PowerPlay corrupts the screen in Batt mode??????

[makai]

Ok, what's happening with Powerplay? Whenever I'm in battery mode, I see artifacts showing up across approx 30% of the entire menu bar area of any open window. This only happens when the Graphic Device Power Mgmt is running.... and only under battery power. When powered under AC, the entire screen looks good.

I have never seen a laptop with this kind of thing showing with power mgmt running. Now either I have a bad Video driver... can't be because I updated and installed/reinstalled several times, or, I have a bad lcd that can't handle power play in battery, or this T41 just stinks! This is supposed to be a high resolution 1400x1050 screen, but with this kind of irratating thing going on, I'm about ready to get rid of it!

I was so looking forward to owning an IBM. But this is rediculous for such an expensive notebook. A bad taste is beginning to settle in and I really hate for that to happen.

Anyone else see what I'm seeing?

Thanks, and please excuse my irritation. I'm a bit let down by what's going on.

makai

[a31pguy]

Aloha makai,
Hmmm - I don't have a T series - but have you tried installing your drivers from scratch and have you downloaded the latest from IBM?

[makai]

Howzit brah! (you originally from Hawaii?)

Yah, actually I did a complete WinXP scratch install with my own oem disk. I installed all up to date drivers, including the monitor inf. No joy! I stayed with SP1a as some of my programs don't like SP2. So I'm hoping this isn't the reason powerplay isn't working right.

It almost appears like enabling Powerplay causes the screen to go into 16bit resolution even though Display properties reports 32bit. I'm not sure if this is just my machine as no one else seems to see this... judging from the lack of responses to my post and zero hits on the search of this forum. It may also have something to do with the 1400x1050 screen resolution not liking powerplay. I have no idea.

What happens is that I see uneven color all across the menu bar area. Large pixalization with sort of a rainbow antialiasing effect. It looks exactly like when I have the machine in 16 bit resolution.

In any case, I didn't install powerplay this time around and all is well. I would still like to know if this is normal, or if I should do something about my unit. I'd really hate to have to send it in for warranty as I don't want to have to go through the hassle. Perhaps I'll call Ibm and talk to them.

Anyways, thanks for your suggestions.

Aloha,
makai

[a31pguy]

Spent a lot of time on Maui - I'm hapa so I look like a native! Felt like a second home! Thinking about retiring there.

I would call IBM if you still have a warranty. This sounds very much like a hardware problem.

[JHEM]

Spent a lot of time on Maui - I'm hapa so I look like a native! Felt like a second home! Thinking about retiring there.

Take LOTS of money!

Regards,

James

[makai]

a31pguy,

No wonder you're using Hawaiian words! Yah, I was thinking that when I retire I might move to Maui or the Big Island rather than back to busy Honolulu. Oahu is so crowded nowadays it's difficult to drive anywhere without being in traffic.


Well, I called IBM and they had me hook up an external monitor to see if the 16bit mode color distortion showed up on the external. Well it happens that once you connect an external monitor, Powerplay becomes disabled and the monitors run full bore... so, I couldn't verify the problem that way.

The tech then tried to tell me that it's normal that the screen goes into 16bit mode once you enable Powerplay even though the display setting is 32bit. I somehow had a hard time believing that and so I told him "I don't think so". I told them I reseated the ram, updated all the drivers and so on. So now IBM is still trying to figure out what could be wrong and will be calling me back today at a later time. I told them that since I'm not at home, I would call them back at 3:00pm.

We'll see what else they come up with...

makai