Can't display 1400x1050 using T40 and external monitor

Message

CABoulder · #1 Post by **CABoulder** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 1:25 am

I have a T40 and just bought a Viewsonic VG2021m (native resolution is 1400x1050). I would like to display 1400x1050 resolution on the Viewsonic. I found out that I must use DVI to display 1400x1050, so I am using a port replicator II. The display adapter on my T40 is an ATI Mobility Radeon 9000. I downloaded and installed the latest display driver from www.ibm.com.

According to the on-line documentation, the port replicator II is only rated to support a max of 1280x1024. But, according to what I gather from the think.pads forum appends that I have been able to find, I should be able to display 1400X1050 (am I correct?). But it does not work for me. What I am seeing is that my Windows desktop is larger than the displayable area of the monitor. If I move my mouse pointer to the edge that is not displaying, the viewable area will scroll to allow me to see the edge, but then the opposite edge is now off the screen.

In the Display Properties notebook, I have set the screen resolution to 1400x1050 and the refresh rate of 60 Hz, on the Advanced->Displays tab the monitor is shown as 1280x1024, even though when I click on the icon for the monitor it shows that its maximum supported resolution is 1400x1050 with a maximum supported refresh rate of 75 Hz. Also the monitor keeps telling me in a message box that it is best to run at 1400x1050.

When I set the screen resolution to 1280x1024, my entire Windows
desktop is viewable and fills the entire displyable area of the monitor, but the text is blurry/distorted/stretched because the monitor is not displaying at its native resolution.

I have talked to Viewsonic and IBM hardware support and no one is able to help. IBM hardware support says that the port replicator II does not support anything greater than 1280x1024.

Does anyone have any ideas of what to try next?

okey2k · #2 Post by **okey2k** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 4:59 am

If your viewsonic monitor keeping messaging you the infomation that it can support the 1400*1050,then the problem must be the port replicator II.May be it's just like what the IBM support says,the replicator can only support the 1280*1024 .

chan_man · #3 Post by **chan_man** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:55 am

I have a T41 that I drive at 1600x1200 on a monitor at work and at 1920x1200 on a Dell 24" ultrasharp at home, both are done with the standard VGA connector on the port rep.

Can you say why you must use DVI to display 1400x1050?

#4 Post by **daeojkim** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 1:11 pm

You should be able to display 1400 * 1050 on your display through port replicator II.

I am running a 1600 * 1200 through minidock DVI port.

The documentation I believe is out dated for port replicator II. They should update that.

Anyhow, have to thought about omega driver? It has more selctions for resolutions and I am certain that it has 1400 * 1050. I have been using omega drivers for a long time never had problems.

CABoulder · #5 Post by **CABoulder** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 6:58 pm

I'll try to respond to each reply:

okey2k: That's what I thought and that is what IBM said, but others on this forum have been successful in using a port replication II to display 1400x1050 and greater resolutions.

chan_man: I have been told that VGA out does not support greater than 1280x1024 and from what I have experienced VGA 1280x1024 is blury/fuzzy/distorted. Others seem to agree and have recommended DVI.

daeojkim: I have heard omega drivers mentioned on previous forum appends. I am wondering if the IBM version of the ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 is limiting the resolution. Does anyone know the difference between the IBM version and the ATI version?

chan_man · #6 Post by **chan_man** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 10:03 pm

I guess that I would have to disagree with you with respect to the capability of the VGA support. Like I said, I run my displays at a higher resolution than 1400x1050 and the screen is not blurry at all. I do set the refresh rate at 60 Hz for the Dell Ultrasharp when set at 1920x1200. The Dell does have a DVI port but I am using this to connect to my Mac, the other reason for using the VGA port is that I run the VGA port through a 4 port KVM. I have not found a cheap KVM that has DVI yet.

#7 Post by **daeojkim** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 3:34 pm

CABoulder wrote: daeojkim: I have heard omega drivers mentioned on previous forum appends. I am wondering if the IBM version of the ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 is limiting the resolution. Does anyone know the difference between the IBM version and the ATI version?

I am pretty sure that the IBM driver is limiting the resolution of the display through the port replicator.

If you are not comfortable with Omega driver, you should try the ATI driver, then if that does not work then try the Omega driver. I am pretty sure the omega driver will give the option for SXGA+ option for external display.

Remember though to uninstall the installed driver before installing new driver.

wurmi · #8 Post by **wurmi** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 10:23 am

Hi CABoulder,

I am struggling with the same problem. My machine is a T42 with ATI 9600.

Even after a professional support guy had spent 4 hours installing the Omega, Catalyst and ATI-Drivers without succes, I decided not give up and googled a lot.

I have found an interesting link at
http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/defau ... .379881.15

Following the lead of many here who have sung the praises of dual monitor systems, I broke down and ordered one to use with main development laptop. My laptop is a T41 Thinkpad with a 1400x1050 display, so I thought it would be a good idea to get an external LCD monitor with same native resolution. I ordered the Viewsonic VG2021m 20" monitor

(...)

Had a long chat with Thinkpad support, which was moderately helpful. They ended up pointing me to a Thinkpad specification that said external resolution of 1400x1050 was not supported. I had seen that document before I purchased and concluded that it was wrong. It also indicates that 1400x1050 is not supported in _built-in_ lcd and that any resolution above XGA is by panning only. So it seemed to be specs for XGA model only. Also, I was using setup and IBM Presentation Manager which indicate 1400x1050 was supposed to be supported, and they're built to only show supported resolutions.

So at that point I was left with possibility that my monitor was okay (since it worked with other laptop) but that my T41 for some reason either did not support external 1400x1050 or had some minor incompatibility that prevented its signal from being used properly by my monitor.

At this point I thought I was up a creek without a paddle, because NewEgg would not take returns, the monitor did not seem to be defective so no use for warranty, and I love my Thinkpad and don't want to switch to a different dev machine.

As a last gasp effort I came across the Driverheaven Mobility Modder Tool, which could be used to give my ATI Mobility Radeon some extra capabilities. ( http://www.driverheaven.net/patje/ ) I had no idea whether it would work to fix my particular problem, but I gave it a try.

It worked! My external monitor now synchs at its native res of 1400x1050. I did end up wasting three or four hours in getting the display to work right. I'm hoping increased productivity will make up for that pretty fast. In any case, the external monitor looks great at it's native res and I'm beginning to understand why people love multi-monitor setups so much. Thanks again to everyone who piped in with helpful suggestions.
Herbert Sitz

I will try with that tool and keep you updated

Johannes

wurmi · #9 Post by **wurmi** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 1:32 pm

Hereby I confirm that the "Patjes Modding Tool" resp. "DH Mod tool V4" auf http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool/ solved my problem with the VG2021m.

Johannes

ulrich.von.lich · #10 Post by **ulrich.von.lich** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 10:03 am

chan_man wrote:I have a T41 that I drive at 1600x1200 on a monitor at work and at 1920x1200 on a Dell 24" ultrasharp at home, both are done with the standard VGA connector on the port rep.

Is it true?? I was told the screen resolution via VGA connector is limited at 1024*768. I do wish to use an external monitor with resolution higher than that.

Can someone please confirm it? Thanks

Btw, is the port next to the optical drive a VGA connector? Or do I still need a port replicator?

pianowizard · #11 Post by **pianowizard** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 10:17 am

ulrich.von.lich wrote:I was told the screen resolution via VGA connector is limited at 1024*768.

That's true only for much older Thinkpads, like the TP240, but not for the T series. I use a 1600x1200 external monitor with my T42 all the time. BTW, in my experience, the VGA can usually drive higher resolutions than the DVI port.

ulrich.von.lich wrote:Btw, is the port next to the optical drive a VGA connector? Or do I still need a port replicator?

Yes that's the VGA connector and no, you don't need a replicator.

ulrich.von.lich · #12 Post by **ulrich.von.lich** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 11:54 am

Thank you pianowizard, I feel much better now.

But will there be a problem with the X300 which has only 64mb on board memory? Do you use both thinkpad LCD and the external monitor at the same time or you have to disable one?

pianowizard · #13 Post by **pianowizard** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 12:12 pm

ulrich.von.lich wrote:But will there be a problem with the X300 which has only 64mb on board memory?

You have a T43, right? The 64MB X300 will drive 1600x1200 (and possibly 1920x1200 too) without any problem. If I remember correctly, even the T23 which has only 16MB graphics memory can drive 1600x1200 just fine.

ulrich.von.lich wrote:Do you use both thinkpad LCD and the external monitor at the same time or you have to disable one?

Both simultameously. You can extend the desktop area into the external LCD, or get the external LCD to mirror whatever is shown on the Thinkpad LCD.

corona · #14 Post by **corona** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 12:43 am

CABoulder I was having exactly the same problem and I finally gave up in exasperation. The best deal IMO is to simply get a Dock II (which has a 1/2-length PCI slot) and a dual-monitor PCI card (that's only half-length), like the Matrox G450. (You can get all of this on eBay for less than $100) I think ATI makes one too. Then you can use one monitor or two when docked and it's a lot more straightforward and flexible.

dpm_dpmartin · #15 Post by **dpm_dpmartin** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 6:42 am

This topic really interested me as I am experiencing the same issue right now.

I think I can confirm a few things and I will try out the route suggested (Driverheaven Mobility Modder Tool) to remedy this issue.

I have a T41 and a Dell 2707WFP widescreen LCD display. I am connected via a VGA cable (not DVI) and I am OK changing to resolutions 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1400x1050, 1600x1200 and 1920x1200 - some more successful than others. I have tried most of these resolutions and got the following results:

1024x768 = fine, fits on screen, is massive though; need to get more real-estate.
1280x1024 = fine, fits on screen, what I'm using now - seems slightly stretched and blurry (to be expected).
1400x1050 = not fine, this is bigger than the screen and I have to pan with the mouse. Though the pixels look very nice and a good size.
1600x1200 = fine, fits on the screen fine, a bit small text for me.
1920x1200 = also fine, fits on the screen fine but way too small.

Based on this - I decided to be difficult and settled on wanting to use the 1400x1050 resolution. Very frustrating because nothing that I have changed thus far has allowed me to get the 1400x1050 resolution actually fitting snugly on the screen. I am currently limited to using the 1280x1024 resolution, but I'm not very happy with this at all because the text, as stated elsewhere, is kinda blurry.

The useful information I can add, although I'm just confirming what others have said, is that a VGA cable can go right up to the top levels mentioned here - and beyond.

The problem seems to be (as I found out that the 1400x1050 resolution is also shown fine when using my T41's own display) that the monitor itself does not seem to guarantee it will size and centre the 1400x1050 resolution correctly... looking at the on-line manual, it said it would guarantee to correctly size and centre the following modes:

VESA, 720 x 400 (31.5 kHz Horizontal, 70.1 Hz Vertical, 28.3 MHz)
VESA, 640 x 480 (31.5 kHz Horizontal, 59.9 Hz Vertical, 25.2 MHz)
VESA, 640 x 480 (37.5 kHz Horizontal, 75.0 Hz Vertical, 31.5 MHz)
VESA, 800 x 600 (37.9 kHz Horizontal, 60.3 Hz Vertical, 40.0 MHz)
VESA, 800 x 600 (46.9 kHz Horizontal, 75.0 Hz Vertical, 49.5 MHz)
VESA, 1024 x 768 (48.4 kHz Horizontal, 60.0 Hz Vertical, 65.0 MHz) which is XGA
VESA, 1024 x 768 (60.0 kHz Horizontal, 75.0 Hz Vertical, 78.8 MHz) which is also XGA
VESA, 1152 x 864 (67.5 kHz Horizontal, 75.0 Hz Vertical, 108 MHz)
VESA, 1280 x 1024 (64.0 kHz Horizontal, 60.0 Hz Vertical, 108 MHz) which is SXGA
VESA, 1280 x 1024 (80.0 kHz Horizontal, 75.0 Hz Vertical, 135 MHz) which is also SXGA
VESA, 1600 x 1200 (75.0 kHz Horizontal, 60.0 Hz Vertical, 162 MHz) which is UXGA
VESA, 1920 x 1200 (74.0 kHz Horizontal, 60.0 Hz Vertical, 154 MHz) which is WUXGA

Note that 1400x1050 (which is SXGA+) is not in that list. Neither are many other widescreen resolutions, like: WXGA = 1366x768, WSXGA = 1600 x 1024 or WSXGA+ = 1680 x 1050. Only 1920x1200 is WUXGA which is a widescreen resolution, the rest are 4:3. Anyway... that's where my investigations led me - thanks to this forum, I will try and give the mod utility a go...

dpm_dpmartin · #16 Post by **dpm_dpmartin** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 5:00 am

Yes, I can confirm this worked a charm for me too.

1) Downloaded DH Mobility Modder @ 1.5mb.
2) Downloaded ATI Catalyst Drivers @ 35mb.
3) Downloaded Microsoft Dot Net Framework 2 @ 23mb.

Installed 3, semi-installed 2, ran 1, continued install of 2.

One reboot later and "hey presto...!"... 1400x1050 fits my Dell 27" Ultrasharp monitor perfectly. And, what I did get a bit concerned about after reading a few forum entries, no problems wiith my OpenGL developments - they also work just as before / expected.

Very happy.

Sleepr56 · #17 Post by **Sleepr56** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 2:46 pm

I just unwrapped my new Samsung 22in widescreen (226BW), super impressive moniter, and the t4o is def. strugglin

Best setting I could set up, like stated before is the 1280x1024, buy it seems a tad stretched and blurry. Guess its something I will have to deal with.

*unless someone has more hindsight in this other then whats stated above.

#18 Post by **Johan** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 1:46 pm

I am not sure if this is old news, or if it has anything to do with the issue, but FYI I just saw (here) that Lenovo released (on 2007/09/19) a new Video driver (ATI Radeon, FireGL Series) for Windows 2000/XP for ThinkPad A31, A31p, R40, R40e, R50, R50p, R51 (1829, 1830, 1831, 1836), T30, T40, T40p, T41, T41p, T42, T42p, X31, X32, and where it says:

Code: Select all

Summary of changes
Version 8.133.2.1.1.1-070206a-043154C
Driver version in Windows Device Manager
6.14.10.6547 Windows XP
6.14.10.6547 Windows 2000

* (New) The external monitor resolution can be set to 1400x1050 without panning. 

-(Fix) Lowering the LCD refresh rate in battery mode causes the jitter on the LCD intermittently.

Best regards,

Johan

bert · #19 Post by **bert** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 2:29 pm

I tried to download and install that new driver, but I actually got a somewhat older one. Will test it tomorrow to see if it works with external 1400x1050.

SlamX · #20 Post by **SlamX** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 5:41 pm

If you are using it displaying both the laptop and extrenal monitor try just using the external monitor and it should go to the reosolution you want. I have found when using both monitors the resolution is limted to onbaord only.

So toggle the Fn key to just dipslay the external.

Paul Unger · #21 Post by **Paul Unger** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 8:51 pm

There's a great visual here [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Vect ... dards2.png] that helps explain why, for example, 1280x1024 looks 'stretched' and 'blurry' on a 4:3 monitor. For what it's worth . . .

chazas · #22 Post by **chazas** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 10:15 pm

I really appreciate this board, even if some of the tech stuff is above me.

I was having problems getting my T41 and minidock to drive my new 22" Acer 1680x1050 monitor. The latest Lenovo driver said it was working to select that resolution, but the display was stretched and bigger than the display (panned to get to the right place).

I uninstalled the Lenovo ATI drivers, then followed the Catalyst and Mobility Modder instructions. The Modder instructions were a little unclear - I couldn't figure out how to run the program, but there was a post on the driverheaven forum that described it.

Everything now works. The Catalyst control panel is pretty intuitive. I don't think Presentation Director is working right, but I never used it before and the Catalyst control panel seems to be doing much the same thing. Anyway, the display works great.

Thanks, all!

A-Ge0 · #23 Post by **A-Ge0** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 6:41 pm

which version of catalyst drivers did you install?
I installed the latest 8.4 catalyst drivers and suffered many problems.
Needless to say that 1920x1080 nor 1920x1200 that I am internested was not an option.
I posted my issue here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=61142

SteveS · #24 Post by **SteveS** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 6:20 pm

I have the very same issues CABoulder stated in the original post of this thread, with the same models. I was able to achieve the 1400 x 1050 through VGA, but not DVI

wurmi wrote:

Hereby I confirm that the "Patjes Modding Tool" resp. "DH Mod tool V4" auf http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool/ solved my problem with the VG2021m.

Really? I treid this with no success, at least on the DVI side.
Following this thread is confusing, as members are mixing DVI performance with VGA. I would request you please clarify.

I am a real fan of DVI over VGA (analog) because the pixel map is always aligned. Even with the "Auto" align modes in the new monitors, the alignment tends to drift as things warm up, leading to bluring in a portion of the screen.

A-Ge0 · #25 Post by **A-Ge0** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 3:30 am

dpm_dpmartin wrote:Yes, I can confirm this worked a charm for me too.

1) Downloaded DH Mobility Modder @ 1.5mb.
2) Downloaded ATI Catalyst Drivers @ 35mb.
3) Downloaded Microsoft Dot Net Framework 2 @ 23mb.

Installed 3, semi-installed 2, ran 1, continued install of 2.

One reboot later and "hey presto...!"... 1400x1050 fits my Dell 27" Ultrasharp monitor perfectly. And, what I did get a bit concerned about after reading a few forum entries, no problems wiith my OpenGL developments - they also work just as before / expected.

Very happy.

what version of ati catalyst drivers did you use to achieve 1920 on a t41 vga?

Can't display 1400x1050 using T40 and external monitor

Can't display 1400x1050 using T40 and external monitor

Problem solution

Get a Dock II and a dual-monitor card

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