Page 1 of 1

auto switch to high res external VGA when docked?

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 4:15 pm
by wolf
i have recently gotten a ThinkPad X60 with an X6 UltraBase which i very much like. the dock stays on my desk for the most part and the X60 gets docked/undocked a few times per day. i use it with an external keyboard and monitor. i have the X60 configured to go into Standby upon pressing the undock button, and also to Standby when the lid switch is activated (lid close action) which fits well with the way i use it. the machine is always put in Standby when i go to dock it. the X60 runs a clean install of Windows XP Professional with the latest drivers downloaded from Lenovo (i don't have recovery CDs or RnR here)

i have found by accident that i can have it automatically turn off it's wireless and switch to external VGA when docked, which is very useful. all was well because i have been using a 15 inch IBM LCD, 1024x768 which is the same as the X60's internal screen.

now i have gotten a Dell 19 inch LCD, 1280x1024, that i would like to use with the dock; but i find that when i dock the X60 the monitor defaults to 1024x768 every time.

what i would like it to do is, when docked, to change the res to 1280x1024 automatically, and to go back to 1024x768 upon undock.

is this possible? whats the best way of going about it?

Re: auto switch to high res external VGA when docked?

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 6:57 pm
by jimmy274
If you ask me, I would tell you to install Presentation Director (you'll easily find it on Lenovo support site from which you've downloaded drivers) and play with profiles and make new profiles for docked/undocked configurations.
My T60 is connected to an external display which is used as secondary monitor, and I tried using ATi driver for this (multiple displays) but it's very buggy (especially when I dock it - reverts my primary display to XGA sometimes, sometimes it just doesn't see the secondary monitor etc) so I've just installed Presentation Director and the problems went away. I don't know much about the Intel VGA driver (just got my X60s), but I'm sticking to the PD - much less hassle anyway.

Re: auto switch to high res external VGA when docked?

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 9:12 pm
by wolf
i never really knew what Presentation Director was... i'll go ahead and install that and play with it, and report back. thanks

Re: auto switch to high res external VGA when docked?

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2010 9:30 pm
by wolf
downloaded... installed... tried... works!

its exactly what i needed - thank you very much! now my ThinkPad setup is just... perfect :)

Re: auto switch to high res external VGA when docked?

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2010 9:11 am
by jimmy274
:) Always been a pleasure helping a fellow thinkpadder. Some people on this forum disagree that thinkvantage software could help in anything, but for me, it's only been helpful from the day one. Nice to know some else find it useful too.