Radeon 7500 problems after T40 upgrade to T43 SXGA+ LCD

[rkawakami]

Since (2) members who tried this upgrade reported failed results in this thread, and (1) member reported success, I think it is safe to conclude that this upgrade is possible, but not likely to succeed. I wish I knew why . If everyone reported their systemboard part #, the machine type/model of the laptop, their BIOS version, and the LCD model# that would be a starting point.

Okay, here's my Frankenpad experience.... Bought an SXGA+ panel ( http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=47968 ) almost a year before finding just the right T41 to install it into. It was a 2373-8RU labeled system but it previously had the motherboard swapped out from a 2374-SU9. That motherboard FRU is 93P3307. The 32MB ATI Radeon 7500 was able to drive the 14" SXGA+ 93P5570 screen without any problems. The BIOS of the system is 3.23 and the EC is 3.04.

Note that the T42 SXGA+ panel I purchased from pianowizard also came with the proper LCD ribbon cable and inverter. And also that I'm using Windows XP (and not Vista or W7).

[RealBlackStuff]

And Ray's panel is a Samsung LTN141P4-L02, with either P/N 11P8347 or P/N 93P5570, and FRU 11P8348.

[db130]

i was running bios version 3.18 right after the upgrade and for kicks i upgraded to 3.23. sxga+ is working with either version.

so perhaps the theory of the 32MB radeon 7500 being the X factor has some merit.

[ajkula66]

I'm not buying the concept of Radeon 7500 not working with 14" SXGA+...there's something else there that was wrong...

historically:

a) Even the old 16MB version of that card ran 14" SXGA+ on T30 units.

b) 32MB version of the card ran 15" SXGA+ on R40 units, as well as on A31.

empirically:

Many moons ago I threw in an 15" SXGA+ IPS LCD on a friend's T42 base with Radeon 7500. No issues to this day, and we're going back at least solid three years.

Please note that i've never ran W7 or Vista on this card, W2K/WXP/Linux only.

[Eric Giles]

Hate to bump an old post, but I am having the exact same experience with a SXGA+ lid/panel/cable that I purchased from another forum member. I was originally installing it in a T42 with the 32MB Radeon 7500, but must have accidentally blown fuse F7 during the install because no backlights on this screen or the original screen will work on this machine now.

So, I installed it in a T40 with a 16MB Radeon 7500. Sure enough, same problems with the resolution as the original poster had. Installing the latest driver from Lenovo for the Radeon 7500 and the monitor won't fix the issue. However, I also have Linux Mint 9 and Ubuntu 10.10 installed-and the 1400x1050 resolution works perfectly! So, it's definitely not a limitation of the video card and the amount of memory-it has to be something to do with the driver's Windows uses.

Any other thoughts, ideas, or new experiences with this issue?

[rookworm]

I think the issue is either a software driver issue or a problem with the ATI Mobility Radeon 7500's ability to display 1400x1050 native.

Probably the former. I did the same transplant with no snags. Win XP worked perfectly at full resolution with no extra config.

[Eric Giles]

And one more update to this-last night I repaired fuse F7 on my T42 motherboard (Radeon 7500 32MB) that shorted out the first time I tried installing the SXGA+ screen. I put the SXGA+ panel back in, using the same hard drive and Windows XP install that I was using in the T40 (Radeon 7500 16MB) and the resolution in Windows immediately went to the correct 1400x1050 with no panning. So, it seems there might actually be some kind of driver-Radeon 7500 revision/RAM issue with these and driving an SXGA+ screen in Windows. Although the 7500 16MB can support that resolution, for some reason the combination won't in Windows-but will in Linux. Same XP install/driver on the 32MB version works perfectly.

[frankiepankie]

So the bitter truth is: T4x with ATI Radeon 7500 do NOT support SXGA+.

False.

I have a T42 here which i upgraded to SXGA (1400*1050) myself and it works fine with Windows 7

And it definately has an ATi 7500 (32MB)

Unit is not in my possesion right now so i can't look up modelnumbers.

I got the ATi 7500 driver for Windows 7 here on the forum, there was a thread about a modded driver for the ATi 7500 and Win7

[Raceboy]

Update to this topic: I aquired a 15" LG-Philips IPS display from T43 in perfect shape and discovered that it doesn't work properly on T40 Radeon 7500 planar (image is like it is lower than native resolution though windows XP shows it to be 1400x1050 @ 32bit)! Though weird thing is that it works just fine with T43 Intel 900 based board (it shouldn't actually, but it does) and my FireGL T2 equipped T42p.

The "not-working" shows up already in POST screen and appears like every other vertical pixel column is not working.
Throw it into another T4x planar with different GPU and all is just fine. Of course, the other, 14.1 XGA panel works just ok with this R7500 based board and it doesn't have any defects.

The problematic board has 32MB of VRAM, latest BIOS, just for reference.

[AbsoluteRaleigh]

Holy cow, I can't believe people are still debating this on here!

Sometime next week I'll test a 14" SXGA on a few different 7500 boards and see what happens. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, I can't remember what the deal is but as a rule of thumb I'll typically only use SXGA on 9000 or better boards & XGA on a 7500 board.

I've never seen one, but supposedly IBM did ship a few rare models from the factory with an ATI75000 & a 14" SXGA, check these out: 2373-KFU, 2378-R5U. There are others, too.

I'll come back with some more info here sometime so that we can put an end to this!

[kge420]

I am following this and am curious to see if there is a definitive answer. I'm thinking about swapping out my XGA for a higher resolution screen. My system information:


Product: ThinkPad T40 2373-47U

Operating system: XP Pro SP3

Original description: P M 1.5GHz, 512MB RAM, 40GB 5400rpm HDD, 14.1 XGA(1024x768) TFT LCD, 32MB ATI Radeon 7500, 24x-8x DVD(slim), Modem(CDC), 1Gb Ethernet(LOM), Intel 802.11b Wireless(MPCI), Secure Chip(TCPA), UltraNav, 6 cell battery, WinXP Pro

This machine runs well and now has a 1.8 Dothan, 2gb ram. It does suffer from the USB 1.1 issue.
Thanks, Keith

[agarza]

I'm now confused!

I always though a 7500 planar wouldn't take the SXGA+ resolution, or maybe it was the Intel graphics being unable to drive those 1400x1050 pixels.

I bought a T41p with the typical GPU problem cheaply, I reflowed the chip and instantly came to life, I then moved some parts from my dead T42p to the new machine and is working as a dream.

But I still have a spare Banias 1.7GHz, the case from the T42p, fan etc and I'm wondering if is it possible to use the ATI 7500 chip with an SXGA+ display (which I also have)

[ajkula66]

In my limited experience, it does work.

YMMV.

Good luck.

[underclocker]

I've upgraded numerous T40/T41/T42 models with every GPU (7500/9000/9600) without any issues at all.

As many of us recall, even very old A2x machines supported higher resolutions with much less graphics capability.

If the upgrade does not work, I can only suggest that maybe the GPU or another component is failing?

One interesting note - I believe there were 16MB ATI 7500 mobo used outside of the U.S. I recall a reference to them in the HMM. Either way, even a 16MB ATI 7500 GPU should support SXGA+.

[RealBlackStuff]

The T30 all have 16MB ATI-7500 GPU, and all of them can also display SXGA+.

[Raceboy]

I can confirm that some T40-T41 R7500 boards do not support SXGA+ and so far all T42 R7500 boards that I tried supported.

Also, I took a T40p (FireGL 9000 64 MB) board and even though it worked with 14.1 SXGA+ from the factory, it did not work properly with 15" SXGA+ FlexView! And another T43 with Intel video worked OK with the same LG SXGA+ FlexView. Is that weird or what?

By not working I mean that there is image on the display and it is full screen and all but the display looks like when you are not using native resolution of the LCD even though in reality it is!

This issue is not related to the available memory or GPU of the laptop, it seems to be purely courtesy of IBM who crippled some boards not to run certain LCD panels correctly.