give you that option: http://www.omegadrivers.net/index.php?o ... &Itemid=54

[voxano]

Thanks for the suggestion. The Omega drivers indeed give the option to rotate, but the rotation doesn't seem to work:

If I try to do it from the Advanced display options, I get:
"The requested Rotation mode is not supported by your current display mode (...). Please change the current display mode and try again"

OR

If I try to do it from the ATI Tray Tools, I get:

"Error setting rotation mode!"

[RealBlackStuff]

See also this: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=93821

[voxano]

See also this: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=93821

Thanks, but it is not clear. So I posted my questions in that thread... [ http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 11#p618211 ]

[voxano]

OK. Well... anybody with a 15" UXGA (1600×1200) T42p, using ATI Mobilty FireGL T2, was actually able to achieve the display rotation?
[ http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 11#p618211 ]

Thanks.


P.S. Omega 3.8.442 drivers give the rotation options, but they only blink and complain when I try to actually rotate. iRotate does not much more than a blink, too.

[RealBlackStuff]

These folks have your TP on their compatibility list: http://www.portrait.com/enu/pivot/overview.html

[voxano]

These folks have your TP on their compatibility list: http://www.portrait.com/enu/pivot/overview.html

Thanks for the lead. Pivot didn't work from the get go, but I'll try to play with.

ANYWAY, my question still stands, anybody here was able to rotate display on the same thinkpad? Thanks.

[voxano]

Alright. Pivot Pro 8.24 worked. Nice to have a solution, although it costs money. Thanks again for the advice. However I'm not sure if this proves that the graphics chip itself natively supports rotation, i.e. I don't know if they are rotating using some clever software trick, which works on some cards, or if they are actually using the native hardware support. Perhaps somebody knows? So the question still stands... Anybody?

Thanks.

P.S. This is the most detailed reference [ http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobili ... 760.0.html ] I've seen so far, but unfortunately the direct link to manufacturer [ http://ati.amd.com/products/mobilityfglt2/index.html ] doesn't seem to exist anymore [ although it has been only a bit over 8 years since the original announcement... ].

P.P.S It's interesting that their latest version [ Pivot 9.25 ] doesn't work. Perhaps the later version assumes the "rotation support in the hardware" and the earlier one did both: rotate if the hardware support is present or simulate rotation option in the software first and then rotate... Of course this is a pure speculation.

[voxano]

Anybody with a 15" UXGA (1600×1200) T42p, using ATI Mobilty FireGL T2, was able to achieve the display rotation, without using Pivot? Thanks.

[voxano]

Anybody?

[ajkula66]

Try to see if this version of CCC will work with T42p: 2009.0929.1443.24574

That's what I have on my T43p and can rotate the screen...Fire GL T2 should be able to do the same...

[voxano]

Thanks, but this version complains that it has nothing to offer for my hardware and exits installation. The CCC version at the beginning of the thread is the latest that would install (as far as I can see... I didn't test every single later version, but tried a few with identical complains ). BTW, the CCC packages have an older FireGL T2 driver, and the latest that I've got is from Lenovo. The driver seems to make no difference though...

So I think the card in T43p may simply have more features.

[RealBlackStuff]

The T42p and T43p GPUs are based on different platforms.
See also this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATI_FireGL

[voxano]

Right, T42p's Mobility FireGL T2 is quite different from T43p's Mobility FireGL V3200. Thanks for the reference.

The question remains...

Thanks.

[ajkula66]

I know that they are worlds apart in many respects but figured it was worth a shot...

voxano, have you tried these:

http://staff-www.uni-marburg.de/~schmitzr/ATIPOWPL.zip

My A31p is out sick, but I seem to recall that I was offered the option of rotating the screen with them...and A31p shares the platform with T42p when it comes to video drivers...

Good luck.

[voxano]

These look a lot like an older version of Omega drivers... and they do give the rotation options... but they also give very similar complaining messages and don't actually rotate my screen out of the box; and I couldn't find any settings to help that... So essentially, the same comment as for the Omega drivers: no go.

Thanks for all the suggestions, though.

[voxano]

I guess NO is the answer to this question, but I would be happy if someone disagrees.

[mamlecz]

I disagree. On windows 7 everything works great with modded radeon 9600 drivers for Vista - check another topic about firegl t2 drivers for windows 7 - http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=75687 .