Thinkpads Forum

Hello,
I have a company-supplied T60 Type 2007-63U with the ATI Mobility Radeon 1400 and non-widescreen LCD which only has a VGA out port, no DVI. I also have a DVI/VGA LCD that has a native resolution of 1600x1200 and it looks pretty sad with VGA analog input - usable, but poor colors, banding, flickering, slightly less crisp text, etc.

Lenovo makes three docks that are supposedly compatible with this T60, and two of them might help me:

The Essential Port Replicator, with VGA only, no DVI
The Advanced Mini-Dock, with VGA and DVI but no PCI-X slot
The Advanced Dock, with VGA and DVI and a PCI-X slot

I have been unable to find a solid reference stating that a T60 without a DVI port will output through the DVI port of either the Dock or Mini-Dock, except in the case of adding a PCI-X card to the Dock, and even that seems iffy based on problems people are reporting.

Using the current (as of 5/1) BIOS, I can set the display to LCD+DVI while it is still set to Internal, but that could be a bogus unworking combination - I can also set the parallel port to Bidirectional, and there is no parallel port.

If I can get DVI to work, I'd like to, but I can't ask my boss to spend a few hundred bucks on a DVI docking station and possibly a PCI-X video card and have it not work.

So my questions are:

1. Has anybody gotten this model of T60 to work with DVI output without buying a PCI-X card to go into the docking station?

2. Has anybody gotten this model of T60 to work reliably with DVI output at 1600x1200 or higher and simultaneously still use the LCD using a PCI-X card in the docking station, and if so, what video card did you use?

Thanks,
JT

The Mini Dock and Advanced Docks have a DVI output that works perfectly. You can run dual displays or mirrored.

The Advanced Dock also has a PCI-Express slot (not PCI-X, that's something different) that you can use to extend the video capabilities even further.

I've been active on this board for a long time, and I've never heard of any problems with the dock's DVI port functioning.

I have an Advanced Dock and I use the DVI output to drive a 24" monitor that I have set a Primary. I also have a PCI-Express card in the dock's expansion bay, which gives me two additional DVI ports. I run three 24" monitors plus the Thinkpad's built-in display. I'm using an NVidia GeForce 7600GS card because it has a heat sink and thus makes no noise. I also disconnected the dock's built-in fans so my system runs silent.

There are many threads on this forum that talk about other video cards. I've tested several different cards and all of them worked fine. Others have had mixed success, probably due to power issues.

Thanks for the info, Ron.

Just to make sure I understand you correctly - you have a T60 with only VGA out, but use DVI from your docking station no problem?

JTinCA wrote:Thanks for the info, Ron.

Just to make sure I understand you correctly - you have a T60 with only VGA out, but use DVI from your docking station no problem?

Right

With the dock can you run laptop lcd, DVI Monitor and VGA monitor all at the same time?

Thanks

Todd

TheLaptopGuy wrote:With the dock can you run laptop lcd, DVI Monitor and VGA monitor all at the same time?

Thanks

Todd

Didn't work for me. I believe that I read somewhere that you can only get two outputs at one time.

TheLaptopGuy wrote:With the dock can you run laptop lcd, DVI Monitor and VGA monitor all at the same time?

Thanks

Todd

No

JTinCA wrote:Hello,
I have a company-supplied T60 Type 2007-63U with the ATI Mobility Radeon 1400 and non-widescreen LCD which only has a VGA out port, no DVI. I also have a DVI/VGA LCD that has a native resolution of 1600x1200 and it looks pretty sad with VGA analog input - usable, but poor colors, banding, flickering, slightly less crisp text, etc.

JT, could you tell us which monitor that is? Being that I'm a committed X series user, I'm stuck with VGA output for the foreseeable future, and I will want to avoid monitors with poor VGA inputs. (The Dell 2001FP I have at the office is actually quite good, but it is an IPS panel after all.)