X31 and DVI Support?

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leesiulung · #1 Post by **leesiulung** » Sat Sep 25, 2004 2:00 am

Do anyone have this setup? How did you accomplish this? What is your resolution? What is your experience?

Anyone care to tell... I am thinking of getting an 19" or larger LCD with at least 1600x1200 resolution. Wondering if the graphics card set to run at this resolution will introduce visible lag when scrolling up and down or during a lot of motion on the screen?

Voodle · #2 Post by **Voodle** » Sun Sep 26, 2004 1:05 pm

As far as I know, using the IBM drivers, the X31 has no DVI support - I tried it using the port replicator a while ago with a 17" LCD and had no luck. I'm not sure if this is a driver limitiation or a limitation of the video chipset (ATI mobility radeon).

Certainly would be nice if it was possible though, the VGA out on this thing is just as bad as my previous T23, which looks rather blurry at 1280x1024.

leesiulung · #3 Post by **leesiulung** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 7:49 pm

anyone managed to get the DVI working on X31 with a port replicator or dock?

kingcrimson · #4 Post by **kingcrimson** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 3:18 pm

When I was buying my X31, I was specifically interested in DVI connection as I was planning on using it with a 20-inch IBM flat panel monitor. The pre-sales IBM "consultant" said that it will work with X-series if I get a port replicator / docking station with DVI. I did. Long story short, it didn't work, and subsequent chat with IBM customer support confirmed that although port replicator / dock does have DVI, it is disabled with the X-series. So, the answer is a qualified "no".

This said, I've been using an analog connection with the aforementioned 20-inch IBM LCD monitor, and it works just fine at the native (1600x1200) resolution. Keep in mind that the ATI card in X31 will support that resolution only at 16-bit color when *both* external display and X31 LCD are used. Also, if you're thinking about wide-screen 23-24-inch LCDs, such as the new ones from Samsung, HP, etc., you're out of luck because the X31 ATI card won't support their native resolution (1900x1200). Finally, I wouldn't recommend running the external LCD at a non-native resolution --- I tried that and got a much, much less than perfect (blurry text, etc.) image --- the scalers in these LCDs are not that good.

leesiulung · #5 Post by **leesiulung** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 5:01 pm

Thanks for sharing your experience with us, I am assuming you have the IBM L200P. What is your experience with this monitor? I have a hard time choosing between the IBM one and a Samsung 213T, 21.3 inch flat panel monitor. They cost about the same.

About the analog connection, somebody else here complained about it being blurry. Just wondering what your experience is with analog connection, as I am very dissapointed that X31 does not support DVI through a dock... have you tried the ATI generic drivers instead or any hacked drivers if they exist?

What about the X40, does it have DVI with a slice... or dock...??? anyone?

kingcrimson · #6 Post by **kingcrimson** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 11:40 am

I tried various drivers, everything, and finally the IBM support just told me flat-out that the DVI port is simply disabled with X31, it's a hardware issue.

L200P is excellent as long as I run it in its native resolution (1600x1200) for productivity purposes, no blurring or anything. Can't comment on DVD performance... or Samsung, for that matter.

applywgu · #7 Post by **applywgu** » Tue Oct 12, 2004 12:41 pm

what if you use a dock (e.g. 2631) and plug a pci video card (e.g. ATI 9200 PCI) which has DVI port?
very curious...

applywgu · #8 Post by **applywgu** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 9:20 am

nobody interested?

leesiulung · #9 Post by **leesiulung** » Fri Oct 15, 2004 2:29 pm

I don't know, but am interrested... however, that is an expensive solution as the dock cost about $300-400 + cost of videocard.

applywgu · #10 Post by **applywgu** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 7:56 am

not really, I recently bought a dock (2631) on ebay by 53 EURO (with 1 year guarantee). On ebay.com (US) it's even cheaper.
A PCI video card (ATI 9200/9250 + DVI/TV-out + 128 MB DDR) is around 50-60 EURO.

monty cantsin · #11 Post by **monty cantsin** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 3:18 pm

applywgu wrote:
what if you use a dock (e.g. 2631) and plug a pci video card (e.g. ATI 9200 PCI) which has DVI port?
very curious...

Well, there's also the (albeit discontinued) Display-to-Go from Margi, a second video card that is stuck into the PC-Card slot. According to the specs, it offers analogue and digital output, but I have no personal experience with it:

http://www.margi.com/products/prod_dtg_feat.htm

It has only 4MB of video memory, though, so it supports a resolution of just 1600x1200 at 16bpp and of course no 3d acceleration. And because it's discontinued, it has only been tested with XP Pro up to SP1.

sneakyazn · #12 Post by **sneakyazn** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 7:55 pm

I also looked into this solution for awhile. I was thinking about picking up the dock II on ebay and just putting in a pci video card. The only problem that I could foresee was that the dock only accept "half-sized" pci cards which were significantly shorter (in length, not height) than regular video cards. I worried that even if i got the dock, which was already expensive enough, i would not be able to find a video card that would fit in. IBM tech support, when contacted, had no recommended cards and could not point me in any direction of where to look. hopefully somebody with the dock ii can test it for us and see if it works?

applywgu · #13 Post by **applywgu** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 3:28 am

I tried my 2631 (Dock I) with an old pci-video card (TNT2), it works well.
The card is not full-size, still space left (2-3 cm in length) after plug the card in my dock. I think for most of the PCI-card it should work. I am thinking about buying a 9200/9250.

BTW: Why Dock II? It's much more expensive.

sneakyazn · #14 Post by **sneakyazn** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 11:18 am

Anybody have experience putting a high end pci video card into the dock ii? i know that is a bit contradictary, high end pci... but you get my drift. Also can the dock i be used with an x31?

applywgu · #15 Post by **applywgu** » Mon Nov 08, 2004 11:29 am

I think so. Many x31 users did that.

sneakyazn · #16 Post by **sneakyazn** » Fri Nov 19, 2004 7:18 pm

is there a popular video card that people are having good success with? i just purchased a 30" lcd and will be looking to get the dock ii to do this with

Nebelfelsen · #17 Post by **Nebelfelsen** » Thu Sep 01, 2005 7:18 am

Does anybody have experiences with this solution?

At the moment, I am using a Matrox Dual Head Card in the Dock I (it hast only 32 MB). It is a bit slow, especially when trying to watch a DVD.

(1920x1200 dpi, 60 Hz).

I wonder if it is so slow because of a slow connection between the Thinkpad and the dock or if it is just the graphics cards with insufficient RAM.

Nebelfelsen · #18 Post by **Nebelfelsen** » Fri Sep 02, 2005 2:54 am

I have now exchanged the Matrox card in the dock by an ATI Saphire PCI-card with 128 MB RAM, because the Matrox support said, the G450 will only support DVI with a maximum resolution of 1280x...

The new ATI has one analogue and one DVI-output. With analogue output everything works fine with a resolution of 1920x1200 @ 60 Hz. It is much faster than the old Matrox.

But when connecting the Dell screen to the DVI port and switching the resolution to 1920x1200, a synch-problem appeared and the screen went black. Nothing worked. I had to reboot and everything works fine now although it isn't possible to rotate the screen by 90 degrees when connected over DVI (the same synch problem appears then). The rotation works fine in analogue mode. Seems that in DVI mode 1920x1200@60Hz is not 100% supported...

X31 and DVI Support?

X31 and DVI Support?

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