|
Dual Monitors on Thinkpad A20p/A22p in Windows XP |
|
|
|
Written by Brian Crumrine
|
|
Wednesday, 29 March 2006 |
When I purchased my Thinkpad A20P, I had no idea that it could support DualView or desktop extending. I first found out the video card could do it when I installed Linux on my machine - I purchased some drivers from www.xig.com - they worked wonderfully and I could extend my Xwindows desktop onto two monitors - that kept me running Linux on my Thinkpad for a long time because as far as I knew it couldn't be done in Windows.
I upgraded to Windows XP Professional with the hopes that the "new" display dirvers would support desktop extending. But it did not, and I did like the user interface for Windows XP a little better than the Gnome setup I was using at the time in Linux. This made me switch back and forth frequently between the operating systems. Finally, I started using WiFi and it was a real pain to use in the version of Linux I was running, this prompted me to find a solution to get dual displays running in Windows XP on my Thinkpad - everyone (including IBM told me it wasn't possible) - now I was out to prove them wrong. Because I could do it in Linux, I was determined to make it work in Windows.
So I started reading on the ATI site (my A20p had an ATI Mobility 128). As it turns out, the reference drivers have dual monitor capabilities, but you cannot install the reference drivers because it's an IBM card. I could not fake it into leaving the drivers on my machine at all - it erased them as soon as it found the IBM card. OK, so it is possible, but not with IBM drivers.
I found that Dell uses a similar video card in their systems and supports dual monitors. Dell isn't as strick as the ATI reference drivers. With a little fiddling, I had dual monitors working on my Thinkpad using the Dell Mobility M3 drivers.
There are a few little gottchas though:
- sometimes the screens will black out in powersaving or standby mode - this is usually solvable by going back into standby and back out - or pressing ctrl-alt-delete at the startup screen (not to reboot).
- I have best luck running 16-bit color depth, if you use 32-bit, sometimes the second monitor will change resolutions. This is probably due to the lack of memory on the video card.
- Sometimes I experience what I call "screen flutter" where if the computer was resumed from standby after being used as a single screen device. My laptop's default mode is to have both monitors on - so the second displays the same as the first, but the LCD flickers something fierce. In order to fix this, I have to turn on the monitor/desktop expansion, I have found no way around this.
- My A20p had a thin green line running down the right hand side of the LCD when running in dual monitor mode - this happened in both Linux and Windows. This was also happened after IBM replaced my LCD (three times) so I figured it was the card and I was stuck with it.
I recently had the opportunity to upgrade my machines to an A22p with a 1600x1200 LCD (awesome). It will work with the same drivers I used on the A20p. So now I run a 21" monitor at 1600x1200 next to my laptop screen running at 1600x1200. Now that's a great sized desktop!
Let me know if you have questions or are able to do this for yourself. |
|
Last Updated ( Sunday, 02 April 2006 )
|
