Thinkpads Forum

Multiple Monitors is enabled in Easy Setup. In Windows ME and 2000 Pro, Display Settings, it says "Multiple Monitors" but only shows an icon and settings for one monitor. The external monitor works, but only displays whats on the built in screen.

How do I make it use both monitors separately?

I recall that there were some problems with Win 2000 and multiple monitor setups, but can't remember exactly what they were. Is it possible that Win2000 does not support multiple monitors with an "extended" monitor configuration?

This MS knowledge base article suggests exactly that:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/238886

But that shouldn't stop ME from working.

Also, you may need to fiddle with the Neomagic diplay panel to get the Thinkpad to extend the display instead of clone/mirror it to the external VGA port.

Phil.

I have had trouble with multiple monitors in Windows 2000 before, on a 770Z. Windows ME worked fine, but made the external monitor the primary and wouldn't let me change it.

>Also, you may need to fiddle with the Neomagic diplay panel to get the
>Thinkpad to extend the display instead of clone/mirror it to the external VGA
>port.

How do I do that?

I've made some progress. The drivers that come with windows 2k/ME are not complete. I downloaded and installed the drivers from the IBM site and got a "Neomagic" tab in Control Panel/Display/Settings/Advanced. It has a box to check for dual display. In Windows 2000 it's grayed out. How do I fix that? In ME it works, but the external display could not be resized. The built in one could. How do I fix that?

I have probably solved this problem by upgrading to XP.

The trouble is, I still have only the driver that came with XP, that supports one monitor, like in 98/ME and 2k before I upgraded. IBM doesn't have an XP driver; Is it safe to use the 2000 driver in XP? Has anyone tried it? does it work with both monitors seperately?

the 2k driver works fine under XP. go ahead and install it.

that said, the Neomagic 256ZX chip used in the 600X isn't capable of dual head operation.

> that said, the Neomagic 256ZX chip used in the 600X isn't capable of dual head operation.

ROFTLOL!!!

It sure worked well under Windows 98! The only trouble I had was that every time I undocked, the wallpaper on the second monitor (an active desktop object) moved. I had different applications on each monitor all the time.

Has anyone here ever used multiple monitors on the 600X in XP? Did you use IBM's driver?

The neomagic only works at dualhead with windows 98 (maybe ME), with 16-bit colour, and low resolutions (one 1024X768 and one 800X600, unless you lower the colour to 256). Neither 2000 (which does not support dualhead operation anyway) nor xp will support dual head on this display chip. I tried for the last 5 years with diffrent drivers and laptops, and that is the final conclusion. The only thing the IBM driver offers is a software method of enabling display cloning.

> The neomagic only works at dualhead with windows 98 (maybe ME), with 16-bit colour,

I was using 16 bit on one monitor and 24 bit on the other...

> and low resolutions (one 1024X768 and one 800X600, unless you lower the colour to 256).

...and 1024X768 on both monitors.

In XP, when I set the internal screen to 16 bit, the resolution slider for the second monitor has room to be slid up to 1280X1024. This would be 256 coulor.

The problem now is the same as in 2000 - the "set dual display" check box is grayed out. This time the bug is not in the OS.

Bookworm wrote: The problem now is the same as in 2000 - the "set dual display" check box is grayed out. This time the bug is not in the OS.

Do you have the tv-out-adapter installed and also the driver for tv-out?

IBM/Lenovo doesn't support tv-out for 600x + 2000/XP... but Dell does. In my case the check box was not grayed out... but I haven't tested dual screen ...and yes, DVD to tube-tv runs well

Today my 600x "runs" under win7...

Bookworm wrote:> The neomagic only works at dualhead with windows 98 (maybe ME), with 16-bit colour,

I was using 16 bit on one monitor and 24 bit on the other...

> and low resolutions (one 1024X768 and one 800X600, unless you lower the colour to 256).

...and 1024X768 on both monitors.

In XP, when I set the internal screen to 16 bit, the resolution slider for the second monitor has room to be slid up to 1280X1024. This would be 256 coulor.

The problem now is the same as in 2000 - the "set dual display" check box is grayed out. This time the bug is not in the OS.

Sorry, it has been a while since I ran windows 98 and was able to use dual view. I do know that the 1280X1024 has to be 256 colour, and you can run the dualview at higher resolutins than I thought. The other thing that I know is that Windows 2000 does not support dualhead video adapters (not even on more modern systems - my T41, or my desktop with a FX5200m) Windows xp does not have support for dualhead on the Neomagic displays. I do not know why, but I tried for years to solve this. Unfortunatley if you want dualview and XP, you would have to dualboot with 98. Unfortunaetly I do not have a laptop with the Neomagic chip anymore, otherwise I would test it more.

God Luck

>... but Dell does.

Have you tried a Dell driver on the 600X? Did it work? Where can I get it?

I tried a Dell driver in Windows 2000, and had a disaster, but I don't know if it was the driver or something else I did.

I have an alternate driver for XP that I think came originally from Neomagic, but that I recall vaguely downloading from one of those driverdownload sites. I doubt that this driver will magically fix the problems you are having enabling an extended monitor configuration, but feel free to give it a try. I think I used it in order to get the TV-out to work properly, or to get a specific resolution or something...

Regardless, here is the driver:
http://thinkpads.kiff.ca/files/Neomagic ... _WinXP.zip

My notes indicate that it is v.5.12.01.0000 which according to the version number would appear to be an earlier version than the version that shipped with XP (and that XP uses by default), but I think it may in fact have been created later.

Phil.

Pkiff, That driver is for a Neomagic 256AV. The 600X uses a 256ZX.

Bookworm wrote:Pkiff, That driver is for a Neomagic 256AV. The 600X uses a 256ZX.

A quick look inside the INF file suggests that the file I've posted includes config and driver files for (this is a cut and paste of the relevant INF lines):

NMX.DeviceDescNM5 = "NeoMagic MagicMedia256AV"
NMX.DeviceDescNM5P = "NeoMagic MagicMedia256AVP"
NMX.DeviceDescNM6 = "NeoMagic MagicMedia256ZX"
NMX.DeviceDescNM6P = "NeoMagic MagicMedia256XLP"

But I've got my 600X kicking around here somewhere, just not currently connected to an external monitor, and I can check to see if I'm actually running this version or not.

[Later:]
So I'm pretty sure this is the driver I'm using. It appears under "Adapter Type" as "NeoMagic Magic Media 256AV", but further into the "Properties" section the Chip Type and DAC Type are identified correctly as 256ZX. Maybe the misidentification of the hardware suggests a problem in full compatibility with the ZX, but I suspect it is as compatible as any of the other versions.

Here are a few more details:
BIOS information: NM6 - 2.00.41
Driver Provider: NeoMagic Corporation
Driver Date: 2003-01-01
Driver Files: nm2200mp.sys, Neomagic.hlp, nm2200cp.dll, nm2200dp.dll, Tsb.dll
File Version: 5.12.01.0000
And of course, it is not digitally signed.

Also -- and this I think is related to why I installed this driver -- on the NeoMagic tab, I have options for CRT/Projector and also for TV on the External Display, and I also have access to an "Advanced Settings" section with more options to select for External Display Options, TV Options, and Gamma Correction. The "Set Dual-Display" on the main NeoMagic tab is currently greyed out (same as on yours, I guess) so there may be no gain in that department.

Phil.