Thinkpads Forum

I was wondering if anyone else is having problem driving 1600x1200 on an external monitor from their X60/X61.

I have a UXGA external monitor that works just fine with when I connect it directly to a desktop, but when I try to run from VGA port of X61, the monitor tells me that it is incorrect resolution. It works fine when I change the resolution to SXGA+ resolution, but of course it is fuzzy since it is not the monitor's native resolution.

Does anyone have same problem?

Thanks.

JDK

daeojkim wrote:I was wondering if anyone else is having problem driving 1600x1200 on an external monitor from their X60/X61.

I have a UXGA external monitor that works just fine with when I connect it directly to a desktop, but when I try to run from VGA port of X61, the monitor tells me that it is incorrect resolution. It works fine when I change the resolution to SXGA+ resolution, but of course it is fuzzy since it is not the monitor's native resolution.

Does anyone have same problem?

Thanks.

JDK

Which monitor is it? Did you try installing the drivers? What graphics drivers are installed on the X61?

Hi Ivan

The monitor is Samsung SyncMaster 204B. I have not installed the monitor driver (I didn't think you would need it as generic should work)

As for graphics card driver it is the one from lenovo from system update.

You do have a good point. May be I should try again with monitor driver installed. I will try this and post an update.

Thanks.

JDK

daeojkim wrote:the monitor tells me that it is incorrect resolution.

I have this exact same monitor and often get this error message from it. Every time I get this message, I turn off the monitor and then turn it back on, and then it works fine.

And no, I haven't tried installing the monitor driver.

I'm driving an external monitor at 1600x1200 on my X60T, and have tested two different monitors (one a CRT and one is an LCD). You should have no problems in terms of the ability of your Thinkpad to drive a monitor at that resolution.

Two things you might want to check on in addition to following IvanAndreevich's suggestion of checking your drivers, and pianowizard's suggestion of simply turning the monitor off and on.

1. You've probably already fiddled with this, but by default, when you attach an external monitor to your Thinkpad, it will probably attempt to use a "mirror" mode, where the external monitor will just duplicate whatever you have on your laptop screen -- and it will use the same resolution as your laptop screen to do it. To change this, you need to get out of the "mirror" mode and into either "extended" desktop mode (where your external screen "extends" the size of your screen real estate so you can move a window from one screen to the other and see different things on each screen) or into external only mode, where you are displaying ONLY on the external VGA screen and your laptop screen is disabled. These settings should all be adjustable through our display settings, and if you have the right drivers installed, you can probably right-click your desktop and adjust some of them directly in the pop-up menu that appears there.

2. LCD screens often require that the signal be output within a specific refresh rate range. On a VGA screen, you might want your refresh rate to be 85MHz or higher so you get the best response rate during a movie or game, but on an LCD screen, I think you pretty much ALWAYS want to match the standard 60MHz refresh rate. The response rate of an LCD screen is not connected to the refresh rate in the same way that it is in a VGA screen. So, you might want to double-check that you have your refresh rate set at 60MHz when you are connected to an external LCD screen.

Phil.

pianowizard wrote:
I have this exact same monitor and often get this error message from it. Every time I get this message, I turn off the monitor and then turn it back on, and then it works fine.

And no, I haven't tried installing the monitor driver.

Pianowizard,

Thanks for the tip. I have not tried turning on and off the monitor. Just tried to play around with resolution while the monitor was on. Hopefully it will be a simple fix as you mentioned.

JDK

Phil,

Thank for the tip. I have not tried to play around with refresh rate. It should be something worth trying.

And yes I am trying to use the external monitor as an extended desktop OR as the primary monitor depending on the work that I need to do.

JDK

So I just tried all of above recommendations

Installing monitor driver
Turning on and off the monitor

Keep getting "Not optimum mode. Recommended mode 1600 x 1200 60Hz"
which is what i have set at.

Any ideas?

JDK

daeojkim wrote:So I just tried all of above recommendations

Installing monitor driver
Turning on and off the monitor

Keep getting "Not optimum mode. Recommended mode 1600 x 1200 60Hz"
which is what i have set at.

Any ideas?

JDK

How about a utility like PowerStrip to force set a resolution and refresh rate?

If you have an extra $40 may I suggest the Encore EN-MUV2 external USB-to-DVI video adapter (assuming that your monitor has a DVI input), which I'm using right now with my X60T sxga L2400 to drive my HP 1600x1200 monitor? Do not expect gaming on the external monitor, but it works great for Office apps and web surfing and YouTube up to 720p, and it is DVI sharp. I like the one that I bought so much that I bought two more--one for my office and one for downstairs. You can attach it to a powered USB hub with no problem. It gets its power from the USB. It works with XP and Windows 7 on the X60T (and Vista, I think, but I haven't tried that OS on the X60T.) In Windows it show up as a "displaylink" device; I believe that the DisplayLink dudes are the leaders in the USB video technology.

what OS are you running?

@lead_org: I am running XP

@tanstaafl: Thanks for the suggestion. I would rather not have to use an extra peripheral since it should be able to be done without it. But I guess I will keep that in mind.

@Ivan: I don't know what powerstrip is, but it may be worth trying.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I may have to test the computer itself in another monitor thatruns 1600 x 1200. It is possible that there is a problem.

JDK

One thing that hasn't been mentioned yet is the quality of your VGA cable. Some VGA cables can't carry a full-colour UXGA (1600x1200) signal, or can't carry it very well. You might have used the same cable to connect your laptop as you did when you tested on your desktop. If you didn't, then it might be worth testing them using the same cable and seeing if that makes any difference.

If you are testing this while docked into a docking station (which I don't think you are), then be sure to pull your Thinkpad out and test using the VGA output directly on the Thinkpad itself -- some folks have run into issues with the VGA out on the docking station.

I'm starting to get into random guesses for me at this point, but I notice that someone else had an issue with a Samsung 930B attached to an X6x series a couple years ago:
Poor external video

Maybe the monitor itself is just a bit flakey and when combined with something quirky about the X60 VGA signal, it just chokes up?

Phil.