Thinkpads Forum

I have Docking station Type 2504. It has 2 outputs: VGA and DVI. I want to connect 2 external monitors to it. Is it posible? One monitor by VGA, the second by DVI. I have Linux Mint now and when switch in BIOS to internal graphics, VGA monitor works. When switch to discrette: DVI monitor works. Is it possible to they works all in one time?

ThinkPad W500

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I believe it is possible to run both at the same time, however:

1) You have to use discrete graphics (I think integrated is not wired to the DVI port)
2) The laptop display has to be off (these laptops can only drive up to a total of 2 monitors)

dr_st wrote: 1) You have to use discrete graphics (I think integrated is not wired to the DVI port)

I'ts no problem to switch on discrette graph... but why I can't send one signal by VGA cable and other by DVI? Two graphics in one time?

dr_st wrote: 2) The laptop display has to be off (these laptops can only drive up to a total of 2 monitors)

OK, but what can I turn off laptop display? I can only use Fn+F7 to cycle display combination. No one works what I need

Peter222 wrote:OK, but what can I turn off laptop display? I can only use Fn+F7 to cycle display combination. No one works what I need

You can close the lid.

Usually, if you go into display settings, you will see all the connected displays, and then you can choose which 2 you want to use and which you want to disconnect. I seem to recall it being this way both in Windows and in Linux, although I'm not sure if it's in all flavors in Linux.

In windows you can simply detect all screens and pick and choose which ones you enable. For a third external screen the "enable" option would be greyed-out. No idea about Linux though. Since I am bound to software that is only available in a Windows flavour I have little reason to even try Linux.

Qing Dao wrote:

Peter222 wrote:OK, but what can I turn off laptop display? I can only use Fn+F7 to cycle display combination. No one works what I need

You can close the lid.

That's one way to keep it warm...

When I close lid, there is still no signal on external VGA output. I can't switch it by display control panel in Linux. Maybe it is Linux behavior but I'm not sure if it is even possible.

There is an older version of driver which would enable you to have 2 external monitors + laptop screen all displaying different things. But since you are talking about linux......

RMSMajestic wrote:There is an older version of driver which would enable you to have 2 external monitors + laptop screen all displaying different things.

On a Thinkpad W500? That surprises me. Can you point me to the right direction to investigate that?

OK, finally it works. Turned off "sleep after lid close" option, then restarted and after restart just pressed some times Fn+F7, before tried with no success... just magic . I have signal on two external monitors (VGA and DVI). Internal LCD is black.

RMSMajestic wrote:There is an older version of driver which would enable you to have 2 external monitors + laptop screen all displaying different things

It is very interesting... is it really possible?

dr_st wrote:

RMSMajestic wrote:There is an older version of driver which would enable you to have 2 external monitors + laptop screen all displaying different things.

On a Thinkpad W500? That surprises me. Can you point me to the right direction to investigate that?

http://forum.51nb.com/viewthread.php?tid=1456834
I'll translate it briefly,
You will need intel driver 8.15.10.1872
and ATI driver 8.650.0.0

Step: uninstall the existing driver completely
install the intel driver first and then the AMD one,
restart the computer, there will be a black screen, but don't worry, press Fn+F7 or close the lid to switch to external monitor, you should be able to see 4 screens of which one has grey color.
this config works with VGA+DVI on 2504 ultrabase. I'm not sure if the HDMI on W500 will work or not

Known bugs: if you open too many windows, system will sitch to basic theme and gradually becomes slower and slower
if you use a vertical screen, then there will be some problem displaying mouse. solution is to change the trace of the mouse to the shortest

I had lcd plus two screens buy using a usb to vga adapter from ebay on my t400. Worked flawless on windows. Costed about $30

I wish people would stop spamming that USB nonsense. It pollutes the search results with bogus.