Thinkpads Forum

Hello,

I have a user who has a X60s. When he selects the "undock" option on the Start menu, the laptop used to beep a couple of times and the external monitor would go out. At that point, the user would undock it from the x60 mediabase.

Now, when he goes to undock the laptop, it never takes the image of the external monitor. Once undocked, the internal screen never comes to life. He needs to push the power button to force a shutdown and reboot.

He has tried the FN + f7 but it still doesn't fix the display output.

Any ideas?

I have also had some T60 users that are experiencing problems when they put their laptops to sleep. They say that when they wake up, the laptop turns on but nothing comes out of the internal display.

Thanks

macaddict wrote:Now, when he goes to undock the laptop, it never takes the image of the external monitor. Once undocked, the internal screen never comes to life. He needs to push the power button to force a shutdown and reboot. He has tried the FN + f7 but it still doesn't fix the display output.

What happens when he presses Fn+F7? Does the display dialog come up? (I use the button on the media base to undock, but the results should be identical.)

macaddict wrote:I have also had some T60 users that are experiencing problems when they put their laptops to sleep. They say that when they wake up, the laptop turns on but nothing comes out of the internal display.

Hibernate or standby? Is the display totally blank or is it garbled? Can they get it back using Fn+F7?

tomh009 wrote: What happens when he presses Fn+F7? Does the display dialog come up? (I use the button on the media base to undock, but the results should be identical.)

While it is docked, yes it comes up. However, after it is undocked there is no way of getting it. It may be coming up but the monitor is now showing it.

tomh009 wrote: Hibernate or standby? Is the display totally blank or is it garbled? Can they get it back using Fn+F7?

Standby. The screen is totally blank. The laptop power lights and hard drive light are on but no screen.

Thanks for your answers (and questions).

macaddict wrote:

tomh009 wrote: What happens when he presses Fn+F7? Does the display dialog come up? (I use the button on the media base to undock, but the results should be identical.)

While it is docked, yes it comes up. However, after it is undocked there is no way of getting it. It may be coming up but the monitor is now showing it.

The internal display should activate before the undock completes. Does the external display flicker? And turn off?

macaddict wrote:

tomh009 wrote: Hibernate or standby? Is the display totally blank or is it garbled? Can they get it back using Fn+F7?

Standby. The screen is totally blank. The laptop power lights and hard drive light are on but no screen.

And does Fn+F7 help at this point?

tomh009 wrote:What happens when he presses Fn+F7? Does the display dialog come up? (I use the button on the media base to undock, but the results should be identical.)

Nothing happens, nothing shows up.

tomh009 wrote:Hibernate or standby? Is the display totally blank or is it garbled? Can they get it back using Fn+F7?

This on Standby. Hibernate is disabled. FN+F7 doesn't do anything.

I have a similar, though not identical, problem. Sometimes when my T60 is docked (open) with an additional external monitor, and the internal display is powered off after a period of inactivity by the power management system, I can't get it back with mouse movement or keypresses.

Fn+F7 doesn't do anything, presumably because it is displaying its menu on the display that I can't see. Fn+F3 doesn't do anything either (it's set to turn the display off).

My current mechanism for fixing this is to put the laptop into sleep mode and then bring it back out. At that point I have both displays back. I might try changing the Fn+F7 settings to just do the internal/external/both toggle and see if that let's me get it back. But it would be much better if it would just work. I've seen other people have problems with the internal display not working after an undock operation, and I've had the display stop working in a couple other similar situations. A pretty annoying problem when it occurs.

x40 also has this problem. When I'm I'm putting it to sleep and it's connected to an external monitor, I make sure to use Fn-F7 to switch back to internal screen before putting it to sleep. Make sure it's fully switched back to internal screen before closing the laptop lid or disconnecting the external monitor.

It'd be great if Lenovo fixed this problem which might exist across their thinkpad line.

I did find a quicker fix. Fn+F7 still brings up the menu it normally does, you just can't see it because the screen is off. So if I hit Fn+F7 and then hit Enter, it re-selects the current display profile and that brings the screen back, albeit after the annoying resolution-jumping that normally accompanies a profile change.

Which is another gripe... why must my screens flash to different resolutions enroute to the desired one during a profile change? Why can't the profile just apply the desired setting? Are they doing some kind of auto-verification that the appropriate displays are attached, or that they are capable of the resolutions, or what?