Thinkpads Forum

I'm trying to debug a weird problem with my new T60p. Intermittently, the screen would flicker a bit - shifting slightly left and right, as a monitor would when it's changing resolution or making gamma adjustments. Except, in this case, I'm not doing anything particular, and it just does that every so often. I've tried many things trying to debug this issue, and am hoping it's not a hardware problem. I'm hoping someone else has seen this problem here. Some of the things I've tried:

1) Uninstalling/disabling most apps
2) Installing the Omega drivers
3) Turning off all power management (max performance settings)

It might be heat related, as it appears to happen more after I leave the computer on for a while. I use the new advanced dock, and I also have a 2001FP 20" LCD attached. The flickering happens on either monitor, tho not both at the same time. I haven't tried it undocked yet.

I tried opening a support ticket with IBM, but the first thing they said was send it in for repairs. Yeah right, if it's a real problem, I'm returning it. But I hope it's not.

sounds like a loose connector somewhere. Order a new one and return this one if you can't pin point it to a software/driver issue.

I'm seeing exactly the same behavior, but it only happens when I'm docked and connected to an external VGA monitor. Right now, I've got a 40" Samsung LCD hooked to the analog out and I'm extending my desktop onto it. I haven't logged a frequency, but I've caught it doing the flicker/refresh dance a few times in the last couple of hours.

I just figured it was something odd with the Samsung, but I'll keep an eye on it when I next use a different monitor. Even if the problem IS tied to the monitor though, I'm not going to give up the Samsung over it (it's a freaking 40 inch LCD for chrissakes; running WMP visualizations one it while coding is a whole 'nother level of geek-cred cool).

Same thing here! I'm glad I saw this post... I see it when my docked T60p is connected via DVI to a 24" LCD. It happens every 15 minutes or so, I think.

I'm running the stock IBM video driver with nothing changed, except I have the second monitor on the left, set as primary.

RonS; when you dock are you using the built-in LCD as well, or just the external? The only way I could get the monitor to work alongside the laptop screen was through the analog port.

I'm currently using the built-in LCD along with an external via DVI.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one! Now if we could only figure out what the problem is. Anyone with a T60 (non-p) having this problem?

After spending many more hours on this issue, I still haven't been able to determine the exact cause of the annoying flicker and shimmering that happens randomly. I'm a point where I'm going to return the laptop next week if I can't get it resolved. As I type this, the screen just went nuts again. If anyone else has any ideas or clues, please reply!

I have 2 docks, one at office one at home.
One at home is doing the every 10 minute flicker problem
one at office seems ok (so far

GXCross wrote:Glad to hear I'm not the only one! Now if we could only figure out what the problem is. Anyone with a T60 (non-p) having this problem?

Nope, i got the T60 with a 14" sxga and have no screen flickering problems at all, internal or external.

Im still on default drivers too, i might move to the Omega ones pretty quick tho.

AssPenny wrote:

GXCross wrote:Glad to hear I'm not the only one! Now if we could only figure out what the problem is. Anyone with a T60 (non-p) having this problem?

Nope, i got the T60 with a 14" sxga and have no screen flickering problems at all, internal or external.

Im still on default drivers too, i might move to the Omega ones pretty quick tho.

See the following URL:
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?p=151190

Basically, it turns out it was a hardware problem. I swapped out for a new T60p, and it is perfectly fine now. However, to be sure, I only ran into the problem when using the dock + DVI. It didn't occur if I just plugged in an external monitor to the analog port.

Update: I think I might have stumbled onto the reason why the displays flicker. Was hoping someone else can verify this for me. Last night, I switched the external LCD to be the primary monitor, so that fullscreen games use the external LCD instead of the Thinkpad's LCD. Shortly after, the flickering started happening again. After I switched the primary monitor back to the internal LCD, the flickering stopped. Can someone else try this and see if that's it? I used the Fn-F7 key to switch the monitors, as the built in ATI drivers don't seem to allow it.

GXCross wrote:Update: I think I might have stumbled onto the reason why the displays flicker. Was hoping someone else can verify this for me. Last night, I switched the external LCD to be the primary monitor, so that fullscreen games use the external LCD instead of the Thinkpad's LCD. Shortly after, the flickering started happening again. After I switched the primary monitor back to the internal LCD, the flickering stopped. Can someone else try this and see if that's it? I used the Fn-F7 key to switch the monitors, as the built in ATI drivers don't seem to allow it.

I will try tonight
Excellent thanks for the update
Atleast this sounds fixable by firmware or driver

Andrew

GXCross - I think you've found it!

I just switched the build-in display back to primary, and still running the external display through the dock. The flicker has gone away (so far...).

I've returned two T60p's for this problem.

Thanks, GXCross!

(btw, this is my 400th post)

I've just found this link which says that is a driver problem that occurs whit the thinkpad lcd set as primary display.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-63738

kimx wrote:I've just found this link which says that is a driver problem that occurs whit the thinkpad lcd set as primary display.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-63738

Nice find! Although I think they're wrong in the synopsis - as it obviously happens at 1600x1200x32bit x2 as well. I never noticed the mouse pointer movement issue though, so I wonder if this is exactly the same problem they're describing.

Nice find indeed!

Follow-up: A new video driver has been posted that appears to have fixed this problem.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-62841

It's version 8.241.1

RonS wrote:Follow-up: A new video driver has been posted that appears to have fixed this problem.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-62841

It's version 8.241.1

Trying it now! Thanks! Both system update and software installer don't seem to find this update though.. (nor the recent firmware update for that matter) - does anyone else have this problem?