Matt 2003-07-14 02:59
Hi folks,
I have a Thinkpad T30 with a Dock II, which has a PCI slot in it. I have tried several different video cards to try to get a dual-monitor setup (onboard AGP + the PCI card) with no luck.
Does anybody have a recommendation for a PCI video card that will work well with the Thinkpad T30 to get a dual-monitor setup?
Thanks,
Matt
|
Alessandro Vernet 2003-07-14 06:11
Hi Matt,
I also have a ThinkPad and was considering buying a Dock II so I can use the DVI output on the dock. Of course, as I have a T23, I would have to add a PCI card in the docking station. Could you tell us what card you have tried, and what kind of problem you had?
Alex
|
Matt 2003-07-14 08:43
I have tried 3 different PCI cards in Windows 2000:
1) An old S3-based (circa 1996)
2) Matrox Mystique (1998?)
3) PNY Geforce FX 5200 dual-head
The S3 card wouldn't come up at all.
The Mystique + on-board AGP successfully gave me dual monitors, but at the expense of a LOT of video corruption, mainly on the monitor connected to the Mystique.
The Geforce FX works the best so far, but still "blacks out" for about 3 seconds every once in a while with 1 monitor. With 2 monitors, the corruption is so bad it is unusable. It almost seems like the card is continually "underflowing" its frame buffer.
I wonder if the PCI-to-PCI bridge in the Thinkpad Dock is not very compatible with video cards?
|
ecarlson 2003-07-14 13:30
Do you have the latest BIOS installed on the ThinkPad? That sounds like it could be a timing issue, which could possibly be fixed via a BIOS update.
- Eric www.InvisibleRobot.com
|
Matt 2003-07-15 11:16
Yes, I have the latest BIOS installed on the laptop.. Thanks for the suggestion! It does seem like a timing issue.
Here's another observation: If I set "Hardware acceleration" to "None" (In the Troubleshooting Tab of the Advanced... button), I get no black-outs or corruption. It is a little bit slower, but perhaps bearable!
What does this setting actually do?
Matt
|
Christian Studer 2003-07-15 11:29
If hardware acceleration is disabled, Windows will do the drawing instead of the display driver.
Basically a workaround for bugs in the display driver.
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
|
ecarlson 2003-07-15 14:07
From that test, it sounds like different drivers might help. I also assume you've installed the latest Windows patches via Windows Update.
Does the docking station provide enough power to use the video card's advanced features? Probably, but just a thought.
- Eric www.InvisibleRobot.com
|
Matt 2003-07-16 08:46
Thanks for the suggestions...
1) I installed Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
2) I installed DirectX 9.0 (it's a DX9.0 card, so I thought this might help)
3) I tried old Nvidia drivers (41.09), new ones (44.71), and the latest official ones (44.03).
In between every step, still no luck: the screen still blacks out for a couple seconds whenever there is some activity. And as before, turning off Hardware Acceleration, it works fine.
The power supply may be a problem, since the dock says it is 1.4A * 100V = 144W. However, the laptop can't possibly consume as much power as a desktop, so I don't know that a 250/300W power supply is necessary to drive the Geforce FX 5200.
Does anybody know where I can report a bug in the Nvidia drivers or to PNY?
Matt
|
ecarlson 2003-07-16 11:06
I've contacted PNY via their web site. Go to the support FAQ, then there is a button with each question to contact Tech Support. They usually e-mail back in a day or two.
- Eric www.InvisibleRobot.com
|
Matt 2003-07-16 12:26
Hey folks,
I went back to my old Matrox Mystique, and now it works! I think part of the secret was to not install the full Matrox drivers (it installs some sort of desktop manager)... I just let Windows find my old installation of the Mystique driver, and now dual monitors work fine using the Dock II docking station.
I suppose the problem with the Geforce 5200 FX was perhaps that it was not getting enough power from the somewhat wimpy docking station power supply, as suggested by ecarlson. I have written to PNY about this. I think the power supply is 144W which I thought would be plenty running the card in 2D mode only, but maybe not.
Once again, Matrox is the ultra-dependable video card choice.
p.s. Now I have this working, does anybody have an idea how I can STOP the PCI card to allow me to hot-undock the laptop? I guess it's a longshot, but I hope someone out there knows the answer.
Thanks,
Matt
|
ecarlson 2003-07-17 15:06
Can't you setup a docked and an undocked profile in the OS, and just switch profiles to undock? I haven't actually setup hardware profiles in years, so I don't remember how easy it is.
- Eric www.InvisibleRobot.com
|
Matt 2003-07-22 12:11
You can setup the different docked/undocked profiles (and I do), but you cannot switch between them "live" when the OS is unable to stop the PCI card.
Matt
|
Michael 2003-08-17 06:52
I've had many of the same problems that you've had (T30, Appian Hurricane PCI in Dock II). I've finally changed my BIOS setting so the AGP comes up instead of the PCI. I have spent hours trying to figure out how to do a hot undock, no luck... 'cept for shutting the darn thing off each time.
I also had frequent crashes whenever dragging apps to the second monitor, etc. Random walking through various configs (isn't that how we all waste hours trying to find workoarounds)I finally also stumbled upon turning off ALL graphics acceleration. Lo, the system is now stable. But I was disappointed to hear in the earlier thread in this forum that essentially this circumvents the advantages of having a fast graphics card!
Thank god for forums.
Michael
|
Matt 2003-08-26 07:34
I hope my experience can help other people:
Don't expect to be able to undock if you install a PCI video card in your docking station!
I also discovered the trick of disabling graphics acceleration, though it is quite a bit slower when you do that. I did manage to get my Mystique working well (with all acceleration turned on), when I installed JUST the video driver, and not PowerDesk and all the other assorted Matrox software. However, I'm not keen on shutting down every time I want to remove the laptop from the dock.
Right now I'm trying out the Margi Display-to-Go, and even though I can't get it to hot-plug either, at least I can undock with the DTG still inside the laptop.
I am drooling over this new card though:
http://www.vtbookdd.com
* 32MB DDR memory
* Up to 100Hz refresh rate
* and it says... "Hot plugable" !!
Got to wait until October/November though...
|
