External Monitor Corruption

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rebop · #1 Post by **rebop** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 1:17 pm

Could really use some help here.

New T60 with 2 GB of RAM in case that is shared with the ATI 1400 vid card.

Just completed installing and configuring all, hooked up to an external monitor. All looks great! After a half hour, or maybe opening, using closing a half dozen apps, the icons in the system tray start to disapear. Then the quick launch, then the desktop and then menu items are blank. Finally the desktop corrupts horribly and I have to reboot.

I tried turning off write combining (what is that?) to no avail. Now have acceleration turned down a notch.

Any idea why this happens and how to fix? Or, at least, since ATI does not support Mobility, where is a great forum to ask?

Thanks.

~Bob

heyzeus123 · #2 Post by **heyzeus123** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 1:24 pm

Sounds more like a Window XP or VISTA corrupted desktop problem than a problem with the ATI driver. Or possibility a BAD memory/RAM problem.

Does the problem happen ONLY on the EXTERNAL monitor, or also the Thinkpad LCD?

Have you tried testing the RAM (e.g. Memtest 86+)?

Can you post some screen shots?

Have you tried booting up in Safe Mode to see if the problem appears in Safe mode?

Good Luck!

rebop · #3 Post by **rebop** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 1:50 pm

Thanks for the reply.

ONLY on the external. Never on the internal LCD. Connected via analog, if that matters.

I would think it would happen on both if it was not the vid card or driver. Doubt it could be the docking station, but maybe.

Have not tested memory nor in SAFE Mode.

Will try for screen shots tonight (this is at home) but just imagine lost icons and menu items until the screen finally corrupts totally and nothing is clickable.

After reboot, all is perfect again, so doubt it is a Windows Desktop problem.

~Bob

#4 Post by **Harryc** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 2:25 pm

Take the machine out of the dock and hook the monitor directly to it. If it still fails, this will eliminate the dock as a problem.

rebop · #5 Post by **rebop** » Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:16 pm

Well, an aood one I'd appreciate another T60 ATI 1400 owner checking. When copmpared to my T43 at work, expanding the hidden icons inthe system try goes slowly one by one, either docked or undocked. At work, its instant.

Read there is a new BIOS update for VGA output reverting to VGA from SVGA, so maybe it is the VGA output. My new montior arrived and that will be DVI,so maybe it will solve the problem. Will report.

But, a related question:

How do you set up the video so that you can have one color correction for the LCD and a serate one for the external monitor? Can't seem to get that to work. Any changes affect both.

Thanks.

~Bob

rebop · #6 Post by **rebop** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 12:09 am

Well, unfortunately DVI does the same as VGA. Maybe not as often. Gets to total screen corruption.

So with 512mb video card ram, I can't imagine how this is happening. Have tried lowering accelration, write combining, DVI special setting in ATI Catalyst. No good.

Any trick settings to fix this? BIOS memory areas to set? Anything?

This is killing me :^)

~Bob

#7 Post by **Harryc** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 3:52 am

Don't know, you ignored my suggestion so my PD capabilities suddenly went away ...

rebop · #8 Post by **rebop** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:03 am

Wasn;t quite an ignore. Since I knew I had a new monitor coming yesterday and that I would be running that one DVI, and since the latest BIOS update addresses a VGA prblem, I just hoped that it would not happen with DVI. But it does.

Now, there is no DVI directly out, of course, so cannot test that with a direct hookup. And I doubt it could be the dock at all if it is on both.

So it was not an ignore.

I'm starting to think bad video card. Very frustrating.

I have depot warranty. Are there depots on the West Coast or is this send in only?

~Bob

rebop · #9 Post by **rebop** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:27 pm

Surprised that I am not getting more replies. Could really use some help.

Some updates:

Did the latest BIOS update. Mentioned a VGA problem so thought it might help. This did not cure the corrupt desktop problem. It did solve the stretched splash screens, but unfortunately that is not a high priority item.

So, seems there are a few possibilities:

Video RAM

System RAM if it is shared with the ATI 1400. Is this the case? And if so, can you recommend a good RAM tester you trust?

GPU temp. How does one find this out? I never hear my fan. Perhaps the fan is broken and GPU gets too hot? Is there a fan test?

Last, I can not figure out two things:

I can not get BOTH the LCD and external DVI on at the same time. Fn F7 goes to LCD, then both blank, then LCD. What am I missing?

And, I also can not seem to change the ATI settings for just one monitor as regards color or contrast. Any change affects both. There must be a way I am missing here as well.

Would really appreciate tips and pointers from those that may have gone through these before.

Will be posting pictures shortly.

Thanks.

~Bob

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rebop · #10 Post by **rebop** » Tue Jun 26, 2007 11:52 pm

See if this works and is helpful:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9353119@N05/

External Monitor Corruption

External Monitor Corruption

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