External widescreen (1920x1200) monitor to X40

[robbe-b]

Hi,

I have reacently baught a new widescreen monitor to use with my Thinkpad X40, the problem is that I can not get the 1920x1200 resolution to work. The closest resolutions are 1600x1200 or 2048x1536, where the first is to little and the second to large, and none in the new wide format!

Can somebody please help me?

/ROB.

[pphilipko]

Hi,

I have reacently baught a new widescreen monitor to use with my Thinkpad X40, the problem is that I can not get the 1920x1200 resolution to work. The closest resolutions are 1600x1200 or 2048x1536, where the first is to little and the second to large, and none in the new wide format!

Can somebody please help me?

/ROB.

How the heck did you manage to get the resolution so high?!?! It's supposed to be limited by the drivers. However, try installing the software for the monitor, as I have said repeatedly. It may help.

[simisimi]

All I can tell you is that this can be done because I did it on my T40 using some download utility that was from some Russian guy and it basically adjusts some registry settings to "unlock" the resolutions that the Radeon chipset is inherently capable of. I am assuming you have a Radeon chipset of course. Anyhow, I would do some google work and the answer is out there! Wish I could remember the utility....

[robbe-b]

All I can tell you is that this can be done because I did it on my T40 using some download utility that was from some Russian guy and it basically adjusts some registry settings to "unlock" the resolutions that the Radeon chipset is inherently capable of. I am assuming you have a Radeon chipset of course. Anyhow, I would do some google work and the answer is out there! Wish I could remember the utility....

I think it is the Intel Extreme Graphics 2 chipset in my X40, is this compatible with the radeon chipset settings? Well, thanks anyway, I will start searching the net...

/ROB.

[bhtooefr]

The Radeon (family) is made by ATI, and is VERY different from IEG2.

What connection are you using to hook the monitor to your X40? I'm assuming VGA. DVI may work better, but you'll have to get a dock of some sort, and I don't think the UltraBase has a DVI port.

[simisimi]

This will not work with the Intel Extreme graphics but gives you some idea what you will need.

For users with Thinkpad models that do have the Radeon, here is what to do.

1. Setup the external monitor as your primary monitor and feel free to use IBM Presentation Director - latest version - to get this working in an available resolutions such as 1024x768.

2. Download Refreshfix - A utility designed to unlock the full options of the ATI Radeon chipset from here http://www.radeon2.ru/refreshfix_eng.html. Extract it and run it then allow the reboot it requests.

3. Go to your display settings and select the 2nd displat (Thinkpad screen) and deseelct the "extend desktop" option.

4. Select the advanced options and then the Monitors tab. Deselect the option for "Hide Modes" and apply this.

5. From the main display settings screen you now will have a long list of supported resolutions and can choose the wide resolution you want such as 1280x768. Once this is applied, select the 2nd screen and elect to extend the desktop again.

It is my guess that the registry settings altered by the refreshfix utility for ATI radeon must exist in a similar way for the Intel Extreme graphics. If no similar utility exists you might be able to find info on the web to manually adjust the registry to unlock resolutions that IBM/Lenovo do not support out of the box.

Good luck!

[tokyo_x40]

Status report?

...

And, for any windows guru's kind enough to instruct.. how might I modify my registry? (after making a backup, of course)

Just poking around, I see current my monitor entries in many places. One example below. [typed by hand, forgive any typos] But I don't see anything that seems to limit the resolution options. I searched through the registry for "XResolution" [which also hits MaxResolution] but I only found current settings, or settings for other printers/cameras/devices I've installed. (and in case anyone asks you, the windows registry is a big big thing.) Did not find anything listing the resolutions I find in my menu for the external monitor by desktop left click, namely 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200, 2048x1536.

I did find my external monitor's max resolution, 1280x768, so I know the driver for my monitor is installed correctly. I imagine the entries would be in root, igfx, but beyond that guess I have no clue.

And final note.. I did install the most recent drivers from Intel, no help. And there's nothing apparent in IBM's BIOS Video settings, either.

Thanks, from Tokyo


------example entry for my current monitor--------------------

Code: Select all

- HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG  - System - CurrentControlset  
           - Control - VIDEO - [big string hex] - 0000:
Attach.RelativeX   REG_DWORD   0x0000000 (0)
Attach.RelativeY       (same)
Attach.ToDesktop                              Data = 1
DefaultSettings.BitsPerPel                  Data = 16
DefaultSettings.FixedOutput                          0
DefaultSettings.Flags                               0
DefaultSettings.Orientation                          0
DefaultSettings.VRefresh                            1
DefaultSettings.XPanning                           0
DefaultSettings.XResolution                        1024
DefaultSettings.YPanning                              0
DefaultSettings.YResolution                        768

[taob]

I'm interested in this too, but haven't had much luck making it happen. The best I can do is unscaled 1600x1200 with the latest Intel 82852 drivers for XP. The desktop comes up against the left side of the panel, extending 4/5ths of the way across to the right.

The Intel driver does seem to realize that the display is capable of 1920x1200, but it does not display that as one of the choices in the resolution drop-down.

[taob]

And according to Intel, it's the fault of the BIOS, not their chipset nor drivers:

Unable to use 1600x900 or 1280x960 wide screen resolutions

Anyone know if this is a setting accessible via the X40's BIOS?

[tokyo_x40]

BIOS -- Kinda doubt IBM will jump on this, due to the X40 being primarily a mobile workspace, and not a multimedia graphics center. Oh well.

PS, any IBM folks reading (knock on wood), it would be nice to at least have a beta BIOS release for widescreen resolutions, external monitor only (no dual screen stuff).

[beq]

I'm in the same boat, wanting to connect a 1920x1200 widescreen LCD monitor to my X41 Tablet (I also have my old X40 with me, too). And I too am not finding that resolution (or any 16x9 resolutions) being offered with either laptop.

I saw that Intel offers a unified graphics driver which supports both the 855GME chipset (ie. Extreme Graphics 2 used in the X40) and 915GM (ie. GMA 900 used in the X41/X41T):

link, alt-link

I'm hoping the latest Intel driver will unlock 1920x1200. According to Intel the GMA 900 does support 16x9 aspect ratio. Not sure about the Extreme Graphics 2, but I'm sure there must've been previous widescreen laptops that used this chipset...

Anyways though, with the widescreen ThinkPad Z60m/Z60t lines coming out (where certain models also use the GMA 900 integrated graphics), I'm thinking IBM/Lenovo must've added 16x9 aspect ratio support in their own graphics driver going forward, which should then also be available for the X41/X41T??

[taob]

beq,

I am running the latest (Aug 31 2005) combo driver from Intel, and the control panel software is what I showed in my screenshot above. It does recognize that the display attached to the external VGA port is capable of 1920x1200, yet that resolution is not selectable. The IEG2 can provide 16:9 aspect ratios, as demonstrated by many other laptop models, but Intel's knowledgebase suggests that the host BIOS may be preventing it from doing so in the X40 (and I presume the X41/X41T).

[beq]

I see, thanks for the info taob.

As opposed to Intel's own unified driver, I tried installing the latest IBM/Lenovo graphics drivers for both:

- X40 (Extreme Graphics 2) : v6.14.10.3943 / Dec 22, 2004
- X41 Tablet (GMA 900) : v6.14.10.4391 / Sep 28, 2005

but still no 16x9 support on either one I'm limited to running 1600x1200 on my external widescreen LCD, which means there are unused black bars along the short edges of the screen (I prefer it that way as opposed to stretching the 4:3 image where everything is distorted)...

Like you I also see on the control panel software (on both laptops) that my 24" external widescreen LCD is recognized as supporting 1920x1200, but it's not selectable.

Anyways, I'm really surprised that IBM's latest GMA 900 graphics driver doesn't support 16x9 on my X41T. This is the same driver used for the new widescreen Z60t and Z60m (in fact this latest version is specifically just to add support for the Z series)! As you know the Z60t and some Z60m models also use the GMA 900 graphics as the X41/X41T...

On the Z60t/Z60m, this same driver must obviously support the 16x9 resolution of the built-in LCD, and I'm guessing that the driver would also support 16x9 on external monitors (can anyone with a Z series confirm??).

[optas]

It seems like the graphics card in the X41 does NOT support external LCD displays at resolutions higher than 1600x1200

I am basing this on the following:

1. The X41 chipset is Intel 82915GM (per IBM).
2. This chipset (per Intel) does not go above 1600x1200 on LCDs.

To see claim 2 read the "Max Panel Display Resolution" info at

http://indigo.intel.com/compare_cpu/sho ... ture=en-US

This totally sucks. Especially becuase the claim of having a 2048x1536 max resolution appears in the literature of both IBM and Intel for this chipset/laptop, forgetting that it only applies to CRTs.

So, no 2405FPW...

[bhtooefr]

Or VGA signals, that LCDs can receive.

CRT == VGA signal
LCD == DVI signal

I suspect that the DVI repeaters simply don't run fast enough to push out the necessary bandwidth for 2048x1536, but the RAMDAC does.

[spirou197]

Hi,

I have reacently baught a new widescreen monitor to use with my Thinkpad X40, the problem is that I can not get the 1920x1200 resolution to work. The closest resolutions are 1600x1200 or 2048x1536, where the first is to little and the second to large, and none in the new wide format!

Can somebody please help me?

/ROB.

Look at my previous post, It's likely to fix your problem. At least my X40 can output 1920x1200.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 058#136058

As mentioned in that post, virtually all limitations concerning resolutions on the Thinkpads with Intel graphics is due to the fact the the standard Intel driver only supports resolutions reported by the machine's vBIOS, and IBM apparently didn't care too much about wide resolutions.)

If you run Linux there are ways around this problem: there's a hack that can temporarily add resolutions to those "hardcoded" in the vbios.

http://perso.wanadoo.fr/apoirier/

For windows, the IEGD drivers seems to be the only way. I've put some time into creating a custom driver settings file that supports 1360 or 1366x768 using the IEGD utilities, but it doesn't work yet. If someone has managed to create settings files using these utilities, please post!

[robbe-b]

Thanks for all the replys!

I can clearly see that I am not the only one facing this problem. I will try using th IEGD as soon as I can unpack my widescreen monitor againg! (got somewhat angry with it an boxed it up again after failing with the resolutions).

Please, if any one has other successful experiences with this driver and an X40, post them here!

BR,
ROB.