Thinkpads Forum

Hi. Wondering if anyone can help me. I have a new x200 with an ultrabase dock. I also have an HPw1907 monitor plugged into the dock, with a max resolution of 1440x900. I have the two monitors set on mirror mode - same image on the laptop and the ext. monitor. Here's my problem - I went to Display and set my x200 to the proper resolution - 1280 by 800. But I can't get the monitor to go any higher than 1024X768. I try sliding the resolution button up to 1440 but it won't stay there. Anyone familiar with this problem and know what to do? Many thanks.

If you're mirroring the monitors, I would think that the max res you could get on the HP monitor would be the exact same as your x200--1280x800--that's the whole reason why it's a mirror. Have you tried that res?

The integrated graphics on the x200 should be powerful enough to drive the x200 and HP monitors separately, so I don't think you'd need to mirror anyway (unless that was your specific intent).

thanks for your response, G1tigi. I have a followup question. It seems like I don't want to use mirror mode, because I won't be able to get the best resolution out of my monitor. So I tried using the mode "extended display across notebook and monitor." I set my HP monitor as my main monitor and my laptop as my extended monitor. Then I set the HP monitor display to 1440 x 900 and the laptop display to 1280 X 800. So far so good. It works fine. But then when I undock the computer and dock it again, all my setting are lost and I have to start over again, which is a huge pain. Anything I can do? Thanks much.

Set up a profile with Presentation Director that is automatically applied when you dock your Thinkpad.

basketb wrote:Set up a profile with Presentation Director that is automatically applied when you dock your Thinkpad.

Could you explain more about how to do that? I found the Presentation Director feature on Vista, but I have no idea what to do with it. Thanks for your help.

I don't have Vista. In XP it goes something like this:

• - Open Presentation director
  • - Click on the "New..." button
    - On the next screen either check "Notebook LCD" or "External Device" (depending on which one you want to use). If external device, check whether it is connected via VGA or DVI.
    - Click Next
    - Choose the resolution you want to use with the external monitor (or notebook LCD)
    - Click on Test and make sure everything looks fine.
    - Click on Next
    - Click on Next
    - Click on Next
    - Give the scheme a name (whatever you like to call it)
    - Click on Finish
    - Select the scheme you want to use right away and click on "Apply".
    - Repeat the above steps if you want to set up another profile for using the other screen
  - Make sure the box next to "Immediately apply this display scheme:" is checked and you select the scheme from the list below that you want to apply in this case (identified by the name you chose above)
  - If you check the box next to "Show Presentation Director icon in task bar system tray", you can then later select your preferred display setup from the system tray without opening Presentation Director.
  - Click on OK

Well I can't speak for the presentation director solution, but I know that normally (without a dock), if I set my thinkpad up for dual monitor mode, it usually remembers the settings after I use the laptop with the monitor detached and after I attach the monitor. The trick I've learned is to just close the lid of the laptop and open it again--and then your former settings will take hold--this is assuming that you didn't turn off multi-monitor usage when you first unplugged the external monitor and assuming you don't mess with anything after you plug in the extra monitor again.

Again, this was for without a dock, so I suppose you should first try the presentation director method that others have suggested before my odd idea.

basketb wrote:I don't have Vista. In XP it goes something like this:

• - Open Presentation director
  • - Click on the "New..." button
    - On the next screen either check "Notebook LCD" or "External Device" (depending on which one you want to use). If external device, check whether it is connected via VGA or DVI.
    - Click Next
    - Choose the resolution you want to use with the external monitor (or notebook LCD)
    - Click on Test and make sure everything looks fine.
    - Click on Next
    - Click on Next
    - Click on Next
    - Give the scheme a name (whatever you like to call it)
    - Click on Finish
    - Select the scheme you want to use right away and click on "Apply".
    - Repeat the above steps if you want to set up another profile for using the other screen
  - Make sure the box next to "Immediately apply this display scheme:" is checked and you select the scheme from the list below that you want to apply in this case (identified by the name you chose above)
  - If you check the box next to "Show Presentation Director icon in task bar system tray", you can then later select your preferred display setup from the system tray without opening Presentation Director.
  - Click on OK

Thanks basketb - that worked great. Only one thing. I created a new display scheme, named it and tested it out. No problems there. But in the section that says, "when the notebook is docked, immediate apply this display scheme," the box is grayed out. Inside the box it says "capture display scheme" but I'm not able to change it to the new scheme I created. Any thoughts? Thanks.

This seems to be a Vista issue. See also this thread on the official Lenovo forum: http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/mess ... ge.id=1295
Not sure whether the latest version of Presentation Director (if you haven't installed it yet) fixes this or not. Absent an automatic solution, use Fn+F7 to manually select the scheme each time you dock (or the presentation director icon in the system tray).

OK. Thanks very much for you help.
and thanks also to G1tigi.