Thinkpads Forum

This is the post I wrote on another Forum
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Probably you have read my previous posts about the problems I experienced with my T60's display. The display was grainy, textured, random variations of brightness in closeby pixels. I was desperate. I even took it to the service center. Though I returned it back, because the service center told me they would fix it in 45 days (that's in Turkey). Anyway, I am a pretty techy person myself. I maintain around 10 computers over here. So I went through the BIOS of T60. I noticed that the BIOS was updated to 1.06. I guess this happened when I used the thinkvantage suite to update the programs. I told myself whatttt? When I got the notebook originally, the BIOS version was 1.04. Then I told myself, why I did not notice the grainy issue in the first place? So I did a downgrade, downloaded the BIOS version 1.04 from lenovo site, recorded it on a CD. Then I downgraded the BIOS from 1.06 to 1.04. And now, all my problems are solved. Screen is back to normal. You can not imagine how happy I am now

Yeah, indeed sounds weird..
Would I assume the problem would software-related - I would first try to blame video driver, but BIOS ?
Thanks for sharing, this is something to learn from. I intended to update my BIOS to the latest available for my T43 (which is also 1.06) but still held on hesitating to touch such critical part of the system, particularily bearing in mind so far the current one (apparently 1.04 ) works fine.
Now I'm glad I didn't go BIOS update route...

Thanks for sharing with us, Alex

If it ain't broke, don't fix it; although you don't want to let the BIOS update go by for too long since I have seen very old BIOS revisions on other systems tank the system itself after awhile. Before upgrading, check around on the forums here to see who updaged to what and what, if any, problems they are experiencing.

Strange, I have never heard of a grainy screen being caused by the BIOS; sometimes, after a BIOS flash or several drivers installs, Windows XP boots into a lower-than-native resolution for the LCD screen on the Thinkpad. Especially when you are updating the video display drivers.

I can confirm that 1.05 and 1.06 may cause a grainy display. Going back to 1.04 solves the problem. This is also discussed on a german Thinkpad forum (here)

I wonder what caused it to go grainy though?
I know very little about the screens used in thinkpads, but the problem the user described sounds as if it was displaying a weak analog signal...

Some (altohugh not many) LCD displays used in devices such as laptops are indeed capable of displaying analog RGB as well as digital.

I updated mine & seems to be fine,wondering maybe i should go back to 1.04v?Does anyone know how to switch back.I dont know the model # of the 1.04 version?Like what is grainy anyway,the whole pic? is it that noticeable?what do i look for?

If you dont experience any problem, then I would suggest you do not mess with the BIOS But if you experience any problem, you may download the old BIOS from lenovo's site. What video card do you have in your T60? I have ati x1300 64 MB version. I think that the BIOS update also updates the BIOS for the ati vid. card.

It is easy to spot the "grainy" look. Just set your background to a plain gray color, or some other grayish color. If you have this issue, you will immediately notice that the background color is not uniform on your display. You will notice random variations of brightness in closeby pixels. Some pixels will look brighter than the others. You will feel like looking at sand at beach.

Please let us know if you experience this issue.

SPANKY. wrote:Does anyone know how to switch back.I dont know the model # of the 1.04 version?

Just download the previous BIOS version from this page (see link in chart at the bottom) and install that to go back to a previous version. Be sure and follow the installation instructions on the page. The "model #" of all the versions is listed in the same chart.

BIOS Update Utility - ThinkPad T60, T60p

FWIW, I recently updated from BIOS 1.04 to 1.06 (and the latest video driver) and have none of the problems mentioned in this thread.

I can't thank you enough for providing this thread. I've been going mad trying to solve this issue. I tried re-installing the Catalyst control center, upgrading the video drivers, changing from 32 to 16 bit, etc. I even tried different themes (Classic, XP, Royale), and began to wonder if Office 2007 was to blame.

my only question is whether I am OK running Version 8.241.1-060324a-031947C of the video driver. in the release notes I see that this video driver requires BIOS 1.06 or higher, but it seems to be running fine. here is the release note for the video driver:

(Fix) DVD playback jerks at battery operation mode (PowerPlay mode). For the T60 and T60p this fix requires the system BIOS to be updated to 79ET60WW [1.06] or later.

Can anyone post an (in focus, macro) photo of this? I'd love to see what you are looking at.

-darren

check this please http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=58604

Thanks for the link. If the variations are just due to the screen and not poor PQ in the camera then that is very odd.

I really got a chuckle out of the fellow who posted the "do you see it in this photo?" post near the end. He posted a screencap rather than a photo of the screen. What a riot!

I hope he was trying to be funny because if not...

-darren

I tried my best to minimize the effect of the camera. The first gray picture is the best to demonstrate the issue.

Anthony:
FWIW, I recently updated from BIOS 1.04 to 1.06 (and the latest video driver) and have none of the problems mentioned in this thread.

Same here, T60 T2500 14"SXGA+ 128MBGX.

is that ati x1400?

I had the same issue with my T60. Mine is a 2007-62U (ATI X1400)

I upgraded to BIOS v1.06 and i started to notice issues on gray backgrounds (like around the menu bars on most applications). It basically looks like im running 16bit colour.

Going back to BIOS 1.04 fixed the problem

Steve

Someone on a german board posted a picture where the problem is clearly noticeable:

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/6393/g ... 6520wl.jpg

Wow. That is truly horrible.

Great find on the pic. FYI: You might want to edit your post to link to the pic rather than embed it before the mods wake up and do it for you.

-darren

it is strange. mine is also from 2007 series. 2007-c4u. I wonder whether this is just a coincidence.

Same here, also 2007 modell. but only noticeable around menus from programs. i saw it some times ago, but thought that it is a background texture from the program....

how in the hell has bios something to do with that ????

there is some part reserved for the graphics card in the bios memory. There are changes to this portion in the latest bios.

I ended up reverting to the older video driver since 8.241 supposedly required BIOS 1.06. the grainyness problem went away after I changed to 1.04, regardless of the video driver.

does anyone know if I need to have Catalyst control panel installed? Is PowerPlay disabled if I don't have Catalyst installed?

@hoya, no you dont have to install the ati control center. it is better not to anyway. eats lotsa resources and you can control anything without it also. (also powerplay) check out notebook hardware control and ati tray tools.

I just got my 2700-84U today and sure enough once I established my DSL connection, in the gray area at the top of IE there is major pixel problems.. grrr..

So I assume all new thinkpads (or at least T60/T60p) are coming with the 1.06 BIOS installed? grr..

Thanks for the heads up and info guys! I'll see what BIOS I have and revert back if needed.

nickacs wrote:I just got my 2700-84U today and sure enough once I established my DSL connection, in the gray area at the top of IE there is major pixel problems.. grrr..
.

That isn't quite the problem that is exhibited here; I know what you are talking about and I have seen those graphics quirks with IE on many a system. It appears to be how Windows XP handles the GUI code on certain programs; IE isn't the only one that is affected.

You see that because your color depth is set to 16-bit (the default on ThinkPads). Change to 32-bit and the banding will go away.

-darren

oops, sorry Darrenf & Christopher! Sorry for being such a newbie changed the display to 32bit and all looks fine..

btw, I do have BIOS 1.05a and no problems otherwise.. thanks again!

No problem - we've all run up against that one at first.

Welcome to the group!

-darren

I wonder whether you have the CD image for bios 1.05a. I would like to give it a try.