T60 & external monitor support ...

[ironeddie42]

Figured I'd ask this here as this seems to be the place with all the IBM experts ...

The problem:
We have a bunch of T60s here at work, we usually hook them up to external monitors. The monitors that we use have native resolutions of 1600x1200.

When we hook them up and set up the res in Display - Settings, it applies, but then what it looks like is it sets it to 1600x1200 but keeps the actual monitor res at 1280x1024 or something like that - basically you scroll up and down and left to right ... like the picture being displayed is bigger than what the monitor is displaying.

Just wondering if any of you have had the same issue and figured out what was wrong ... I tried searching but couldn't find anything applicable.

Thanks!

[PAPPP]

Are you switching (using only the external), extending (both built in and external as one big desktop) or mirroring (internal and external show same image)? I often have a big 19" CRT hooked up to my T60p that I usually keep virtually above my built in monitor at low resolution (for video at a distance, and so I can run the refresh up). It behaves as expected if I run it up to 1600x1200 (shows full 1600x1200 screen at once). I can't get windows to let me run it up past 1400x1050 in mirrored mode, and its refusing to let me make the external primary so I can't test that. (and as a related note, the Fn+F7 presentation gadget sucks, I just tried it and it flips through intermediate modes when switching and crashed setting up new modes...). Granted, the video card is different, but I ran a similar configuration with a mobile Radeon 9600 without any trouble, so that shouldn't be the problem.

[killigrew]

make a new profile in the presentation manager,
disable the internal display and set the resolution to 1600x1200.

cu

[arthurcorell]

I have T60 (2623D7U) and the resolution is 1440x1050.

At work, I have an advanced dock and have 2 ViewSonic VG2021m which has 1440x105 native resolution.

I didn't add external video card into the dock. So I use both digital and analog connection for the monitors.

[TwoSteppin4140]

Are you switching (using only the external), extending (both built in and external as one big desktop) or mirroring (internal and external show same image)? I often have a big 19" CRT hooked up to my T60p that I usually keep virtually above my built in monitor at low resolution (for video at a distance, and so I can run the refresh up). It behaves as expected if I run it up to 1600x1200 (shows full 1600x1200 screen at once). I can't get windows to let me run it up past 1400x1050 in mirrored mode, and its refusing to let me make the external primary so I can't test that. (and as a related note, the Fn+F7 presentation gadget sucks, I just tried it and it flips through intermediate modes when switching and crashed setting up new modes...). Granted, the video card is different, but I ran a similar configuration with a mobile Radeon 9600 without any trouble, so that shouldn't be the problem.

Woa, we can extend our desktop to a second monitor? Awesome. I have my old 15'' LCD (1024x768) that I won't need any more...but it'd be nice to extend the desktop to it to keep iTunes and other windows open in it.

What's the best way to do this? I don't have the monitor with me, or I'd just mess with it myself. Thanks!

[PAPPP]

In WinXP (the steps are considerably less simple under Linux/X11 if you have an ati card, haven't tried on here yet...) if you right-click the desktop, bring up properties from the context menu, and go to the advanced tab there should be screen with two boxes labeled 1 and 2. Click the 2 box, adjust the resolution with the slider, and move it to where you want it to extend from the laptop LCD. (it becomes very confusing if you don't match where it is physically)
Somewhere in there it will automatically pop up the change settings screen. Hit OK and in a moment you should be able to move between the two screens. If the dialog doesn't pop up hit the "extend my windows desktop..." box yourself.
Two little caveats:
* Windows sometimes doesn't notice when the second screen is removed, so you can have an invisible area off-screen afterward that you have to un-check the extend box to get rid of.
* Some applications automatically start at a certain location relative to the corners of the whole display, so windows sometimes pop up in strange places when running dual head or after it is removed.