New T60, 1400x1050 screen appearance and other questions

[bri]

Just got a T60 2623D6U to use for grad school, it was a great deal for all the upgrades but I wasn't sure about getting the high res screen since my favorite res is 1024x768. When I scale down the resolution everything is fuzzy because it's not running native res. Is there any way to sharpen the picture when downing the resolution to 1024x768? Or make Windows XP elements appear larger when running at 1400x1050? Something like using the (Large) theme in Win2000 where everything gets bigger. XP only has (Large) fonts which only affects window title bars as far as I can tell.

Something else bugging me about the screen is that it is really dim at any other settings other than full brightness with AC power. I bought another Thinkpad because I loved the screens in my T20 series and the X20 I have. At that setting it's just slightly dimmer than the X20 is, but at any other setting or under battery power it is much less.

First time boot up, it immediately showed a blue screen saying "Converting FAT32 partition to NTFS". Isn't it weird that it wasn't originally NTFS??? Then running a defragmenter showed 24% of data files were fragmented. Also programs were kind of slow to load, especially the ATI Catalyst Control Center, with pieces of the window appearing incrementally as if the GPU was straining. Will see if there's any difference after the defrag finishes running.

My school's network is not yet fully compatible with the Intel 3945 wireless card. Can I replace it with an Intel 2100, 2200, or 2915?

The battery was fully charged when I received it. Tips I've seen in the past strongly recommended charging li-ion batteries overnight before using, is this necessary?

[jvarszegi]

You should run SXGA+ for a week and then decide if you don't like it. I promise you will adjust before three days have passed, and if you wind up preferring that resolution (like I did) you will be much more productive. Just give it a try.

The first thing you need to do, though, is turn of ClearType. It is horrible for smaller resolutions, as it blurs the edges of text and makes it harder for your eye to scan.

[xinhua]

I've seen people who like screen in lower resolution and those who just love SXGA+ screen. I guess the tie-breaker for me would be the impact on battery life. Does anyone know if the 1024x768 screens give you noticeably more battery life with everything else being equal?

[kulivontot]

Wireless card is not replacable with the models you specifically mentioned. The problem is that the T60 uses a PCI-E card for wireless rather than a simple mini-PCI card, which the Intel 2100, 2200, and 2915 are based on. There may be another card that you can replace it with, but I'm not sure if those cards will be any more compatible with your school's network.

[GomJabbar]

Something else bugging me about the screen is that it is really dim at any other settings other than full brightness with AC power. I bought another Thinkpad because I loved the screens in my T20 series and the X20 I have. At that setting it's just slightly dimmer than the X20 is, but at any other setting or under battery power it is much less.

The following shouldn't make any difference on AC, but it will on Battery power.

Go to Start > All Programs > ThinkVantage > ThinkPad Configuration. On the top menu bar, click on Display, then on LCD. You will see a setting: "Brightness when running on batteries", which can be set to "Normal" or "High". This setting is also available in the BIOS menu, which is what ThinkPad Configuration changes.

[bri]

Thanks for the tips. I turned off all font enhancement (the Standard setting doesn't do anything) and will try to get used to the resolution. Is there really no Theme settings to make icons & the taskbar bigger?

Defragged the hd but ATi Control Center still takes like 10 seconds to load up. Is that program a piece of crap or is my computer?

Those Intel wireless cards are the only ones compatible (I think there is some Cisco encryption feature in use), along with Dell 1490 and two Cisco PC cards. Picked up one of the Cisco cards on ebay as a fallback plan. I assume the Dell card won't work although it is PCIe because there is some BIOS lock on the PCIe slot?

[astro]

Defragged the hd but ATi Control Center still takes like 10 seconds to load up. Is that program a piece of crap or is my computer?

Those Intel wireless cards are the only ones compatible (I think there is some Cisco encryption feature in use), along with Dell 1490 and two Cisco PC cards. Picked up one of the Cisco cards on ebay as a fallback plan. I assume the Dell card won't work although it is PCIe because there is some BIOS lock on the PCIe slot?

Yes, the ATI control center takes forever to load up on mine too. It is just a P.O.S.

What about the Atheros 11a/b/g card? Some Thinkpads come with these, instead of the Intel card. Do a search for "atheros" on this forum and you will eventually find the part number for it. I think they are <US$100.

[GomJabbar]

My school's network is not yet fully compatible with the Intel 3945 wireless card. Can I replace it with an Intel 2100, 2200, or 2915?

I'm curious. In what way is it incompatible? The Intel 3945 covers all three modes A, B, and G.

[bri]

The Atheros card wasn't in the list, I'm waiting to hear back from tech support about it. It seems like the approved cards all have Cisco chipsets and I saw something mentioned once about using LEAP authentication (specific to Cisco?) but I don't have details yet. Fthe 3945abg I don't know what it is but I assume it's something in the specific implementation of features in that model.