T60 double graphic card and plug-in monitor problem

[ketyow]

Hi,
I recently bought a secondhand T60. I use basic and plug-in monitor. Everything was OK and two days ago I plugged in my external monitor and it didn't start up. Now I can run it only on maximum resolution equal to basic monitor. I tried on 3 different monitors, 2 wires and 2 sockets - effect is the same. I reinstalled drivers and there is no change. I use Windows XP with SP3.

I noticed 2 strange things in setting (I'm not sure but it seems to me that it was different before that problem). I have polish system, but you should understand the screens.


It's displaying that I have two graphic cards, 5 basic monitors and 2 plug-in monitors (when there is no plug-in monitor). When I plug in external monitor (there is no screen with it) 2 basic monitors are changing into plug-in monitors. When I delete some monitors from the list they come back after restart.


When I use 2 monitors they have the same name in the sittings. I'm almost sure it was different before.

I even don't know if it is hardwere or softwere problem. Do you have some ideas? My ran out.

[RealBlackStuff]

You need to uninstall all the monitors in System/Device Manager.
It's normal to show 2 graphics cards, one for the internal LCD and one for an external monitor.
These work independently from each other, and if one is 'broken' the other could still work.
What might also help is uninstalling the (Intel) graphics driver and reinstalling it in the latest version.

[ketyow]

As I told - if I uninstal some of them (also if I uninstal all) they all come back after reboot. If I plug in some monitor it is displayed two times (like StudioWorks on the screen below). I also tried to turn of all of them in device manager except one internal but it didn't fix the problem. I uninstaled drivers and reinstaled them in the latest version of course - no result. I think that graphic card see all of this fake monitors and is trying to attend them so it have "no power" to attend real external monitor using better resolution. It's also strange that image on external monitor is shaking so it have to low frequency but if I try to upgrade this the monitor turns of in the same way as in higher resolution. I tried to fix the problem using Power Strip but it also didn't help.

[RealBlackStuff]

I would suggest to install System Update 3.14 http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 66956.html
which requires (dotnetframe) and run that.
Obviously there are some system drivers wrong or missing.

[ketyow]

I installed all updates using this tool and it didn't help. I have doubts if it's drivers problems becouse it happened suddenly - earlier drivers was ok and I didn't touch them. Maybe some reset of graphic card settings?

I noticed one more problem. In device manager I have one unknown device. Location: Intel(R) 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Controller - 27B9. I read in internet that it need some chipset drivers but I have them and it's still unknown.

EDIT:
In "Everest" without external monitor I have monitors list as below:

It shows "generic television" but I don't know why becouse I didn't plug in any TV. It's also displayed in device manager.

It's strange that my graphic cards (if there are realy two of them) have different "device type". One is video adapter and second one is 3D accelerator:

[RealBlackStuff]

You need to install this driver to get rid of the unknown item (which in your case is the Atmel TPM)
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-58054

I would try this:
boot into Safe Mode (press F8 at boot a few times), then uninstall the graphics drivers. Check in Device manager that all monitors are gone. If not uninstall them in Device Manager.
When you now reboot in 'normal' Windows, it should find new hardware and install some drivers.
Let us know if that helps.

BTW: you don't have 2 graphics cards, it's only 1 card (a chip actually), but with 2 different outputs, one for internal LCD and one for external monitor.

[ketyow]

AMTEL TPM:
I tried to instal drivers which you recomended but after extraction I couldn't run INSTALLE file and any other which can start the instalation. I reinstal drivers automaticly and after this I noticed this:

In device manager I have Amtel TPM two times (it's shady affair becouse of this "multi monitors") and one of them have exclamation with note, that this device can't be run in right way becouse it didn't have necessary drivers.

PREVIOUS PROBLEM:
In safe mode I didn't have any monitors in device manager just from the begining. I started uninstaling but system informed me that it can't be done, becouse this drivers are necessary to run the system. None the less after reboot in normal mode I didn't have this drivers and any of monitors (there also wasn't any as unknown). Unfortunately they all came back after new drivers instalation.

I'm thinking about formatting and reinstaling Windows but I would like to try everything what can help before it becouse formatting means a lot of work for me. I also have guarantee if nothing will help but I need this notebook to work so I'd prefer find a solution of my own becouse complaint can take a lot of time especially that I bought this T60 by the internet.

EDIT:
If I turn of external D-SUB I can see "only" 3 internal monitors, 1 plug&play monitor and one generic television. In my opinion it meens that my computer detect 2 fake internal monitors, 1 fake plug&play monitor and 1 fake generic television but they are detected on both outputs so they are displayed two times. Real internal monitor isn't duplicated so we have 5 internal monitors on the screen.

[ketyow]

I checked situation on Life CD Linux (mint) and effect is the same. External monitor runs only on low resolution and frequency. I didn't know how to check if Linux also detect all this fake monitors. When I start up using external monitor it is also unstable (low frequency). It shows that it isn't probably drivers problem. Do you have some ideas?

[ketyow]

Up. I also updated and restet BIOS. I haven't seen any changes - of course. How do you think - does formatting have any sense?