Video issue with E6400 + Dell 2208WFP

Today my laptop lease on my dependable, though extremely slow D620 ended, and my company switched me over to a shiny new E6400. Overall it's been an improvement since the mobile performance, responsiveness, and battery life are so much better, though I have one nagging issue with the video performance.

For some reason, the higher-ups in my company decided that the discrete NVIDIA graphics card was too expensive and got us integrated intel graphics. Last I checked this was a $70 option, so I can see the cost savings when multiplied by 3000+ units, though what really gets me is they felt we really needed the $50 backlit keyboard option instead.

Anyway, back to my issue, I have a Dell 2208WFP that I used to connect to my D620 beautifully (with the Quadro NVS Gfx), now with the E6400, I get a subtle, yet annoying flicker on screen at all resolutions. Refresh rate was defaulted to 59 Mhz, so my first thought was to increase that, though I quickly discovered that the intel GMA 4500HD doesn't support anything higher than 59. Next I updated Dell video drivers, no change there.

I am currently connected with an analog vga cable, so I'm thinking that could be a possible root cause, though I never had this issue with the D620 with analog or digital.

Has anyone run across a problem like this before? Any possible fixes? Or is this just a shortcoming of the graphics hardware and I should try to argue for a hardware change? (- keyboard bling, + gfx goodness)

 

First off, the Intel card is more than capable for business performance. That is not an issue. However, the keyboard might be useful for some, or they got a really good deal on it...who knows.

Anyway, I don't put much stock into VGA connections anymore...they are analog signals that are not always interpreted correctly (as you can see). It is possible that the 2208WFP isn't 100% able to handle the signal properly, or the E6400 might not output the signal perfectly. Who knows, and you'll spend more than $70 of troubleshooting trying to find out. I'd switch to DVI.

 

Thanks for the fast answer, I guess I'll have to go down that route then. I can't really go with a port replicator option to get the DVI out though since my company laptop has an extended battery on it which probably gets in the way of the dock connectors though I'm not 100% sure of this...

The other problem I see is that with the E6400 itself, the only other output is the displayport connection. I found an adapter for displayport -> DVI online for about $15, will this be a good fix or just cause other video issues?

 

Trust me, the dock does work with the extended battery. It does not work with the 2nd battery, but if you have the 9-cell like I do it will work. I have the dock .

The DisplayPort output is certainly a cheaper alternative that will work perfectly fine as far as I know. However, I find docking stations to be very useful little buggers and I say go for that.

 

yeah, I know what you mean about the docks, I had a used one I got off of ebay for my D620 that only cost $20, the new E series docks are hard to find for $70 (without the AC 90 watt power). If I can find some used ones I'd certainly invest in one again.

 

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