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Forums -> Multiple monitors -> ThinkPad Advanced Dock & PCI-e graphics
John Kiser   2007-12-05 01:00
I am the owner of a Lenovo ThinkPad T61 laptop computer which has an internal NVidia Quadro NVS 140M graphics card. I purchased this laptop along with the ThinkPad Advanced Dock which offers a PCI-e graphics slot for the purpose of adding multiple monitors.

However, I have still not found a single PCI-e graphics card that will work in the dock. I have tried both the NVidia Quadro NVS 440 and the ATI FireMV 2400. Both cards fit in the dock perfectly, but the laptop will not boot to Windows when the cards are in the dock. There appears to be some sort of hardware conflict which prevents booting.

I have been in contact with Lenovo and got so frustrated that I resorted to asking them the most basic, point-blank question I could think of.

"Has any person at Lenovo ever witnessed a T61 laptop work in conjunction with the Advanced Dock and a PCI-e graphics card? If so, which card was it?"

They could not answer the simple question, which is distrubing. They are selling the Advanced Dock yet no one can confirm that the Dock actually does the very thing it was designed to do.

I am still awaiting a list of approved graphics cards from Lenovo.

Does anyone here know anything about the ThinkPad Advanced Dock and compatible PCI-e graphics cards?
ecarlson   2007-12-15 06:44
I don't have that laptop, but I would still like to hear what happens, so please keep us posted.

- Eric, www.InvisibleRobot.com
John Kiser   2007-12-23 23:04
You can reference my troubleshooting here:

http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/message?board.id=T_Series_Thinkpads&thread.id=41


Bottom line is that the T61 & Advanced Dock will not work with any PCI Express graphics cards. I have now tested three cards, and two OS environments. Nothing will work.

Lenovo has updated their documentation on the Advanced Dock which now states the T61 is not compatible with their PCIx graphics card.

View newly updated documentation here, as of 2007-12-12.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-61232



Anyone looking for a laptop capable of displaying more than 2 external monitors should not purchase the Lenovo Advanced Dock. It does not work.
Forums -> Multiple monitors -> ThinkPad Advanced Dock & PCI-e graphics

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