Thinkpads Forum

Posted: **Mon Apr 10, 2006 2:02 pm**

Some people are seeing a flicker on external (and sometimes the built-in) screen when using the Advanced Dock's DVI port. How wide-spread is this?

Posted: **Tue Apr 11, 2006 11:04 am**

Anyone else?

Posted: **Tue Apr 11, 2006 11:15 am**

RonS wrote:Apathy is on the rise.

Posted: **Tue Apr 11, 2006 12:52 pm**

Perhaps the problem varies by the type of graphics chip driving the DVI port, i.e. integrated Intel 950 vs an ATI chip.

Also, perhaps the problem varies depending on resolution. Maybe the Intel can't drive high resolution. For example, my T42 with ATI 9000 can drive 1920 x 1200 on external DVI. Are you trying to do that with Intel and exceeding its limitations?

Posted: **Tue Apr 11, 2006 1:17 pm**

It can definitely be related to the type of video card. Like RonS, I'm using a T60p with the ATI V5200. I'm using a Dell 2001FP at 1600x1200 on the DVI port of my Advanced Dock. I ordered another T60p, and will report back as to whether it happens on the new one as well.

Posted: **Tue Apr 11, 2006 3:10 pm**

I have a T60p (v5200) driving a Dell 2405 at 1920x1200. I get a screen flicker about every 10-20 minutes. It looks like the screen changes resolution to around 640x480 for just a cycle or two.

Posted: **Tue Apr 11, 2006 5:04 pm**

The same monitor attached to a video card in the dock works just fine. And I've been running these monitors off a T42p for a long time with no problems.

The flicker is definitely something that's new with the T60, and I'm not the only one seeing it.

Posted: **Fri Apr 14, 2006 2:32 pm**

I couldn't take the flickering anymore, so I exchanged the laptop for a new one. I expected the new one to have the same problem, and was getting ready to switch to a MacBook. To my pleasant surprise, the new T60p (exact same model) doesnt have the flickering problem! I have the exact same apps installed, and swapped in the same memory and battery as well. So I guess it's a hardware problem afterall, and it's isolated to specific builds. I'm glad this wasn't a global issue with all T60p's.

Posted: **Fri Apr 14, 2006 3:58 pm**

so does this only happen with the dock?

Posted: **Fri Apr 14, 2006 4:24 pm**

Yeah, it only happens when the laptop is plugged into the dock. I always had an external monitor connected to the dock though, so I'm not sure if it happens if the laptop is just on the dock by itself.

Posted: **Fri Apr 14, 2006 4:41 pm**

GXCross - that's good news. I just set up an exchange to get a new unit. IBM is asking me to send my machine in and wait three weeks to get a new one. Ouch!

Posted: **Fri Apr 14, 2006 5:32 pm**

RonS wrote:GXCross - that's good news. I just set up an exchange to get a new unit. IBM is asking me to send my machine in and wait three weeks to get a new one. Ouch!

RonS - I was in the same predicament, and I wasn't willing to be without a computer for so long. So instead, I ordered a new one and set up a return for the first one. The downside is that in the meantime, I'm out the $ for both computers. The good news is that I got the new computer in less than two weeks! And they say that if you are doing an exchange, you are put on a priority queue so you actually get it even sooner than someone who ordered a brand new one on the web.

Posted: **Mon Apr 17, 2006 11:57 am**

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

Posted: **Mon Apr 17, 2006 12:48 pm**

alozier wrote: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

Interesting. For future reference, what monitor/dock are you using at office and home? Perhaps the difference in setup can give us more insight into the cause.

Posted: **Mon Apr 17, 2006 12:52 pm**

GXCross wrote:
alozier wrote: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
Interesting. For future reference, what monitor/dock are you using at office and home? Perhaps the difference in setup can give us more insight into the cause.

I am identical at both, oddly enough
I am a IBM 250310U THINKPAD ADVANCED DOCK
and an IBM L200p monitor, now the monitor at home is newer by about 5 months.

Andrew

Posted: **Mon Apr 17, 2006 12:55 pm**

alozier wrote:
I am identical at both, oddly enough
I am a IBM 250310U THINKPAD ADVANCED DOCK
and an IBM L200p monitor, now the monitor at home is newer by about 5 months.

Andrew

Oh, how odd. Well, I'm just glad that a new laptop fixed my problem. Was already researching Macbooks to replace the Thinkpad if I couldn't solve the issue.

Posted: **Mon Apr 17, 2006 12:59 pm**

GXCross wrote:
Oh, how odd. Well, I'm just glad that a new laptop fixed my problem. Was already researching Macbooks to replace the Thinkpad if I couldn't solve the issue.

Funny thing is I was so torn on this purchase.
Almost ordered the macbook pro myself.
Ultrabay, dock and Mouse point were my deciding factors.

Andrew

Posted: **Mon Apr 17, 2006 1:28 pm**

alozier wrote:
GXCross wrote:
Funny thing is I was so torn on this purchase.
Almost ordered the macbook pro myself.
Ultrabay, dock and Mouse point were my deciding factors.

Andrew

Yeah, the dock and ultrabay were two big points for me too. I swap a 120GB HD into the ultrabay slot instead of the DVDRW. Not sure if I can get by with a single 100 or 120GB HD in the Macbook.

Posted: **Mon Apr 17, 2006 3:27 pm**

GXCross wrote:
Yeah, the dock and ultrabay were two big points for me too. I swap a 120GB HD into the ultrabay slot instead of the DVDRW. Not sure if I can get by with a single 100 or 120GB HD in the Macbook.

OK started to get the flicker at work.
man
Been using it all day, in and out of dock, about 4 hours total in dock, and just started a flicker twice now....

I hope they solve this!

Posted: **Mon Apr 17, 2006 4:19 pm**

alozier wrote:
OK started to get the flicker at work.
man
Been using it all day, in and out of dock, about 4 hours total in dock, and just started a flicker twice now....

I hope they solve this!

Well, unfortunately the only way I was able to solve it was to get a new laptop. I tried everything, from reinstalling, to removing all the stock software, to trying many different video drivers. I'm convinced its a hardware issue - as the new laptop has absolutely no problems, and I have the identical software installed.

Posted: **Mon Apr 17, 2006 4:37 pm**

GXCross wrote:
Well, unfortunately the only way I was able to solve it was to get a new laptop. I tried everything, from reinstalling, to removing all the stock software, to trying many different video drivers. I'm convinced its a hardware issue - as the new laptop has absolutely no problems, and I have the identical software installed.

Thanks.
I will call them tomorrow...

Posted: **Mon Apr 17, 2006 8:18 pm**

alozier wrote: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

Hmmm. This gives me an idea. You can try this if you're bored.

Use a stopwatch. Time the interval between occurences. If it's exactly the same, time after time, that would point to a software bug IMO. For example, some sort of BIOS/SMM routine firing up at regular intervals and having a software bug where it updates a control register incorrectly, then updates it correctly shortly afterward.

If you do see a regular interval, then screw around with the various power saving timers and see if you can change the interval. The timers don't need to be related to video. Maybe changing the hard disk timer alters the behavior.

Posted: **Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:18 pm**

Phantom Gremlin wrote:
Hmmm. This gives me an idea. You can try this if you're bored.

Use a stopwatch. Time the interval between occurences. If it's exactly the same, time after time, that would point to a software bug IMO. For example, some sort of BIOS/SMM routine firing up at regular intervals and having a software bug where it updates a control register incorrectly, then updates it correctly shortly afterward.

If you do see a regular interval, then screw around with the various power saving timers and see if you can change the interval. The timers don't need to be related to video. Maybe changing the hard disk timer alters the behavior.

I tried that. Initially I also thought it could be power settings related, so I disabled all power management. The flicker doesn't happen on regular intervals, and is quite sporatic. It also doesn't always happen on the same monitor. =(

Posted: **Wed Apr 19, 2006 3:09 pm**

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.

Posted: **Mon Oct 02, 2006 3:18 pm**

RonS wrote:The same monitor attached to a video card in the dock works just fine. And I've been running these monitors off a T42p for a long time with no problems.

The flicker is definitely something that's new with the T60, and I'm not the only one seeing it.

RonS,
I've been reading a lot of your posts so I turn to you for the truth...

I'm running a 24" Dell with my new T60p and the picture is flickering and dancing constantly. How annoying! When I hook my bud's 20" HP lcd the picture is fine. However, I know there's nothing wrong with my new wide LCD. So what you're saying is, if I get the advanced dock and pop in an external video card I will have solved my problem? If so, is this true regardless whether it's a VGA or DVI connection? If the external video card is the answer, what card can I rely on for doing lots of AutoCad work? Please help, as I've been battling with this for a week now.

Posted: **Mon Oct 02, 2006 4:22 pm**

Hi Andyman,

The flickering problem that I reported was solved with a past BIOS release. If you haven't updated to BIOS version 1.09 yet, you should do that. You can get it from this page http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-63024 and scroll down to the bottom. If you hae a dock, I'd avoid 1.10 for now, because you may have docking problems with that version.

But you say that you're having a constant "flickering and dancing". It doesn't sound like the same problem that I was seeing. Without knowning too much, here's what I could try:

1. If you're using an LCD, make sure that the refresh rate is 60Hz and that you're driving the screen at its native resolution of 1920x1200.
2. When you tried your friend's LCD, did you also use his cable? If so, try using his cable with your monitor to see if this is a cable problem. Look at the connectors direcly and make sure that you have no bent, busted, or pushed-in pins.
3. While you're at it, try running your 24" screen off his computer. Maybe your screen is bad.

If you suspect it's the computer fault, try enabling the external display in the BIOS and see if you can see the dancing/flickering problem with the BIOS. If not, then try booting into safe mode (hold down F8 while booting) and see if the problem goes away. If it does, then it's possible that some other program or utility running on your Thinkpad is interfering with video.

Posted: **Tue Oct 03, 2006 10:14 am**

RonS,
There's no difference with updated BIOS. 60Hz is the only refresh rate available. I kept bumping down the resolution until I came down to 800x600 and at that setting there's absolutely no jitters going on anywhere - the picture was finally still. I checked my new Dell 24 on a Dell workstation and it was perfect (same cable). I have no idea what program could possibly be interfering.

Posted: **Tue Oct 03, 2006 10:23 am**

Can you tell me how often you see the flicker? What does it look like?

With the original flicker problem, the resolution actually bounced down to 640x480 for about 1/10 second, and then back to the original. For a (literally) split second, you could read text in HUGE font and then it flipped back to the correct size.

Posted: **Tue Oct 03, 2006 10:50 am**

It's constant, but nothing like the problem you had. What I see is all my icons on my Desktop (for example) randomly shifting so so slightly all over the screen, it's not just in one spot. When I open Autocad all the colorful lines seem to jitter. They're not moving, it just seems like they are. All the text is jittery. I wonder if anyone else is using the T60p with a Dell 24, and has the same problem?

Posted: **Tue Oct 03, 2006 12:27 pm**

This is a tough problem to diagnose remotely, but at this point I'd suspect everything, like

- Bad power. Move your entire system somewhere else and re-stest
- Interference.
- Bad cables. You wouldn't belive how often it comes down to bad cables. A cable that works on one system sometimes won't work on another, because it was shifted during the move and broke an internal connection.
- Bad video board in your Thinkpad

Thinkpads Forum

For anyone using the Advanced Dock's DVI port

For anyone using the Advanced Dock's DVI port

what graphics chip?

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