Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

I want to run a T60P with ThinkPad Advanced Dock. With two outside displays attach to it. One EIZO S2410W-BK Black 24.1" with 1920 x 1200 resolution and the second one ThinkVision 6736 –HC9 20.1" with 1600 x 1200 resolution.

After going through the forum I think the best solution is this (expensive one but the simplest) digitaltigers SideCar Precision[/url] http://www.digitaltigers.com/sidecar-precision.shtml [url] It uses CardBus PCMCIA.

Since I’m not in US can a display guru tell me will this work or not?

Regards,

Sepehr

Ok none display gurus can answer as well.

Would the PCMCIA CardBus fit in the ThinkPad Advanced Dock?

Running two displays with different resolution would work together?

Thanks

Sepehr

The SideCar will probably work just fine. But it seems too expensive. I would make sure that the SideCar can support two different resolutions simultaneously. You may also want to check out the Matrox DualHead or TripleHead2go if you don't mind an external box. http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/products/th2go/

I've used other PCMCIA video cards in the T60 that also work. The Margi Display-to-go and the VillageTronic VTBook, both DVI. The VTBook goes to 1920x1200, the Margi only 1600x1200. http://www.villagetronic.com/ I prefer the Margi card, but it is discontinued.

You can also put a PCI-Express video card in the Advanced Dock. I've tested many different video cards in the dock, and every one of them has worked. I've settled on an NVidia 7600GS card which has decent performance and no fan noise. Some people have had little or success getting a video card to work in the Advanced Dock. Technical prowess may be involved, as could differences in Dock revisions and/or BIOS versions.

Note that the Dock's PCI-Express slot is physically x16 but electrically x1, so you'll get x1 performance. But that is still very fast - on par with the T60p's v5200. I can't really tell the difference when I run apps on one or the other.

My advice is to go with a card in the dock first.

Thanks RonS,

I have read all your posts regrading your tests with PCI-Express video card in the Advanced Dock. I also, saw for whatever the reason some people didn't have your success.

Since at the moment I'm not US and I have to have everything shipped to me here in Dubai I have to make sure that my plan works otherwise I would end up making a collection of unused stuff here and that would be a really expensive collection.

I will check the matrox. Thanks for the link.

Sepehr

I'm not sure I fully understand your problem.

How do you want to hook the two monitors up? I know on my Mini Dock you can hook one monitor up via DVI and another up via VGA, but you can't used the internal display at the same time. I'm assuming that based on your question you would like to have them both connected via DVI or else there wouldn't be an issue at all.

I wouldn't recommend either of the dual or triple Head2Go solutions since I believe they require monitors of the same resolution and it's not a true dual monitor solution since the computer just considers the two monitors to be one display with a double-wide resolution. This doesn't seem to be ideal at all and I believe both monitors would have to be hooked up via VGA anyway.

If you need to have more monitors connected then I think a PCI-E card is the way to go. The bandwidth of PCMCIA Cardbus is pretty slow and I feel it's not enough for a full-time display. If there is an Express Card solution then it might be a different story. I don't have the Advanced Dock myself, but I'm sure someone around here could give you a card model to get that worked well for them.

I may not have understood a fundamental requirement so please let me know.

it's not a true dual monitor solution since the computer just considers the two monitors to be one display with a double-wide resolution

True. However, with the Matrox PowerDesk software supplied with the card, dual-monitor behaviours such as single-screen resizing, maximise, minimise all are retained. The practical upshot is that the system behaves in a true multi-display manner.

No, the issue with the DH2G and TH2G units is that the T60 graphics units cannot map enough graphics memory to use the full available resolution. Try the free Compatibility Tool from Matrox and you'll se what I mean.

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/s ... l/home.php

On the point of using cards in the dock, just be prepared for some frustration before it works. I've documented my agonies sufficiently in this forum, as have ianbrom and others with their own issues. Nontheless, there are an equal number of success stories, despite controlled replication of installation protocol and configuration.

Regardin RonS's assertion that

Technical prowess may be involved, as could differences in Dock revisions and/or BIOS versions.

I believe that all these have been eliminated following experiments and investigations into dock serial numbers/part numbers and BIOS updates. Technical prowess is not an issue, as I have carefully maintained configuration control on my system as well as documented my experiments in some detail to this forum.

I'm convinced that there is some interaction between the PCIe bus and other devices in the system (the symptons of resource conficts and parity errors) or some power instability when a high-draw graphics card. I would carry out further experiments, but my machine is now an installed primary system, rather than a technology testbed, and my desire to play around with removing/reinstalling system components, stripping down the machine etcetera is limited.

One possibility not adequately covered is regional variations in power supply. Ianbrom and myself are both Brits, neither of us has succeeded, and nor has UK Lenovo. Alternative issues relate to any unusual modifications made to the ATI internal card implementation used in the T60.

Lenovo, I believe, is best placed to answer the questions regarding the problems with the t60 advanced dock pci-e implementation, but they have been unhelpfully silent. I am now running dual-monitors from the DVI and VGA ports on the dock.

Best of luck to you, and all who succeed in getting a PCI-e card in the dock working.

Mark