LCD Blanks when playing Video File

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jsmit86 · #1 Post by **jsmit86** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 10:16 pm

My T42 LCD Blanks sometimes when playing, a video file, and again when exiting. The playback itself seems normal except for this blanking delay when starting and ending.
This happens in Window Media Player, and also with real player.

Usually this seems to happen after Hibernation, or Suspend. If I reboot, the problem goes away.

Anyone else hving this issue, and how do I solve it.

G-Man · #2 Post by **G-Man** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 10:47 pm

It seems like Benz 2nd problem. His solution was: "if i disable "Use Overlays" in the windows media player options settings (>Preferences>Advanced), the problem is solved."

Try it. Maybe it will work you too.

Regards,
G-Man

stinkyfeet · #3 Post by **stinkyfeet** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 10:52 pm

Jsmit, That sounds exactly like my problem I'd posted earlier. Have a look at this thread:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=

A few additional comments:
The problem disappeared after a factory restore, and i didn't see it for all of two weeks. After that I was extremely cautious installing software, but it just popped right back this weekend.

The last software I installed was Perl. The first time i saw it after the factory restore was while starting Half life (the game). I'd run half life earlier too, so I don't think it's any of the software *I* installed. (might be one of windows critical updates

Try viewing the "real-time status" in the Active protection system tab and tell me if you see the flicker there too. It's really horrible for me, the screen just keeps on flickering!!

I'm planning to send my laptop in for some more therapy, so let's compare notes. I'm sure there are more people who are seeing this problem too. I have the 2373-3vu, what's your config?

benz · #4 Post by **benz** » Tue Jul 13, 2004 11:24 pm

Actually, it turned out that the disabling overlay wasn't quite enough. in fact the problem seemed to get worse, and sometimes I noticed that 'flicker' like stinkyfeet. In the end, I just reformatted and did a fresh install. I think it had to do with corrupted video drivers, and since I fooled around too much with them (IBM, orig. ATi, Omega, etc...none really uninstalled, just installed over each other). Moral of the story: dont install/change settings of a driver unless you need to.

jsmit86 · #5 Post by **jsmit86** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 9:05 pm

stinkyfeet wrote:Jsmit, That sounds exactly like my problem I'd posted earlier. .....

Try viewing the "real-time status" in the Active protection system tab and tell me if you see the flicker there too. It's really horrible for me, the screen just keeps on flickering!!

I'm planning to send my laptop in for some more therapy, so let's compare notes. I'm sure there are more people who are seeing this problem too. I have the 2373-3vu, what's your config?

Same Issue! First, I did turn off the layering in Media Player. Still flickered after about 18 hours in Hibernation.

I tried the Active protection tab, and I almost freaked!

I could not see anything. I finaqlly managed to control alt delete out of the loop.
The LCD Backlight seems to actually turn off when this happens.

I have a 2378 DUU with 512MB of Ram. I have not made any changes to video drivers. I have loaded Microsoft suites and Lotus notes plus the AT&T VPN Dialer. The only other software I can think of that would impact this is that I did install Real Player... perhaps this would impact something.

Any other ideas?

CantStopNow · #6 Post by **CantStopNow** » Wed Jul 14, 2004 10:57 pm

I've seen the same problem as well on my T42 w/Radeon Mobility 9600. When running WMP, the screen went black for a little while, and sometimes blinks on and off. It doesn't happen all of the time. I've found that if I reboot the computer, apps that use overays (most media players) start working normally again. As best as I could determine, hibernating and/or sleeping was causing this problem to kick in.

I think that this is some kind of issue with the video driver. At the time that I was seeing this often, I was running with the Omega drivers. In hopes of fixing the problem, I ran the Omega driver cleaner, and reinstalled the ATI video driver on IBM's support site. Since then I haven't seen the problem (a little over a week).

Just another account of the problem...

yargok · #7 Post by **yargok** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 8:23 am

I was also having this problem, with the screen flickering. It happened when i played a dvd. I updated the video drivers yesterday to the new ones (came out a week ago) and the problem seems to go away. The new drivers fix a refresh error bug when the thinkpad comes from a low power state. It could be related, since people say the problem occurs after hibernation/standby.

jsmit86 · #8 Post by **jsmit86** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 12:32 pm

How exactly do you update the video driver?

yargok · #9 Post by **yargok** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 1:13 pm

Download and install the driver from:

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.ws ... us&lang=en

CAS · #10 Post by **CAS** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 5:40 pm

yargok, your link is for windows 2000. if you need the new xp drivers, they're here:

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.ws ... us&lang=en

jsmit86 · #11 Post by **jsmit86** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 9:12 pm

CAS wrote:yargok, your link is for windows 2000. if you need the new xp drivers, they're here:

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.ws ... us&lang=en

Thanks CAS. I updated the drivers, and did a quick hibernate, and the vidoe was ok. I'll keep my fingers crossed that this fixes the issue. I will do an all night hibernate tonight, and see if the issue stays fixed.
I will post results.

stinkyfeet · #12 Post by **stinkyfeet** » Thu Jul 15, 2004 9:25 pm

Yup guys, That was it!! I haven't seen any problems since the upgrade.

Phew, close call! I was just about to sent the laptop back to the service centre.

jsmit86 · #13 Post by **jsmit86** » Fri Jul 16, 2004 10:22 am

Still Good today after long hibernation.

LCD Blanks when playing Video File

LCD Blanks when playing Video File

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