Thinkpads Forum

Hello everybody,

Im a newbie here and i suppose this is a FAQ but could anybody help me to sort out a monitor driver problem.

I have a thinkpad 770E PII 266MHZ (512KB), 128MB RAM 5.1GB 14.1 XGA TFT. It did run WinNT however I have just reformatted the HD and installed win98SE.

When I did this I forgot to record the settings for the monitor setup and forgot to copy the monitor driver. Now the laptop screen does not look right (its very grainey, only gives me 16 or 256 colours and the resolution is wrong) because Im running on the drivers that came with the 98SE disk

So what I need to know is this. What do I do to get my 32 bit colour back and my nice smooth edged monitor screen.

My adapter is set up at the moment as Super VGA (standard display type) with a trident chip. The monitor is set as 1280 x 1024 laptop display panel.

I have been to the IBM website and downloaded the monitor files they have there (vftpcw9x.exe and 1yoi04ww.exe) but I am still having problems sorting the screen out.

Could anybody give me an idiots guide on how to set the adapter up properly, what drivers should I have / how to install them and finally how to set my monitor up correctly

I am contactable on northmoor@hotmail.com if you have any comments directly and I will be checking the site over the next day or two to see any comments

yours in hope

I'm having some difficulties understanding some of the details of your problem. You're talking about your built-in LCD monitor, not an external monitor right? If so, then the first thing to do is to install the  
Video driver IV (TR9397D) features package for Windows 95/98.

You say you've already downloaded those files, but are still having problems. I don't understand what drivers you've got loaded now, and it couldn't hurt to reinstall the Video drivers. In Device Manager, under Display Adapters, it should say something like "IBM ThinkPad (Cyber9397) PCI" if you've installed the latest video features package properly. Maybe you installed the wrong version or something -- they practically all have the same file name of "vftpcw9x.exe". What does it say currently under Display Adapters in your Device Manager?

On a related note, what does it say under Monitors? If you have a 770E, then your display panel is not a 1280x1024 display panel, it is a 1024x768 LCD display panel. This may or may not be causing you troubles. It is I think possible to use a "virtual" screen size of 1280x1024, which is larger than your actual LCD screen, and to "pan and scan" by moving your mouse to any edge in order to display the rest of the screen that is hidden beyond that screen edge at any time. But during initial installation, I would recommend identifying your screen as a 1024x768 LCD panel. You can play with screen expansion or virtual screens after you get the default size working properly.

What is "1yoi04ww.exe"? I don't recognize it. Is it necessary?

Phil.

pkiff wrote:I'm having some difficulties understanding some of the details of your problem. You're talking about your built-in LCD monitor, not an external monitor right? If so, then the first thing to do is to install the  
Video driver IV (TR9397D) features package for Windows 95/98.

That's it. I don't think he installed the video driver and that should cover it..

As for "1yoi04ww.exe" - that is a "monitor file" aka LCD driver... A lot of people never install them- I always do- not sure what happens if you don't but I would expect that on rare occasions you could run into some oddball incompatibility...

Dear Phil and Len,

Thank you both for your replies to my query

With the info you provided I went and had a look at the driver I had installed for the video adapter. Yep I had the wrong driver. I ran the exe file I downloaded from the IBM website again which set up a seperate driver folder for me and sure enough when I went into display settings and changed the adapter driver as per the sites instructions I found the Cyber driver and installed that instead (it always helps when you know what your looking for). Once that was in I rebooted, changed the monitor to the one you recommended and now everythings up and running fine.

I shall now copy these drivers to a floppy and put them in safe storage just in case.

Once again gents, thank you for your help

Lee