Use X31 LCD and PCI display simultaneously with dock ii?

[tanstaafl]

I bought a Dock II (62P4547) to use with my X31 and installed a PCI graphics card in the dock (Radeon 9250). The external monitor connected to the DVI of the pci graphics card works fine. But my laptop's LCD is dark. Is there a way to enable the laptop LCD (using the X31's built-in graphics) simultaneously with the external monitor connected to the PCI card on the dock ii? (I am running Windows XP.)

Thanks.

[billp117]

Did you try Fn-F7?

[tanstaafl]

Sorry...I should post more details.

I tried fn+f7 with no success.

In the BIOS, if I set the X31 display as the primary device ("AGP"), then XP will not complete its boot process.

If I set the PCI as the primary device, then XP boots fully but only the external monitor (connected to the PCI card in the dock II) works. In this case, in device manager there is an exclamation point next to "ATI Mobility Radeon"; the error code associated with the exclamation point is: "This device cannot start (code 10)."

When I first connected the Dock II and the X31, XP loaded two drivers for the PCI graphics card in the Dock II: "Radeon 9200 Pro Family (Microsoft Corporation)" and "Radeon 9200 Pro SEC Family (Microsoft Corporation)". These drivers both load without exclamation points.

I am wondering if this is some graphics driver issue? Or is there some hardware/XP limitation that prohibits the two graphics adapters (Mobility Radeon and Radeon 9250) from operating simultaneously?

Thanks.

[billp117]

Try downloading the ATI driver from ATI (Now AMD). It is worth a try. Do you really need the video card?

I would try running two monitors with the X31 vga output and the Dock II DVI output...without the extra PCI card.

[sjthinkpader]

X31 doesn't support DVI, even with the dock. You will need a external PCI card.

[billp117]

Drat!!! I thought it supported the DVI. I seem to remember my T23 supported it.

Oh well...good catch.

[tanstaafl]

Thanks for the replies. I found that disabling ""Radeon 9200 Pro SEC Family (Microsoft Corporation)" in device manager allowed me to use the X31 LCD and the PCI card simultaneously. (It got rid of the exclamation point next to "ATI Mobility Radeon" which allowed the X31 LCD to fundtion.)

From a practical standpoint, I do not think that it is much of a benefit, now that I have it working. I wanted the sharpness of a DVI external monitor to go with my X31, and indeed the external DVI is sharp. But there are some drawbacks. First, the fan in the Dock II is loud (relative to the quiet of the X31 by itself or when docked to the plain ol' port replicator). Second, the DVI monitor has very poor "redraw" speed; I do not know the technical term, but there must be some limitation on the speed of the PCI implementation in the Dock II because even web pages redraw fairly slowly.

I spent $40 on two Dock II's and $29 on two Radeon 9250 PCI cards on eBay. I think I am addicted to messing with computers. (Perhaps a topic for another post.)

I think that this is the most helpful PC-related forum on the web. Thanks to everyone and best regards.

[sjthinkpader]

Just use the VGA port. We have plenty of X60s that are hooked up to monitors via and VGA port.

If you want DVI, best is still T series. There are USB-DVI adapters that cost about $50. HDMI ports are beginning to show up on notebooks.