Thinkpads Forum

I've got a T60 running Vista. In Presentation Director the option to automatically apply a video scheme when docking the laptop is grayed out. One other person indicated this was the case over in the Vista forum. We're wondering if anyone running Vista has the same problem. Could this be a Vista problem?

Better yet, has anyone found a solution?

tabasco

tabasco wrote:I've got a T60 running Vista. In Presentation Director the option to automatically apply a video scheme when docking the laptop is grayed out. One other person indicated this was the case over in the Vista forum. We're wondering if anyone running Vista has the same problem. Could this be a Vista problem?

Better yet, has anyone found a solution?

tabasco

I have this problem as well. I originally believed it was simply the machine and Vista being so new they needed time to get it all worked out. But it's been more than enough time, and I have to believe nothing is being done to solve this inexcusable situation.

I desperately need a solution to this issue, as my T60p always defaults to 1024x786 every day, twice per day, when docked and undocked. It scrambles everything on my desktop including widgets, sticky notes, icons, every time.

Docking resolution issues like this, using a state of the art notebook, with the most modern Windows OS, 6 months after the RTM, is ridiculous.

PRGeno

PRGeno wrote:

tabasco wrote:I've got a T60 running Vista. In Presentation Director the option to automatically apply a video scheme when docking the laptop is grayed out. One other person indicated this was the case over in the Vista forum. We're wondering if anyone running Vista has the same problem. Could this be a Vista problem?

Better yet, has anyone found a solution?

tabasco

I have this problem as well. I originally believed it was simply the machine and Vista being so new they needed time to get it all worked out. But it's been more than enough time, and I have to believe nothing is being done to solve this inexcusable situation.

I desperately need a solution to this issue, as my T60p always defaults to 1024x786 every day, twice per day, when docked and undocked. It scrambles everything on my desktop including widgets, sticky notes, icons, every time.

Docking resolution issues like this, using a state of the art notebook, with the most modern Windows OS, 6 months after the RTM, is ridiculous.

PRGeno

PRGeno, I understand your pain.
When I tried Presentation Director to use my HDTV as external monitor, my resolution on my T60 flickered and went to 1024x768 for a split second and then back to my normal resolution 1400x1050.
BUT
for that split second, it totally screwed up my icons all over the place.
We need a fix asap!

clarkent wrote:PRGeno, I understand your pain.
When I tried Presentation Director to use my HDTV as external monitor, my resolution on my T60 flickered and went to 1024x768 for a split second and then back to my normal resolution 1400x1050.
BUT
for that split second, it totally screwed up my icons all over the place.
We need a fix asap!

The problem could lie with Vista, the T60/dock hardware/firmware, the ATI video drivers, or Presentation Manager. But I would hope someone was looking into a fix for this embarrassment.

The other thing is Presentation Manager itself is broken. The options for applying a PD scheme when docked is grayed out, which you would think has the potential to fix this problem.

Also the options to Disable schemes when an external display isn't attached, and automatically restoring default settings when resuming from a sleep state.

Someone at Lenovo must know about these issues and are working on a fix for Vista and this important TPad applet, right?

PRGeno

When I switch schemes mine does the flicker to low-res too, is that normal? On winXP

tabasco wrote:I've got a T60 running Vista. In Presentation Director the option to automatically apply a video scheme when docking the laptop is grayed out. One other person indicated this was the case over in the Vista forum. We're wondering if anyone running Vista has the same problem. Could this be a Vista problem?

Better yet, has anyone found a solution?

tabasco

Tabasco & anyone else experiencing this frustrating behavior,

As I said before, I can't change the default docked scheme in Presentation Director either under Vista.

However, after digging around in the registry, I found that I can manually change the docked scheme and Presentation Director will apply that scheme when I dock. It also shows up in Presentation Director as the new default when dock, even though I can't change it there. This registry key can be found here:

HKEY_Current_User\software\lenovo\NPdirect\data\common\AutoApplySchemeNameForDock

Just put in the name of the scheme you want to have applied when docked.

I also found another value in that same location called:

AutoApplySchemeName

I am assuming that is why the display transitions to 1024x768 when switching between schemes. both of these values where set to a default scheme of 1024x768. I haven't tested this setting long enough to be sure this will solve the 1024x768 flash backs, but I'm hopeful.

The Dock scheme is getting set as expected so I'm thrilled about that. This isn't the solution I would hope Lenovo would deliver some day sonn, but it works for me for now.

PRGeno

By chance has anyone found a solution to this? I'm on a T61 (7662-CTO) and have the latest updates installed with Windows Vista Ultimate.

I'll try the registry settings and see where that takes me.

Thanks,
Bradley

I just got off the phone with Lenovo.
They told me its a known issue and all I can do is wait until the next update to presentation director comes out. Did anyone get the registry hack working?

I have the same problem on my X61 as well.

I won't be back in the office until Thursday, but I'm happy to give the reg hack a try at that time. Thanks to PRGeno for doing the work to discover this setting!

Just set the setting via registry to apply a certain scheme. But at this time there's i'm also having the problem with flickering display when using Presentation Director. But this also applies to XP.

For the moment i uninstalled Presentation Director and using bare Vista Presentation Feature.

PRGeno wrote:However, after digging around in the registry, I found that I can manually change the docked scheme and Presentation Director will apply that scheme when I dock. It also shows up in Presentation Director as the new default when dock, even though I can't change it there. This registry key can be found here:

HKEY_Current_User\software\lenovo\NPdirect\data\common\AutoApplySchemeNameForDock

Just put in the name of the scheme you want to have applied when docked.

OK, that sets the scheme name to be used, but the checkbox is still unchecked, and the scheme is not getting applied automatically. Do I need to set another registry value? SchemeMenuMode.Dock maybe?

I tried running it with UAC off. And voila... It works. So it must be a permission issue. Hadn't the time to hunt down with Process Monitor but i'll try tomorrow at the office.

tomh009 wrote:OK, that sets the scheme name to be used, but the checkbox is still unchecked, and the scheme is not getting applied automatically. Do I need to set another registry value? SchemeMenuMode.Dock maybe?

Well, after docking and undocking a few times, it started working! (I still have UAC on, so that's not the problem.) Maybe Presentation Director doesn't read the settings immediately or something -- in any case, I'm now a happy camper.

I'm still having issues with this one. What's the final verdict? Wait until Lenovo comes out with a fix It's been a few months now and still not update release to resolve this issue.

Thanks,
Bradley