A31 and Port Replicator II display support

[DIGITALgimpus]

I've read that the Radeon 7500 technically can support DVI (though IBM only put a VGA port on the A31's for some reason).

The port replicator supports DVI
http://www-131.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/store ... lCurrId=73

will it only replicate (meaning the DVI port is dead when hooked to a VGA A31), or will it provide DVI support for the A31?

Anyone try this?

[slagmi]

No answer yet but I should have one for you by the end of the week!

[tbessie]

Anyone ever figure this out?

- Tim

[KuReshtin]

DVI is not supported on the A31 Thinkpads even if you dock them to a Port Replicator II which has the DVI port.

[slagmi]

oops I dropped the ball on that one, sorry!
KuReshtin appears to be correct I did not get it to work and tried more than one dock
The 2631 docks are available 2ndhand and are inexpensive, might be worth considering if you are willing to spend 40-100$ US to get a PCI video card w/DVI out.

[a31pguy]

On the A31p with the 7800 - I seem to recall that the DVI would work in pass through mode. However, the screen resolution was limited with the IBM drivers. Search on DVI limited to this forum and you'll find some others who had done this. I don't have any DVI monitors (yet).

Don't know about the 7500.

[tbessie]

... I just bought a Port Rep II on eBay for $90. Not too pricey, but now I don't need it, since I can't use it's DVI abilities. Now that I've spent that money, I don't really want to spend more on a Dock, especially since in the next year or so I'll probably be buying a new high-powered desktop machine. It'll be sad to say goodbye to my A31, since it's been so good to me, but you won't believe how much money I've spent on Cardbus cards and external storage instead of getting a new machine.

Don't know if I'll retire it -- might use it as a little mini server or something.

- Tim

[a31pguy]

Amen to that. It's served me well too.