Automatic changing of docked/undocked resolutions on T42

[dpapas]

Greetings all, I'm having a bit of fun with trying to get my 2379-DXU to display at the right resolution after being docked and undocked with a port replicator II and attached Dell 2001FP monitor (via DVI). It's running XP SP2 and, in all, I've updated the BIOS, video driver, power management driver, & Battery maximizer at technical support's request, to no avail.

The symptom: when the system is docked, I can set the resolution to be the 2001FP's native resolution of 1600x1200 just fine, but if I put it in stand by, undock it, and revive the machine, the computer comes up still in 1600x1200 with the desktop virtualized, so you have to scroll around to see the entire desktop. Then, when I set it back manually to 1400x1050, put it in stand by, redock it, and revive it, the 2001FP comes up at 1400x1050. Now, all that being said, I've tried the exact same procedure, only with full shutdowns instead of stand-bys, and the resolution always comes up correctly. Is there any way to get the thinkpad to behave similarly from stand by?

As much as I like the Thinkpad, I've seen Dell Latitude D-series do this flawlessly, so it's at least possible. The only other workarounds I've found are to either get a full Dock and set up hardware profiles or just set up a scheme in Presentation Director and ask the user to switch manually, but it really would be nice to have it be a seamless process.

Thanks all,
-Dave

[pipspeak]

The port replicator II does not support the automatic display switching you're after. That's the problem (and it's one that drives me crazy). You need the Dock II or (I believe) the Mini-Dock to do that.

The best option with a port replicator is to use Presentation Director and set the Fn+F7 keystroke to automatically toggle between each resolution. Not perfect but a lot easier than opening PD to change profiles manually.

Incidently, do you know of a way to apply different color profiles to each display using Presentation Director (or other software)? All I can think of doing is to have PD open a gamma loading application upon switching to an external disply, but then there's no way of unloading that gamma when reverting back to the native display without restarting the computer.

[dpapas]

Thanks for the idea pipspeak. I've just tested it with a Minidock, but it unfortunately doesn't seem to have improved the situation.

I tested one a while ago with a Dock II and even then I seems like I still had to at least set up hardware profiles and/or presentation director schemes to get this to work as desired. I really don't need a dock otherwise, it would be great if I could get there without having to spend the extra $200 just for that feature.

[pipspeak]

I cannot even get Windows to recognize whether the computer is docked or undocked when changing hardware profiles. Were you able to do that with the Port Replicator as well as the Dock?

The options in the hardware profile setup window to select or deselect whether the machine is currently docked is grayed out with "undocked" selected. Nothing I do seems to change that.

Presentation Director is not a great piece of software and I've absolutely no idea how (or even if) it interacts with the ATI drivers. The ATI software seems to be operating in another universe and tells me my current monitor is the laptop display even when presentation director says otherwise and the laptop panel is switched off.

[dpapas]

No, the profiles don't appear to work with anything short of a Dock II.

Your ATI comment (which I agree with) gave me an idea. I went ahead and tried the latest ATI driver from omegadrivers.net, and it actually did the trick.
I did notice that there was a new side effect of the machine not stand by-ing correctly unless AC power was plugged in though.

However, so much for support telling me it was impossible.

[sub_ubi]

Wow, somebody might have found a solution. Do you mean that with the omega ATI drivers, presentation director suddenly realizes that it's docked?

[davidspalding]

'Fraid that I've got a Dock II, and presentation manager detects "docked" condition (shouldn't be tough, since Windows creates a hardware profile when docked) and optionally switches to a specified profile in that situation.

I, too, have had haphazard behavior when undocking from one resolution to another. For one, the LCD may go to 1400x1050, but I can't put desktop items past the 1280 point (I use my Sony CPD-200sf at 1280x1024). Doing a restart usually resolves this.

[dclee012]

has anyone had any success with this problem?