Thinkpads Forum

I was thinking of buying a docking station and a monitor, but I need assistance because I'm a bit confused. The docking station that I can purchase for my T60 model supports DVI-D. I would like to purchase the 30' display from Apple which is DVI-I. What does this DVI stuff mean and more importantly would it work? Also, I have the ATI x1400 (128MB) are there any issues with the graphics card supporting DVI?

Thanks

The only way to get a DVI connector is to get a Mini Dock or an Advanced Dock. But, if you get integrated graphics (GMA), the DVI will not work. Since you have the x1400, you're good to go.

DVI-I means that the DVI port carries both digital and analog signals. You can get an adapter to convert the DVI to VGA and drive an analog monitor, or run straight through to a DVI monitor to run in digital mode.

DVI-D means "digital only" DVI. The analog wires are dead.

All 30" flat panels are digital only, not analog. So they need DVI-D, but will take DVI-I anyway and just ignore the analog signals.

In order to run the 30" monitor at full native resolution, you need to drive it with Dual-link DVI. Dual-link DVI is required to drive monitors past 1920x1200 resolution. Some T60 machines will suppport this out of the box. Whether or not yours will, you will just have to try. If it doesn't work, then you have to get an Advanced Dock and put a dual-link video board in the dock. But wait, there's more...

If you're running XP, any dual-link video board will work just fine, so long as it physically fits in the dock. There are many to choose from. If you're running Vista, then you must find a card (in this case, an x1400 card) to put in the dock because Vista requires that all video adapters use the same driver.

Great info... Thanks.

RonS wrote:The only way to get a DVI connector is to get a Mini Dock or an Advanced Dock. But, if you get integrated graphics (GMA), the DVI will not work. Since you have the x1400, you're good to go.

Just to correct for anyone else that might read this - The T60 and T61 with integrated graphics DO support DVI through the docks but they will only support single link resolutions.

The T60 with GMA DVI pass-through didn't used to work. This was true at least on the early releases of the T60. If this has changed then that is great news.

I'm not sure what results you have gotten RonS but this has always worked on T60 by design, it didn't used to work on T43 and earlier and it doesn't work on any of the other ranges but the decision was made for it to work on T series as people want the option to have integrated graphics but still use a decent monitor

snife wrote:

RonS wrote:The only way to get a DVI connector is to get a Mini Dock or an Advanced Dock. But, if you get integrated graphics (GMA), the DVI will not work. Since you have the x1400, you're good to go.

Just to correct for anyone else that might read this - The T60 and T61 with integrated graphics DO support DVI through the docks but they will only support single link resolutions.

Hmh, for T61, X3100 is said to support QXGA (2048x1536) (see for example http://download.intel.com/design/mobile ... 627303.pdf)

Am I mistaken?

What the chipset supports doesn't always translate to what the system will support, DVI certainly only has a single link connection internally so couldn't obtain that resolution, however, it might be possible via VGA, i dont have my high resolution CRT handy to check at the moment.

snife wrote:What the chipset supports doesn't always translate to what the system will support, DVI certainly only has a single link connection internally.

There is a lot of confusion regarding video capabilities of the Thinkpad T6x line. The confustion is largely caused by IBM/Lenovo's terrible documention on the Thinkpad's video capabilities, uninformed technical support, and inconsistent capabilities across the T6x line.

There are many first-hand reports from active users on this forum that the T6x does indeed support Dual-link DVI right out the dock. It works for some people, but not for others. Originally it appeared that only the v5200 could support it, but then someone with v5250 got it to work. Snife got (in this thread) Dual-link DVI to work with a T61 / Nvidia 140M setup. If Dual-link was able to work with the X3100 I wouldn't be surprised at all.