Did I mess up getting a W500?

[gfinney]

Just received W500 today and have struggled with the screen resolution . It is recommended at 1920x1200, which I assumed could be easily dropped to 1280x1024 , which is what I need. I thought it would use all the real estate, but at lower quality. Not only do I lose half the screen when I do drop the res, but I also run a VMWare session, where the display is completely messed up. Plus my projector maxes out at 1280x1024. So have I goofed and have to send it back? Are there any options availble to keep the machine and drop the res? is it possible the drivers are not fully supportive of Win 7/64 bit?

I have had T21, T40, T42, T61p, and never had issue with screen resolution, or anything else - lucky I guess. If not able to resolve my W500, how do I ensure that I get the max power Thinkpad, as above, with the screen resolution I need? What type of display will do 1280x1024 without losing screen real estate.

(4058-CTO, 64 bit, 8GB, Win 7 Pro, ATI Mobility FireGL, 3.06 GHz)

Appreciate any help/ideas/advice. Graham

[dr_st]

"Lose half the screen" - what do you mean? The picture is displayed in the center with empty black space surrounding it?

Generally, LCD screens always run best at native resolution. Anything less requires interpolation which, in turn, makes the text look blurry. If the text is too small to be read comfortably at native res, it is generally recommended to increase DPI or font sizes before lowering resolution.

If even that fails, and you have to lower resolution, at the very least you need to keep the aspect ratio, otherwise things will look stretched and out of proportion. So lowering to 1280x1024 is a generally bad idea. A better one would be 1680x1050, 1440x900 or 1280x800.

If your projector cannot reliably handle widescreen or high resolutions, what you would do is set up the projector not to clone the main display, but to extend it, and then you can assign different resolutions to the laptop LCD and the projector.

[gfinney]

By "lose half the screen", yes the picture is displayed in the center with empty black space around it. I have no problem viewing the higher resolution of 1920 x 1200, but when I scale it down, i can't read it (on half a display).

I will try the projector out that way.

Graham

[gfinney]

I had contacted support initially, and they indicated they could not help with 'configuration' issues. When I contacted sales to return this unit, they had support call me back immediately, reinstalled drivers, tried a few things, and determined it was a hardware failure - either graphics card or LCD. So into the repair shop it goes.

[Harryc]

They determined that it was a hardware issue because you couldn't run a WUXGA+ W500 at 1280x1024? That is ridiculous. It is not designed to run at that resolution. The repair will do nothing for your situation. I agree with dr_st about trying to extend the desktop and set the resolution you need on the projector.

[ARD]

Regarding losing half the screen, that is due to the laptop's LCD Horizontal and Vertical Expansion feature. You need to go into the BIOS and find the configuration section that has HV Expansion in it.
Enable HV Expansion, restart and the black space will go away and the desktop image will fill the entire screen at the lower resolutions that you desired. This feature should exist in the W500 BIOS. It does in my T60 BIOS.

[bobm]

There is a solution afterall! I had this problem for quite some time. Here's a fix for anyone else experiencing it.

Download the latest video card and LCD display drivers for the W500. Do the following to get them.
1. Go here: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... migr-70443
2. Select "Video" to be taken to the video driver link
3. Get the ATI driver and the LCD/Monitor driver for your OS
4. Install both of the above drivers after downloading per the instructions

After installing the ATI driver, run the included ATI Catalyst Control Center software by clicking the ATI logo in the lower-right taskbar.

Go to Notebook Panel Properties --> Attributes in the left navigation column.
In the "Scaling Options" area choose "Preserve Aspect Ratio."

The scaling option is set to "Centered" by default which is causing the screen area to shrink when the resolution is lowered. By choosing "Preserve Aspect Ratio" the video will always fill the screen as much as possible for a selected resolution. Works well!

BTW, I tried the BIOS suggestion above but no such option exists in the BIOS for the W500.

[proaudioguy]

I quite often have to run my systems through XGA projectors. When you duplicate the screen, the LCD will then look like utter crapola. There is no way around it. Your best bet is to use an external monitor and the projector together through a DA and just turn off the on board LCD. Make sure the LCD has the native resolution you want to use with the projector. I'd say you are better off going with XGA than that oddball res you mentioned. What is that 5x4? I've never even seen a 5x4 monitor, why would you run your projector like that just because it can? If you stick with XGA it will be a lot easier to find a 4x3 monitor that will duplicate what you have on the screen. We are in a very awkward transition phase between 4x3 and 1080P. Projectors are crazy expensive so they have to be either broken down completely or in such low demand they cannot make any more money in order for the AV industry to turn them into 1080P projectors. Once that transition is over, this will all be a lot easier. You can always scale the image sent to the projector down, but you can't scale it up (past what the projector is capable of). I teach some classes from time to time and I'm seeing more and more wide screen projectors. OTOH, the shows I do that use widescreen, are still using 4x3 projectors, but they are down scaling the images and blacking out the top and bottom of the screens. This looks terrible to the person that made the presentation, but the clients aren't paying for true HD projectors and screens.

[dr_st]

Most non-widescreen 17" and 19" LCDs are SXGA 5:4 monitors... Just and FYI.

[proaudioguy]

Most non-widescreen 17" and 19" LCDs are SXGA 5:4 monitors... Just and FYI.

I can't say I've ever seen an SXGA screen. Been buying monitors here and there since only around 1998, mostly 17" (before the widescreens) and they were all mostly 4x3 1600x1200 max (albeit a low refresh rate at that res). Granted most of them were tubes. LCDs haven't been around that long, I know it seems like they have. My old 2002 Thinkpad was SXGA+.
How long ago was this 5x4 oddity? What was it designed for? I can't think of any standard video format that would "fit". Just curious really. Still the op is dealing with projectors, and I don't know of any professional video company that deploys a 5x4 aspect ratio. The high end companies are all gradually moving to the same widescreen format we are all being forced to. Why? Because the clients want to see there presentations on the same screens they watch TV on, and for that matter the same screens they create the presentations on. The hotel AV companies are moving MUCH slower.

[dr_st]

Ever since they've been making 17"/19" LCDs, they've been making them SXGA. A small amount of SXGA+ 19" LCDs existed... Now non-widescreen 17" models are virtually extinct, but still a sufficient number of 19" non-wide LCDs out there, and they are still SXGA.

What is the reason behind using 1280x1024 instead of 1280x960 - I have no idea, but somehow 1280x1024 is really much more common. To the point that many run it on CRTs, which is somewhat stupid, since it distorts the aspect ratio.

But it does give you an extra 6.66% of vertical space...

[proaudioguy]

Can't imagine wanting that low res on that large a monitor. QXGA would be about right. Oh well clearly you are going back much further than me.

[dr_st]

You are just used to laptop monitors. The PPI on your average laptop LCD is significantly higher than desktop LCDs. Since generally one tends to have the laptop screen closer to their eyes than the desktop screen, it also makes sense.

Also, they don't make laptop screens over 17" with a few exceptions, and similarly desktop LCDs under 19" are very rare as well. These are two distinct classes of products.

Examples:

You can get WXGA+ or even HD+ in 12-14" laptops. For that kind of resolution in desktop screens you need to go up to 19-20".

On 15" laptops you can get UXGA, WUXGA and FHD. For desktops, you needed 20" for UXGA, and 22" for FHD/WUXGA. And WUXGA is very rare on 22" - typically you need 24".

QXGA is just a bizarre resolution for most people, and other than the famous IDTech 15" and a select few desktop monitors, it is more of a proof of concept than an everyday thing (for the record, my 19" CRT can actually do QXGA, albeit on 60Hz).

Big desktop LCDs eventually start giving you more resolution. You can get 1440p (2560x1440) on 27" and WQXGA (2560x1600) on 30". But for that kind of size, you will have to sit quite far from the LCD, and the small fonts may be a problem (WQXGA on 30" is the same PPI as UXGA on 20").

Then there are the televisions - same technology, totally different segments, and resolutions to match. LCD TVs start at the low 20"s and go all the way to 50"+, and still only come in HD (1366x768) or FHD (1920x1080).

BTW, myself - my desk at work has dual 19" SXGA LCDs (nice PVA models - IBM L191p and Lenovo L192p), and it is very nice to work. A single one would not be enough for me, considering that my laptop itself is SXGA+.

Oh well, that was a nice off topic.

[proaudioguy]

Good post, where is the Like button? You are right I have not owned any lcd monitors. I jumped straight from Proton and Trinitron CRTs to laptops. I have seen lots of CRTs too. I always went for the highest res the video card would handle. I have seen lots of really nice NEC lcds with good res.

[crashnburn]

You are just used to laptop monitors. The PPI on your average laptop LCD is significantly higher than desktop LCDs. Since generally one tends to have the laptop screen closer to their eyes than the desktop screen, it also makes sense.

Also, they don't make laptop screens over 17" with a few exceptions, and similarly desktop LCDs under 19" are very rare as well. These are two distinct classes of products.

Examples:

You can get WXGA+ or even HD+ in 12-14" laptops. For that kind of resolution in desktop screens you need to go up to 19-20".

On 15" laptops you can get UXGA, WUXGA and FHD. For desktops, you needed 20" for UXGA, and 22" for FHD/WUXGA. And WUXGA is very rare on 22" - typically you need 24".

QXGA is just a bizarre resolution for most people, and other than the famous IDTech 15" and a select few desktop monitors, it is more of a proof of concept than an everyday thing (for the record, my 19" CRT can actually do QXGA, albeit on 60Hz).

Big desktop LCDs eventually start giving you more resolution. You can get 1440p (2560x1440) on 27" and WQXGA (2560x1600) on 30". But for that kind of size, you will have to sit quite far from the LCD, and the small fonts may be a problem (WQXGA on 30" is the same PPI as UXGA on 20").

Then there are the televisions - same technology, totally different segments, and resolutions to match. LCD TVs start at the low 20"s and go all the way to 50"+, and still only come in HD (1366x768) or FHD (1920x1080).

BTW, myself - my desk at work has dual 19" SXGA LCDs (nice PVA models - IBM L191p and Lenovo L192p), and it is very nice to work. A single one would not be enough for me, considering that my laptop itself is SXGA+.

Oh well, that was a nice off topic.

I love High Res on small screens.. gives so much working and CLEAR & SHARP real estate

PS: Whats the seating distance recommendation for 2560x1600 30" LCD?

The above rant by the Op reminds me of my DAD, who recently got a LCD Monitor replaced under warranty because NEITHER HIM nor the TECH guys from the LCD company were able to go back to the HIGHEST 20XX x ... Resolution.

I showed up at the office played a bit with his Laptop and Monitor and lo.. behold.. Got it working the way it was needed.

Resolutions & LCD / Monitor / External Device management is always a bit tricky unless you know how to work it.. i.e. If u've played with it many times.