T-series owners... Please do this test...

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makai · #1 Post by **makai** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 11:16 am

1) Power up your machine using battery power.

2) Ensure 32bit color mode is enabled.

2) Enable Powerplay... (disable "Allow automatic color depth reduction" in ATI properties and Battery Maximizer as applicable).

3) Turn the machine Off.

4) Power up your machine using the AC adapter.

5) Open Windows Explorer (maximized window is easier to see).

Now look at the grey menu area of Windows Explorer... does it show pixelization as if you were in 16bit color mode?

Please list your LCD type, (XGA/SXGA), and your video card (7500/9000/9600/etc).

Thanks for you help,
makai

#2 Post by **GomJabbar** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 12:52 pm

I bit.........

I have a T-42, model 2378-5UU, with XGA Radeon 9000 and 64Mb video RAM.

I see no difference in visual quality running your test, whether running in Battery or AC mode, nor whether running with PowerPlay enabled or not. I had "Automatic Color Reduction" disabled during all tests.

I am about due for a new pair of glasses though

Navck · #3 Post by **Navck** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 12:55 pm

Hmm I don't want to exactly use my battery right now... But this is something I noticed...
16 bit color + 1400x1050 with X300 with poewrplay disabled/ATI Tool underclocking card = Ugly looking desktop icons for some reason.

kaplanfx · #4 Post by **kaplanfx** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 1:42 pm

Navck wrote:Hmm I don't want to exactly use my battery right now... But this is something I noticed...
16 bit color + 1400x1050 with X300 with poewrplay disabled/ATI Tool underclocking card = Ugly looking desktop icons for some reason.

If the icons are 32bit color icons, then they will most certainly look a little bit messed up at 16bit due to dithering.

-kaplanfx

makai · #5 Post by **makai** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 5:09 pm

Thank you GomJabbar! I appreciate you running the test. I'm hoping more people will contribute their findings so I can get a good feeling of how prevalent this is... or not.

regards,
makai

asiafish · #6 Post by **asiafish** » Sun Jun 12, 2005 5:46 pm

My T42p is always on 32-bit color and always looks great, battery or AC, and PowrePlay is enabled.

makai · #7 Post by **makai** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 8:39 am

Thanks asiafish! Other than yourself, the only other person willing to help was Gomjabber.

Can you believe 313 reads and only 2 people willing to help! Not a very friendly community.

Thanks again to both of you... I'll go somewhere else.

makai

skuehne · #8 Post by **skuehne** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:13 pm

makai wrote:Can you believe 313 reads and only 2 people willing to help! Not a very friendly community. :?
makai

You want people to alter their ThinkPad's configuration and run some 'test' for you, without telling them why they should do it. Then you accuse people for not being a 'friendly community'. WTF do you expect?!

makai wrote: I'll go somewhere else.
makai

Good riddance!

makai · #9 Post by **makai** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:18 pm

Sorry, I was just kidding! REALLY! I knew it would get someone's attention. Poor joke, my bad!

makai

mysbca · #10 Post by **mysbca** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 12:55 pm

14" SXGA+, ATI X300

I see no difference.

t41user · #11 Post by **t41user** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 1:45 pm

I have seen several T4x thinkpads that have a discoloration in the upper right hand corner of internet explorer. Oddly, these thinkpads do not show the same discoloration with other programs that display the same shade of grey in the same area as internet explorer. This could be a problem unique to the thinkpads that I have seen it on. However, the owners of these thinkpads did not notice the discoloration until after I physically pointed it out to them - they didn't notice the discoloration from verbal and written descriptions of it. As far as I can tell, this discoloration is not due to any obvious software/hardware settings.

makai · #12 Post by **makai** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 2:43 pm

Thanks guys!

The "discoloration" (pixalization) I'm seeing shows up across almost the entire gray menu area of open windows. It looks exactly like my machine is in 16bit color mode even though its set to 32bit. It shows up easily in Windows explorer, IE, Firefox or any window that has the "gradient" type shading of XP. It won't show up in some other windows like MS WORD 2000.

If you set your screen resolution to 16bit color and open windows explorer, you should see what I'm seeing....

WAIT... I just realized something! What if my machine is marginal in both 16 and 32 bit modes? Maybe most people aren't seeing my problem because their machines are working "great" in 16 and 32 bits and no pixalization shows in either mode... w/without Powerplay enabled!??

Sheesh! My head hurts! I gotta go think about this...

makai

emorphien · #13 Post by **emorphien** » Mon Jun 13, 2005 5:06 pm

Have you tried resecuring your monitors connections?

makai · #14 Post by **makai** » Tue Jun 14, 2005 12:00 am

Have you tried resecuring your monitors connections?

Yes, I pulled the whole thing apart and removed/reinserted the LCD connectors, and any other connector I could get to. No joy.

I now have to wonder if this is not just a Powerplay issue. Since I have no other T-series to compare to, I don't even know what to expect the screen to look like when I'm in 16bit color mode.

My Compaq, which has only an 8/16meg card (can't remember now) displays 16 and 32 bit mode cleanly at max resolution (1024x768) with no pixalization in the menu areas. I would expect this T41 to do the same, but it doesn't. That's why all these posts about my issue.

I know people are probably getting impatient with me and I have to apologize but I'm almost at a lost of what to do.

I did just receive an email from one of "Sam's people", so I'll call her and see what she says.

Thanks everyone for your help and your time. I really do appreciate it! I will try to solve this outside this forum so as not to waste any more bandwidth. I will post back if this ever gets resolved by IBM.

Moderator, please lock this thread.

Aloha and THANKS,
makai

johnlusf · #15 Post by **johnlusf** » Thu Jul 14, 2005 9:50 pm

any update on resolving this issue? i just got my t43 today and i noticed the discoloring immediately... (my display was set to 16bit from the factory) i changed it to 32-bit and it got better but if u look closely... it's still there!

please let us know what u find out makai.

thanks

jonnnny · #16 Post by **jonnnny** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 12:22 am

err ihad the same problem when i first got my t41p.....
it was a while ago so i cant remember what i did but i fixed it... reformat i think?

makai · #17 Post by **makai** » Fri Jul 15, 2005 1:36 am

Believe it or not, this is still in the works!

I ended up calling one of Sams people and demonstrated it over the phone on her machine. She understood what I was seeing and passed me to a tech.

After a while, I was contacted by another person from what IBM calls "second tier tech support" and he was supposed to send me a box.

I emailed him my addres last week and sent two more emails, but no response... so I'm still waiting on the box.

Actually, I told myself I'd give him until today to either call me or email me, but he didn't.

Tomorrow, I call his boss!

I will post back on this issue when it does get resolved.

My opinion is that either my vid card is bad or this is a design problem. My 32meg card may not be able to handle the SXGA screen resolution. Can you imagine if it was a design problem? IBM would have to recall everyones machine who had the same configuration as mine!

And, no this cannot be fixed with a simple reformat/reinstall. This was already tried by myself, and IBM tech the first time I sent it in.

makai

johnlusf · #18 Post by **johnlusf** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 9:48 pm

eager to hear what you find out from IBM. I'm subscribing to this thread.

makai · #19 Post by **makai** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 12:54 am

Sorry to keep everyone in suspense! The latest is that the tier2 support is moving offices. They won't be moved till the end of August so I won't be sending my machine until then.

These teir2 people are very helpful and concerned so that's a good sign.

I will definitely post back as soon a I can get this taken care of.

STS06 · #20 Post by **STS06** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:20 am

makai this is quite important so don't feel as if you're burden or what not. Post away!

But thanks for keeping us updated. I hope I don't run into similar problems (ordered a T42 a few days ago).

rxl77 · #21 Post by **rxl77** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 8:56 pm

Hey thanks! I had the discoloration on my T43 (X300), noticeably when I was using Firefox/Internet Explorer. I couldn't understand what it was from, and I tried doing search on Google and on this forum. However, the search I was doing was "jigsaw" or "Puzzle" "LCD" "Screen." I didn't think to use "discoloration."

But anyway I decided to check my video settings, eve though I was positive mine was on 32bit... To my shock, it was on 16bit. I eagerly changed it, and opened up IE...

YAY, it's gone the discoloration/jigsaw/puzzle looking thing on the top row.

THANKS! It was bothering me and I thought it was a LCD defect and was going to open a service request with IBM. No need now.

Inky · #22 Post by **Inky** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 9:47 pm

skuehne wrote:
makai wrote:Can you believe 313 reads and only 2 people willing to help! Not a very friendly community.
makai
You want people to alter their ThinkPad's configuration and run some 'test' for you, without telling them why they should do it. Then you accuse people for not being a 'friendly community'. WTF do you expect?!

My thoughts exactly. As I read his post I kept wondering... I'm being asked to invest MY time in changing my laptop settings around, but where's the part where HE takes a moment to tell me what the test aims to solve? It's the urge to get something for nothing--taken to a whole new level.

EDITED TO SAY: I posted my reply as soon as I reached the part I quoted. Now that I glanced at the rest of the thread I see the fellow says he was joking and the issue has settled down. Glad of it.

-Inky

newt43 · #23 Post by **newt43** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 10:25 am

Hello: I recently took delivery of a t43 and noticed the same problem-- the internet explorer toolbar looks discolored and pixellized. You have to pay attention to notice the problem, but it is there. HOWEVER, I have since checked on my Compaq Presario x1000, on my wife's Dell Latitude 610, and my Vaio desktop and the pixellization is there as well (although it's least noticeable on the desktop). Additionally, when I changed Windows' appearance settings to "classic view" as opposed to "XP view," the problem disappears. I'm not certain, but I think this is not a hardware problem. It is likely a combination of a minor flaw in windows and the fact that you can spot things on an lcd screen you wouldn't see on a normal monitor. These are my opinions only, and they are worth about what you paid for them. I look forward to reading Makai's updates.

Thinkpaddict · #24 Post by **Thinkpaddict** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 5:12 am

I am seeing this effect in a Sony LCD (driven by an NVidia GeForce graphics card). It is visible on the gray menu area of Firefox. I think this is a non-issue, and in my opinion it is related to the way Windows manages internal resources (bitmaps for menus). I don't think it is hardware specific either.

T-series owners... Please do this test...

T-series owners... Please do this test...

discolorization in upper right hand corner of Inter Explorer

Problem displaying explorer

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