R61i, docking station and DVI pass-through

[sebwaw]

Hello guys,

I was supposed to buy the Thinkpad Advanced docking station (2503) for my R61i hoping to get the digital signal between my external 22" monitor and laptop. The external monitor is now connected via VGA . Yet, I found some information on the Lenovo website saying that Thinkpad R61i with an intergrated graphic card doesn't support DVI pass-through . Link: http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... 72148.html .
The same model , however, but 14" supports DVi pass-through . Can anyone here explain why is that ? Is there any different way of getting the digital signal between my laptop and the external monitor ? Thanks for any help

[dr_st]

Yet, I found some information on the Lenovo website saying that Thinkpad R61i with an intergrated graphic card doesn't support DVI pass-through.
The same model , however, but 14" supports DVi pass-through . Can anyone here explain why is that ?

Short answer - because Lenovo decided to make it this way and simply did not add the circuitry to wire DVI signals to the docking connector on the 15" R61i. Why? It's a mystery. But in general, with the R61 and R400/500 series, Lenovo has taken very different paths with the 14" and 15" models. The 14" being very very close to the T series in terms of size, thickness, weight, case materials and hardware capabilities, while the 15" becoming even more of a "budget" model. They use different materials, are thicker and heavier, used different system boards with cheaper components (no DVI, Broadcom LAN instead of Intel, some of them don't have touchpads/docking station connector).

No idea why Lenovo chose this way, but I guess they were just experimenting with the R series, trying to find a niche for it, before eventually cancelling it altogether (as seems the case now).

Is there any different way of getting the digital signal between my laptop and the external monitor ? Thanks for any help

Well, if you are getting the Advanced Dock (not mini-dock), you can buy a low-profile external PCI-e video card with a DVI port for it, and use that to connect to the external monitor.

[sebwaw]

Well, if you are getting the Advanced Dock (not mini-dock), you can buy a low-profile external PCI-e video card with a DVI port for it, and use that to connect to the external monitor.

Thanks for the answer. Could you elaborate on a low-profile external PCI-e video card ? I'm a little clueless in this department

By the way, I found a High-Speed Docking Station by Belkin http://www.belkin.com/highspeeddock/ . Do you have any idea of the dock ? Does it support DVI pass-through between an external monitor and laptop like mine?

[sebwaw]

By the way, I found a High-Speed Docking Station by Belkin http://www.belkin.com/highspeeddock/ . Do you have any idea of the dock ? Does it support DVI pass-through between an external monitor and laptop like mine?

Ok, I've found that the maximum resolution supported by the dock is 1600 x1200 so it won't work

[dr_st]

I do not consider USB "docks" to be true docking solutions, and most certainly would hate passing video over USB (even though it is possible and actually works OK if you don't try to do anything high bitrate).

[sebwaw]

I do not consider USB "docks" to be true docking solutions, and most certainly would hate passing video over USB (even though it is possible and actually works OK if you don't try to do anything high bitrate).

As far as I know It's not an USB dock, but it's connected via Expresscard . Nevermind.

Could you tell me something more about low-profile external video cards ( some examples for laptops) that I could use to get digital signal in the advanced dock station? Does it really work ? Thanks

[RealBlackStuff]

This thread should give you a fair bit of info: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=82773
It's for a T61, which is a very close sibling of the R61.

[dr_st]

As far as I know It's not an USB dock, but it's connected via Expresscard

You're right, I didn't notice. This is actually refreshing and nice. And it has its own surround sound card in it. Definitely an interesting solution.