Thinkpads Forum

Hi All,

I am having a really annoying problem. I have a T430 hooked up to a Dell monitor via the Display Port (mini to regular converter, and then a cable that came with the monitor. The cable has a big D on it so I think it's a DisplayPort cable and not HDMI).

After the monitor shuts down due to idle period, I need to unplug and plug in again the cable so it works again. Sometimes I have to do this several times until it takes. Rarely, it causes the computer to freeze entirely and there is no display and no response.
Sometimes, when I play an online game, the transfer to full screen causes it to happen and I need to do the unplug-and-plug trick.

I'm completely updated with Windows and Lenovo updates (via their update tool).

Has anyone stumbled across this?

Thanks!

Hi titimtimmy,

As I couldn't specifically find any resources concerning the ThinkPad, I decided to just search up MiniDisplay Port issues. I've incorporated a Dell link that regards U3011 monitors and several different brands of laptops with the MiniDisplay Port and also a MacRumors forum link (DisplayPort/MiniDisplay Port is an Apple developed technology). I'm not sure if this fix will work, but I've been seeing DDC/CI change as a suggestion (no idea what it means, just a common phrase on the other threads).

A firmware update on the MiniDisplay Port driver might also be worth an effort. There was an issue with Mac OS X 10.5.5 from 2011 MacBook Pros that was resolved with an updated driver.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-fo ... x#19818573

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1139618

Also, just curious as to why you're running DisplayPort in general. I'm not running an external monitor and haven't had experiences with them, but VGA might be an alternative if nothing else works. If nothing here works, I'm sorry, but good luck with your situation.

And just a side note, an HDMI port looks something like a inverted trapezoid with the long side on the top and some edges that curve in (usually clearly marked HDMI on the monitor). A simple image search would suffice =).

Hopefully your situation gets resolved and enjoy your T430!

- UMPC2024

I have found the DisplayPort on my X220 to be quite troublesome and fussy.

OTOH, I have never had any issues with the output on my Ultrabase, or more recently the Mini Dock Series 3 with USB 3.0 that I am now using (and which is compatible with your T430).

The Mini Dock may be a solution to your problem - and of course opens the door to using DVI-D rather than DisplayPort.

The only issue I have with the Mini Dock is that I lose the external display if change input on it (don't recall that ever happening with the Ultrabase). This is easily rectified, however, my switching to the ThinkPad display and then using Fn+F7 to switch back to external.

The above may, or may not, be helpful to you (for example the issue could be related to your T430's discrete NVidia graphics...)

titimtimmy wrote:I have a T430 hooked up to a Dell monitor via the Display Port

If you let us know the model (and ideally also the revision) of this Dell monitor, people may be able to provide more information, or at least help you Google up pertinent information. Some monitors have known compatibility issues with certain video cards. For example, the Dell 2408WFP listed in my signature gave me endless headaches for many months, because it had known issues with DVI output from certain ATI cards. I am now driving this monitor with a different card and it has been working flawlessly.

It's possible that your monitor's DVI input would work better. There are plenty of cheap (<$5) DP-to-DVI adapters on eBay. I have several of these adapters and they all work.

UMPC2024 wrote:Also, just curious as to why you're running DisplayPort in general. I'm not running an external monitor and haven't had experiences with them, but VGA might be an alternative if nothing else works.

Digital outputs (DVI, DP, and HDMI) usually look nicer than VGA. Also, DP, Dual-link DVI and sometimes HDMI support much higher resolutions than VGA. If you drive the U3011 via VGA, the best you can get would be 1920x1200.

Hi again,

Thanks for the responses. In the weeks since this post I just had to do with plugging and unplugging the cable every time this happens.

My monitor is a Dell U2412M, revision A00.
I will try the DVI option you suggested, maybe it will work.

Thanks