S-video output on R51

[rodgermcliff]

I was trying to use the S-video output on my R31 school laptop (2883-8QU) to a tv and got a poor quality picture. I used the Thinkpad configuration tool to set up the LCD screen and the s-video output. I had a regular s-video cable connected between the laptop and the tv. (I checked the cable with a DVD player and the same tv and it worked fine.) I could see the desktop on the tv but it was lacking color (no chrominance?) and rolling (vertical sync problem?). I was running the 764x1024 on the R31. I had planned to verfiy it with another teacher's laptop but was unable. [One laptop did not have the configuration tool installed and another would not recognize the s-video port in the configuration tool.]

Is there a special cable that I need [IBM is famous for these] or is there a driver update or other software app that I need?

Thanks.

Rodger

[rodgermcliff]

Has anyone successfully output an R51 (or similar) to a tv through the S-video connector and got a good picture on the tv (ignoring the effects of reduced resolution on the tv)? Did you do anything special?

[Neil]

Sounds like you are doing it right. No special cables are needed. My guess would be that one of the pins is bent in the cable. Take some tweezers and straighten it out and the color should come back. Also sometimes you'll have to restart the PC before the color will come back. They don't like getting disconnected then reconnected while still on.

[rodgermcliff]

The cable is good because I unplugged it from the R31 and into a DVD player and it played just fine. I plugged it back into the R31 and it looked the same. My thought is that something is physically wrong with my R31 since no suggested any patches or driver updates.

I will try the idea of rebooting with the cable connected. Thanks.