Thinkpads Forum

Well, not sure if it is related, but I applied an Adobe PDF reader update and a few other ones Microsoft XP downloaded, and now can no longer get the 1400x1050 resolution to span the whole display area again no matter what tricks I've tried or how many times I've tried, I also don't have any usable restore points to go back to see if it would undo whatever it was done to nullify my past tricks to get full screen 1400x1050 resolution back.

I'm convinced there is a glitch somewhere in the T60, likely in the dispaly adaptor section, but I have no way of proving or disproving it, nor do I have the time to deal with this when I am in the last 4 months of my MBA program, so for the time being I'll live with this external monitor issue or perhaps buy another external display in the 16x9 format and see if it works any better......

I may have this issue resolved.

After the latest "failure", I thought to try another cheap video cable which displayed some ghosting but I got the correct resolution and display area back without making any changes, this got me thinking that the display adaptor in the Thinkpad needs to auto-detect the display characteristics through relevant wiring contact(s) through the video cable, what if some of these contacts were partially oxidized over the years and is causing intermittently unreliable connection?

So I rocked both of the video cable connectors side-to-side a number of times once they are plugged in to "scrub" the contact surfaces, and so far the display area and resolution have been proper and rock solid over the last few days.

In retrospect this does make sense somewhat, but who would have thought to suspect the video cable when all the video content is displayed but just not at the correct resolution? I sure as heck didn't!!

Time will tell if this has solved the issue for good.

Good sleuthing, Watson!