Mini review: Advanced Dock with T60p

Message

Thesp · #61 Post by **Thesp** » Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:16 am

DustBunny: Sapphire Radeon X1300, as I say, fails for me (very like the Diamond). XFX 7600GS fails for me.

You're a UK user like me - I wonder whether the power supply in the UK docks is wose than in the USA docks?

Secondarily, I know that Lenovo is hardware-updating the Advanced and Advanced Mini Docks
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=28412

Might this be another problem fixed in this dock recall and revision?

DustBunny · #62 Post by **DustBunny** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 2:57 am

Thats a good point, Maybe there is some difference between the US and UK docks (Cant see why but you never know)

I have read that these uk docks have a limit of 50W to the graphics card (Whilch should be enough to power the 7600GS).

RonS .. What is your Part number / FRU number from the docking bay? Mine is Pn:26R9060 .. FRU: 26R9061

Incidentally, I logged a call to Lenovo 4 days ago now and have heard nothing....

I think I'm gonna bit the biscuit and get a 7600GS card as these have been reported to work and I know their power consumption to be below the 50W (I do have some USB devices on the dock also... do you think these are using up the meagre power supply too much for other cards to work?)

I hope th UK docks are not lower power (I note they run 100 - 250V so they are probably the same docks. Also of interes perhaps is the part numbers...

I notice that therer seems to be a major difference in numbers listed

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-65164

I am in Oxford UK and have FRU:26R9061 how about everyone else?

#63 Post by **RonS** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:32 am

Interesting... the part number of my dock is P/N 250310U

This page lists the Advanced Dock part numbers:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-61233

disturbedsaint · #64 Post by **disturbedsaint** » Wed Aug 16, 2006 3:00 pm

For the ones who already opened up their Advanced Dock's:
Is someone willing to open it up entirely and make some pictures of it?
I would like to know which chips are used to supply the external connections the Advanced Dock features.

Maybe the docking connector supports more PCI-e lanes.
If that is the case they must have used PCI-e to legacy convertor chips.
Maybe we could steal some of their lanes to get at least up to a 2x or 4x PCIe.

ianbrom · #65 Post by **ianbrom** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:07 am

I am in UK, my dock part number is P/N 26R9060, FRU P/N 26R9061.
Type 2501 S/N M4-0154 05/11

I have tried:
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 285 - failed with parity errors and other driver related BSoDs.
Matrox P650 - successful if a bit noisy - I have now disconnected the card fan but left the dock card bay fan on.
Matrox G550 - failed with variety of errors - no display on TP, PCI error, parity error - and I thought this would be OK as the P650 worked !

It is disappointing that there seems to be nothing coming from Lenovo on this.

Thesp · #66 Post by **Thesp** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:17 am

The thread
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=29327
also mentions problems with multi-monitor using a X700 card in the docking bay. Problem is replicated across 5 machines and docks.

Still no word from my Lenovo contact...

DustBunny · #67 Post by **DustBunny** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:22 am

Interesting post there, I see that the Matrox 650 works in the 9060 dock.... I have a G550lp which works fine in that dock.

HAving called Lenovo again I now am the proud owner of a replacement dock with a completely different code 41W6558 which appears to power my X600 radeon card (No output though for some reason, I suspect this is a crossfire issue)

My G550lp also works fine, (If a little slow) however It will not play nicely with the Mobility V5200 in the laptop.

The Man from Lenovo assured me that there should be no PCIe card which would not work, however replaced the dock under warranty. IU also have a ASUS EN7600GS card to try however the heatsink is that big and wraps round both sides of the card that I cannot use it. GRRRRR

All I want is 3 monitors running a XP desktop.. is that too much to ask

Good to see that a UK dock has had success...., nice one.. I'll reply with results as I get them...

DustBunny · #68 Post by **DustBunny** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:24 am

TheSP.. could your issue be the same where two ATI cards will not play together (Unless they are crossfire cards)?

The reason I suspect this is that tow of the X600 radeons will not work in my X86_64 desktop , they just ignore the second card...

Thesp · #69 Post by **Thesp** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:33 am

Well, my Nvidia cards die, and others have had two ATI cards running OK together, so I don't think that's the story. Do you confirm that the replacement dock works where the original failed? What steps did you go through to persuade lenovo to send a replacement?

best,

Mark

DustBunny · #70 Post by **DustBunny** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:39 am

I have as yet had no luck with any cards using both the pci express and the V5200 in the laptop.

The new dock appears to be able to drive the noisy old fan on my X600 but I get no diplsay at all (Driver issue?)

I phoned Lenovo support using the contact number found on their website and stated that my dock would not run PCI graphics (No real successes). It too 3 days for someone to call me back and discuss it but they did in the end.

Strange that I have not been sent the 9060 part which seems to be the global replacement part number....

Basically I just waited for Lenovo and they got back to me.. Considering now a purchase of a 7300 or 6800 nvidia based Gainward card from one of our suppliers.. (At least the heatsink will fit this time!!).

It's a shame there isn't a try and return service for graphics cards... Can't keep purchasing them..

ianbrom · #71 Post by **ianbrom** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:48 am

The link http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-65164
picked up from elsewhere in this forum shows the FRU part numbers and indicates that your FRU 41W6559 is a later version than FRU 26R9061 (the P/Ns as opposed to FRU P/Ns seem to be 1 lower number).
The next build is not due until next month !

#72 Post by **RonS** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 9:09 am

Is there anybody in the Portland, Oregon area that's having problems getting a video card to work in the Advanced Dock? I'd like to see this problem in action. I can't get mine to fail, while so many others can't get theirs to work. If there's something subtly different in the way I'm setting it up, I'd like to know what it is.

PM me if you're in the Portland area and want to get together.

DustBunny · #73 Post by **DustBunny** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 9:10 am

Similiarly in Abingdon, Oxfordshire... PErhaps if you have a card which does not work I could try it in this dock?

Thesp · #74 Post by **Thesp** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 1:03 pm

I'm in Oxford, but I don't have a working configuration yet. RonS - good idea. Experiments worth trying would be:

1. Hold dock and laptop constant, swap cards
2. Hold dock and card constant, swap laptops
3. Hold card and laptop constant, swap docks

using known-good and known-fail versions of each.

ktmck · #75 Post by **ktmck** » Mon Aug 21, 2006 10:10 pm

Thesp requested I update this thread on my issues:

5 T60's with X1400 Video 1.09a BIOS
5 Advanced Docks each with a secondary X700.

All give the parity error blue screen when attempting to enable a second monitor on the secondary X700.

Tried every combination of drivers I could think of with the same results. Newest ATI for the X700's and the latest IBM for the X1400 at least enabled a single external monitor with the LCD.

After reading through these threads, I pulled the second video since I am only looking for dual display. Every config I tried worked with this setup including hot-undocks.

I will connect a third monitor tomorrow before pulling the secondary card from the next dock, but I imagine the parity error will return.

Thesp · #76 Post by **Thesp** » Tue Aug 22, 2006 3:04 am

Thanks. Dual-monitor's stable if you can use VGA+DVI connectors. It's that third screen/second card that causes the problems...

DustBunny · #77 Post by **DustBunny** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 5:16 am

Update time.

I have now got the following

T60p: constant

Advanced Dock No 1: Part 26R9060

Advanced dock. No 2: replaced by Lenovo - Part No 41W6558

ASUS EN7600GS Silent card.. Will not fit due to ridiculous oversized heatsink.

Gainward Ultra/1460PCX (Nvidia GeForce6200): Dock 1 and 2 both fail to past post using this card.

ABIT Radeon X600 .. Fan spins OK in dock 2 however dock 1 gives no indication of life.. Laptop boots but cards not seen.

Matrox G550lp .. Card works, however only has 2 outputs but can be made to triple head if you remove the ATI driver before rebooting and allow the matrox one to start first. Otherwise this gives a "Driver not written for this version of windows" and bails out.

TripleHead2Go will not run above 800x600 per monitor (2400x600) and will not allow the Laptop to start if there is a DVI plugged in too.

Here's a link to other work on the Matrox site a colleague was involved in with the TripleHead2Go...

http://forum.matrox.com/mga/viewtopic.php?t=19588

All done with the latest BIOS in the Laptop and much frustration!!

Why is this so difficult..

tommcfadyen · #78 Post by **tommcfadyen** » Wed Aug 23, 2006 10:10 am

My first post here... I haven't gotten a working system but I can add some data points that will hopefully be helpful.

I have the Advanced Dock p/n 26R9060, FRU p/n 26R9061 typoe 2503.
ThinkPad T60p model 200794U (with the ATI v5200 256MB built-in video) and 2GB RAM. I updated BIOS, video drivers, etc via the ThinkVantage update before any of my tests.

I'd been running an external Acer 24" AL2423Wr LCD (BTW, great monitor 1920x1200 & it pivots for portrait) but wanted to upgrade to the Dell 30". The 30" displays require Dual Link DVI which means you need another card.

I read the note about the Advanced Dock only supporting a x1 PCI Express channel, so I bought a HIS x1300 Graphics card. This was the only PCI Express x1 card that has a dual link DVI interface that I could find. It has 128 MB on-board and uses hyperthreading to get up to 512MB of video RAM by using the PC's main RAM. (this might be one cause of my problems).
http://www.hisdigital.com/html/product_ ... 9&view=yes

I picked that card because I thought that x16 cards wouldn't work at all in the Advanced Dock's x1 slot (most of the cards say that a x16 slot is needed). What I've learned from this thread (correct me if I'm wrong) is that they'll work, but just slower.

I tried the ATI drivers that came with the card and also downloaded the latest from the web.

When I cold boot the ThinkPad in the Advanced Dock with the video card installed I get the following blue screen of death error (same others report):
*** Hardware malfunction
Call your hardware vendor for support
NMI: Parity Check / Memory Parity Error
*** The system has halted

When I boot the ThinkPad outside the Advanced Dock and place it in the Advanced Dock the system keeps running, but I can't use the HIS video card.

The MyComputer->Management->DeviceManager list shows the x1300 card twice. Once as "Radeon x1300 Series" and once as "Radeon x1300 Series Secondary". The first one has an exclamation mark and going to the properties, the device status says "This device can not find enough free resources that it can use (code 12). If you want to use this device, you will need to disable one of the other devices on the system."

I'm not sure if my problem is (ranked in guess of probability):
1) The shared RAM / HyperThreading that this card uses.
2) Problems with this version of the Advanced Dock (I bought it a month ago but it's not the latest model that others have).
3) Other PC hardware resources like interrupts/IRQs, I/O ports, memory range, etc. My 2007-94U ThinkPad has tons of builtin options.
4) A conflict with the other ATI drivers for the motherboard ATI video.
5) The latest ThinkPad video drivers (somebody said the earlier versions worked).
6) The power requirements to drive this card.

Hope this is helpful to others. If anybody has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate them. Has anybody gotten a 30" LCD to work with the cards they have?

Thanks, -Tom

DustBunny · #79 Post by **DustBunny** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 3:08 am

Hi tommcfadyen

You are correct, the advanvced dock has an X16 slot however it is only X1. The accepted info is that all X16 cards will fall back to X1 if needs be however in testing this is not proving to be a reliable assumption.

(Have a look at the "Physical Layer" section here >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

As you see from one of my earlier posts, I have tried a variety of cards and currently have a Connect3D X1300 on order to try next.. Your post makes me think this may not woek however others have got the X1300 to go..

The blue screen errors are reported elsewhere in this forum and appear to be linked to the Hypermemory, or possibly any extra DIMM modules installed post supply of the laptop, (Not sure why this is, however I definitely saw a post here somewhere that indicated this to be the case).

I think you are correct in your guesses of the problem,

1. Hypermemory.. probably the most likely
2. With the exception of RonS we all seem to be suffering from these problems
3. Perhaps not on the IRQ front, I have found new equipment (Lsat 3 or 4 years) to be quite good at resolution of problems itself

4. ATI drivers, There are links here to something like Omega drivers? (PLease correct someone) which are known to resolve some ATI issues however I have not tried these yet..

5. I have been up and down all versions I can find for my video card (V5200 - T60p) and had no luck at any of them

6. Bingo.. 50W in the docking bay is hopeless... The only card to come close to correct operation is a Matrox G550lp which is very low power (32Mb) and a bit slow for anything usefull. It will also not run with the V5200 in paralell

The only other card to be reported as working is a XFX GeForce7600GS however these are end of life now and I have not been able to get one.

Interesting that you have the Advance Dock 26R9060 like I did and have all the same problems. (Even the replacement dock has failed to solve the issues as yet however we are still trying)

Hope this helped..

DustBunny · #80 Post by **DustBunny** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 9:25 am

YAY!!!!!!

Finally some good news....

I have now got four monitors running simultaneously on my Thinkpad and Advanced dock...

The solution for me was a Radeon X1300 card. Specifically a Connect3D 256MB

The label on the box is as follows.

Radeon X1300 Pri
256MB DDR2+DVI-I_TV PCI EXPRESS
C3D 3048

This is the Manufacturer site link

http://www.connect3d.com/products/pcie_x1300pro.htm

I purchased mine from here

http://cpc.farnell.com/jsp/home/homepage.jsp (Interestingly mine has a fan and the image you will find if you search for a X1300 shows it without... Not sure now.. Ordering a second at this very moment, will advise what arrives tomorrow hopefully.

But for now I seem to have succeeded

tommcfadyen · #81 Post by **tommcfadyen** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 12:27 pm

Hi DustBunny,
Congratulations! It's encouraging to hear that somebody is having success in this endeavor.

I just ordered the same card and will report on how it works for me. For US folks, I bought mine from:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=1560

I also appreciate your feedback on my configuration challenges.

*** So do you have any theories as to what makes this card work vs. the other cards you tried?

I noticed that this card also uses hypermemory, something that we both felt was a probably culprit.

Thanks, -Tom

Thesp · #82 Post by **Thesp** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 3:57 pm

Hmmm. My Sapphire Technology Radeon X1300 512MB PCI-E DVI-I and my XFX 7600GS both don't work. DustBunny, as you're in Oxfordshire, any chance I could borrow one of your X1300 cards and try it in my Advanced Dock? That way, I can buy the same card and know that it will work...

Second Thought - the only obvious diff between my card and yours is the amount of memory - wonder if it's a case of how much total graphics memory the system can address... oh my life, this is tricky!

DustBunny · #83 Post by **DustBunny** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:18 am

Further..

Our other T60p and advanced dock gained an X1300 Connect3d card today and started exhibiting the problems with blue screen etc...

This was solved here by installing the latest drivers from Lenovo on the Laptop first, then the 10.1 drivers for the Connect3D card (Had to get these as the card came with 9.something)

Then update the X1300 drivers with the latest direct from the ATI website..

All is well with our 2nd Thinkpad now..

Thesp, I'll PM you bout the card

Thesp · #84 Post by **Thesp** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:19 am

DB:

Connect3D website only shows drivers up to 6.3
http://www.connect3d.com/support/default.htm
where did you find the 10.xx?

Oh, one other thing - does the x1300 happily coexist with the FireGL in the T60p? I believe there have been issues with the drivers not being able to be simultanously installed.

atb,

Thesp

Thesp · #85 Post by **Thesp** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:33 am

Further to the above

1. Is the x1300 running primary or secondary?
2. What video outputs are selected in the Thinkpad bios?
3. Does the machine boot successfuly on dock, off dock and does hot-docking/undocking work?

we might be getting close to a universal resolution...

Thesp

Thesp · #86 Post by **Thesp** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 9:43 am

Update:
Advanced Dock Type 2503
PN 26R9060
FRU 26R9061
S/N M4-02980 05/11

Sapphire X1300 512MB PCI-E card in dock, T60p in dock
Latest Lenovo drivers installed

Set as primary, boot post video appears on screens attached do X1300 PCIE, however windows fails boot in Safe and Normal mode AFTER Windows splash screen. Ocasionally dock does not boot card at all, and boots the V5200 successfuly as primary, and does not detect X1300. Power-cycling dock at wall plug clears this condition.

Set as secondary, recieve NMI/Parity error on boot, no joy.
Remove laptop from dock, set as secondary
Hot-dock laptop while running, Two ATI X1300 devices appear in Device manager, but claim 'This Device Cannot Start'

Attempting OMEGA Drivers now...

tommcfadyen · #87 Post by **tommcfadyen** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 11:55 am

I echo DustBunny's

YAY !!!!!

I bought the same card that worked for you, the Connect 3D 256MB model based on the ATI Radeon x1300 and it works.
(I still have some challenges that I list later).
I'm running the latest ThinkPad drivers and the latest ATI drivers, but have the older generation Advanced Dock (FRU 26R9061)
My ThinkPad T60p 2007-94U has the built-in ATI FireGL v5200 motherboard video.

Connect3D also has a 512MB version of their x1300 card and I bought that at the same time. I've gotten both to work (obviously not at the same time). One time I did get NMI Parity error when I swapped the 256MB version for the 512MB. I'm not exactly sure what happened to cause the problem, but I'm guessing that it might have been the video drivers (each card had a different version of the Connect3D CD).

Trying to understand the versions of the video software is a challenge. I think that there are different version numbers for the card manufacturer, for the ATI video driver, for the Catalyst Control Center, etc. I downloaded everything from ATI's site, so I think I have the latest.

My problem now is getting the 30" Dell 3007wfp to display at 2560x1600 resolution. The connect3D card has the dual-link DVI port, I'm using the Dual-Link DVI cable that came with the Dell, and I have the USB cable connected to the display (apparently that is needed to control the monitor).

The full 30" display is used, but it's only showing 1024x768 or 1280x800 or similar resolutions. When I set the resolution to 2560x1600 I have to pan around.

Has anybody ever dealt with this issue on a 30" screen?

Thanks, -Tom

#88 Post by **RonS** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 1:53 pm

Your 30" monitor doesn't have built-in scaling hardware, and the only resoltuions it's capable of displaying are 2560x1600 and 1280x800. Without dual-link, you're stuck with 1280x800. That's probably what you're seeing.

If you're seeing "virtual resolution" -- that is, a larger window scrolling inside a smaller physical frame, then it sounds to me like your Connect3D card thinks that 1280x800 is the maximum resolution the connected monitor is capable of.

Here are some things to try:

1. Install the monitor driver for the 30" display.
2. Go into display properties (Display Properties->Advanced->Monitor) and make sure you have the right display selected.
3. Click on the Adapter tab and make sure that 2560x1600 is a valid mode. If it doesn't show that mode, reboot and check again. Then, I would start looking at the cable - it may be bad.

disturbedsaint · #89 Post by **disturbedsaint** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 2:35 pm

disturbedsaint wrote:For the ones who already opened up their Advanced Dock's:
Is someone willing to open it up entirely and make some pictures of it?
I would like to know which chips are used to supply the external connections the Advanced Dock features.

Maybe the docking connector supports more PCI-e lanes.
If that is the case they must have used PCI-e to legacy convertor chips.
Maybe we could steal some of their lanes to get at least up to a 2x or 4x PCIe.

Anybody?

Thesp · #90 Post by **Thesp** » Sun Aug 27, 2006 3:38 pm

tommcfadyen:
Is your x1300 running as Primary in the bios or as Secondary? Do you boot the laptyop on the dock or off it?

best,

Mark

Mini review: Advanced Dock with T60p

Who is online