Help and advice sought with docking and multi screen problem
Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2009 11:26 am
First time poster, please feel free to offer any help or advice.
To summarize: A thinkpad when undocked from a two display connected thinkpad dock setup cannot redock using the thinkvantage presentation director consistently, a reboot is often needed to correct the displays and resolutions.
In my shop, I have several T-60 and T-61p thinkpads (and T42p thinkpads) using a variety of docks. The issue I'm writing about is with one multi monitor setup, athough most of my users with Thinkpads have had this problem.
The T-61p Thinkpad runs Windows XP SP3 (all updates) and is docked in a 2504 Advanced Mini-dock. The dock is connected to one digital wide screen LCD and one Analog Widescreen LCD. The LCD's are different sizes and use different resolutions. The laptop is closed when used. Undocking and redocking frequently requires a restart to get the resolutions/monitor setup to return to the default setup we created. I was using Thinkvantage Presentation Software with a profile, but this was not working. Another competing display utility has also been installed (probably through Windows Update): the Nvidea software I'm sure the full software download, and not just the driver from IBM is installed with the Nvidea desktop manager software etc. I have tried using this software to create a profile and replace the functionality of the Thinkvantage presentation manager. Its working, but also occasionally fails and requires the user to restart completely in order to return to a docked setup with multiple monitors working with the correct configuration and resolutions.
I am open to someone with the same scenario's advice on best practice. I am naive enough to install driver updates from both windows and IBM's thinkvantage update utility, its pretty clear this might have lead to the current situation. What causes this and how best to create a trouble free docking and undocking practice would be ideal.
Many thanks
To summarize: A thinkpad when undocked from a two display connected thinkpad dock setup cannot redock using the thinkvantage presentation director consistently, a reboot is often needed to correct the displays and resolutions.
In my shop, I have several T-60 and T-61p thinkpads (and T42p thinkpads) using a variety of docks. The issue I'm writing about is with one multi monitor setup, athough most of my users with Thinkpads have had this problem.
The T-61p Thinkpad runs Windows XP SP3 (all updates) and is docked in a 2504 Advanced Mini-dock. The dock is connected to one digital wide screen LCD and one Analog Widescreen LCD. The LCD's are different sizes and use different resolutions. The laptop is closed when used. Undocking and redocking frequently requires a restart to get the resolutions/monitor setup to return to the default setup we created. I was using Thinkvantage Presentation Software with a profile, but this was not working. Another competing display utility has also been installed (probably through Windows Update): the Nvidea software I'm sure the full software download, and not just the driver from IBM is installed with the Nvidea desktop manager software etc. I have tried using this software to create a profile and replace the functionality of the Thinkvantage presentation manager. Its working, but also occasionally fails and requires the user to restart completely in order to return to a docked setup with multiple monitors working with the correct configuration and resolutions.
I am open to someone with the same scenario's advice on best practice. I am naive enough to install driver updates from both windows and IBM's thinkvantage update utility, its pretty clear this might have lead to the current situation. What causes this and how best to create a trouble free docking and undocking practice would be ideal.
Many thanks