Can an X40 support a wide-screen external display?

[gmontagu]

Greetings,

Can an X40 support a 16:10 wide-screen external display, such as a Dell 24" panoramic display, via its VGA out?

The specs suggest it only supports 4:3 aspect ratios, but a coworker of mine says that because it supports up to 2048x1536, it should be able to do 1920x1200 without distorting the image, even though 1920x1200 is the 16:10 typical of wide-screen displays, and 2048x1536 is a 4:3 aspect ratio.

What do you say?

Thanks

Greg

[tomh009]

Can an X40 support a 16:10 wide-screen external display, such as a Dell 24" panoramic display, via its VGA out?

The specs suggest it only supports 4:3 aspect ratios, but a coworker of mine says that because it supports up to 2048x1536, it should be able to do 1920x1200 without distorting the image, even though 1920x1200 is the 16:10 typical of wide-screen displays, and 2048x1536 is a 4:3 aspect ratio.

I spent quite some time at this for my X31, and the short answer is "not with the standard driver, at least." I updated the driver, resolutions didn't appear. So I went to a local retailer (Future Shop) and plugged my X31 into a variety of wide-screen displays -- no option for those resolutions. All automatically stretched the image (certainly not what I want!) with the exception of the HP, which gave me the option to leave black bars on the sides.

Now, I was told that third-party drivers could do it, and I tried the most popular one (Omega? Or something like that ...) but it would blue-screen every time I booted up, before I even had a chance to login. I ended up going back to the last known good configuration, and eradicating the drivers off my ThinkPad. Didn't feel like experimenting any more after that.

My current options are to buy a 20" 1600x1200 monitor -- not so expensive any more -- or to wait until I upgrade my ThinkPad (though even the X60 doesn't appear to include those resolutions right now ...).

[gmontagu]

Thanks -- that's useful information, especially considering that the X31's specs indicate that it, like the X40, supports up to 2048x1536 on external displays.

My coworker's argument that the X40 could correctly drive a wide-screen display hinged on the idea that if the X40's horizontal resolution went all the way up to 2048, past the 1920 maximum horizontal resolution of, say, a Dell 24" wide-screen display, it would surely be able to drop down to 1920 *and* somehow scale the vertical resolution to 1200 to preserve a 16:10 aspect ratio.

Sounds like your experience was otherwise.

[tomh009]

My coworker's argument that the X40 could correctly drive a wide-screen display hinged on the idea that if the X40's horizontal resolution went all the way up to 2048, past the 1920 maximum horizontal resolution of, say, a Dell 24" wide-screen display, it would surely be able to drop down to 1920 *and* somehow scale the vertical resolution to 1200 to preserve a 16:10 aspect ratio.

I believe the video chipset can do it, yes. The trick is that the driver has to tell the chipset what resolution to use -- and the standard driver only has 1600x1200 and 2048x1536.

[Goetterdaemmerung]

I also spent some research on this for my X40. The answer is that the X40 (and other thinkpads) can support any resolution (i.e. 1234 x 1147 would be possible), but with special drivers. The special drivers can be had directly from intel's webpage: just go to the driver download page for your video chipset, and get the "for use by Developers" version of the driver, the second one listed at


http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts ... bmit=Go%21

The catch is that some say these developer versions have defects of their own. I don't recall anything specific, but it certainly wasn't blue screens. It was enough for me to settle for a normal (and much cheaper, more pixels/$) aspect ratio screen.

[sugo]

Does anyone know if X40 with the intel developer driver supports 1680x1050?

[Goetterdaemmerung]

[quote="sugo"]Does anyone know if X40 with the intel developer driver supports 1680x1050?[/quote]

Yes

[tomh009]

I also spent some research on this for my X40. The answer is that the X40 (and other thinkpads) can support any resolution (i.e. 1234 x 1147 would be possible), but with special drivers. The special drivers can be had directly from intel's webpage: just go to the driver download page for your video chipset, and get the "for use by Developers" version of the driver (...)

The catch is that some say these developer versions have defects of their own. I don't recall anything specific, but it certainly wasn't blue screens. It was enough for me to settle for a normal (and much cheaper, more pixels/$) aspect ratio screen.

Hmmm, now this is very interesting. My rationale for the wide-aspect external display is that my next ThinkPad might well have that type of built-in display, so it would make sense to match aspect ratios -- and the 1600x1200 external displays are not cheap, either.

Unfortunately for me, the X31 uses an ATI Radeon video chipset, so the Intel drivers don't do much there. But good news for the X40 folks ...

[gmontagu]

Thanks to everyone who replied to this thread.

One last question: Let's say we don't care about the 16:10 aspect ratio. Has anyone here successfully, happily driven a wide-screen display at a reasonably high resolution with an X40, even if the image was stretched a bit?

Turns out the person I'm asking these questions for doesn't care so much if the image is stretched, as long as everything's nice and large and readable.

Greg

[Bloody Nokia Adept]

Hmmmm... Are all of you sure that some tricks should take place to turn external wide screen on? Bet that you're wrong!

First, look at the screen shot I've made on my working environment - X40 with laptop LCD@1024*768 plus external wide screen LCD@1400*900 (ViewSonic VA1912w):
http://lh6.google.com/image/aleksey.fed ... pg?imgdl=1

Second, try the instructions below:
0. Once Windows is running...
1. Detach you external screen
2. Activate "LCD Only" display scheme (Fn-F7)
3. Attach you external screen
4. Right-click on your desktop and choose Properties, which opens the Display Properties window
5. Click the Settings tab and you should see a window with both monitors showing and the second monitor grayed out
6. Click the Display drop-box and choose the second monitor
7. Click the Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor checkbox and choose Apply
8. Blank desktop should appear on your external screen
9. Choose OK to close Display Properties window (_mandatory_ step)
10. Repeat steps 4..6 to get to the Settings tab again and start working with second monitor
11. Drag the Screen Resolution dial to the most right position that will correspond to the maximal allowed resolution by your external screen (in case if it supports Plug-and-Play of course)
12. Tune the Color quality as you wish
13. Choose Apply
14. Enjoy with high and wide resolution on yours external wide screen

Note: By default Windows assumes that your secondary display located on the right hand of your primary display. So, to get there you have to move your mouse beyond the right boundary of primary display. But it could be changed - just get to the Display Properties screen Settings tab (see action steps 4 and 5 above) and drag-and-drop second monitor figure above the primary, for instance.

Just for non-believers... I have standard Intel graphics driver that came with my Windows XP Pro Russian: 6.14.10.3879 with core 3.0.0.3879 from 30.07.2004

Good luck!

[Thinkhead]

If you can connect your monitor to a 2nd PC, you can use any resolution up to 2560 by 1600 px with the utility www.maxivista.com

[triplerotor]

Just to confirm that the instructions posted by Nokia Adept work perfectly for me My set up is an X40 and a brand new Videoseven 22in widescreen (1680 X 1050).. works like a dream.

Reading other posts on this and other forums there seems to be a lot of confusion about X series and widescreen. It looks to me that by following the below instructions the VBIOS is not consulted and the monitors own display table is accessible. I would guess this will only work on fully plug and play compliant monitors.

Thanks BNA for posting this... enjoy your widescreens.

[thinkx]

Folks,

I can verify the observations of gmontagu: 1680x1050 is working perfectly with Lenovo's version of the Intel GMA driver 6.14.10.4693 (offered for the X60s).

But what still does not work with my X41 is 1920x1200. That's killing me. First I tried the IEGD 6.1, which makes the external display working at 1920x1200, but it does not allow for using the built-in display only. I tried to generate a driver-inf file with the tool coming with the IEGD 6.1. But it does not work. The built-in display works only, when the external display is connected.

Has anybody out there a solution proposal?

Thanks in advance,
Thomas

[thinkx]

It works with the Dell 2407WFP:

http://softwarecommunity.intel.com/isn/ ... 31135.aspx