I'm a new T400s owner and I feel like I've been had! 2560 x 1600 does not happen!

Of course, I'm talking about an external display.

Despite having a Display Port...

Despite having the Mini Plus Dock 3 with 2 dual-link DVI ports...

Despite the Lenovo rep telling me that it supports dual-link resolutions...

The most it ever let me even TRY and select was 1680 x 1050.

When I updated the graphics drivers and tried to add a custom resolution: no go, it said that 2560 x 1600 was beyond the maximum bandwidth of the adapter.

I have two Dell 3007WFP-HC monitors... and I'm upset!

Has anyone been able to achieve better resolutions than 1680 x 1050 on an external display, 30-inch or otherwise??

My model: 2808-DHU.

 

Ok, I just got off the phone with a rep who admitted just how ridiculous Lenovo's support policies are.

I purchased the T400s on November 25th and my machine's serial number has not been registered by them as a unit that has been purchased, so they cannot help me until I FAX them a proof of purchase.

After asking him multiple times, he finally says that instead of faxing I can e-mail it. After I start getting ready to send out the e-mail, he says that the person reading it works 9-5 and won't see it until the morning (it's 11 pm right now).

I mean COME ON. He wouldn't escalate the call first without the serial number then not without the warranty being confirmed. I said, dude, the notebook model was announced in June. There's no way on the face of this planet that my T400s could ever be out of warranty (unless it had fallen off a truck). He admitted that the policy was 'ridiculous' but there's nothing he could do about it.

All that said, somewhere in his documentation it did say that the "display port" port did support 2560 x 1600.

Hopefully I can speak to someone with a bit more expertise tomorrow.

 

There's nothing you can do until later today. There's no sense getting worked up over it. The tabook, the ThinkPad Bible, clearly states the max resolution is 2500x1600. I'm sure there's a simple solution.

 

sorry to hear about your customer service experience.
my t500 outputs 1920x1080 via vga fine when it's on the intel card, so in theory you're hardware shouldn't be restricted to 1680x1050.
are you using win7?

 

No Intel graphics processor has ever supported dual-link DVI (to my knowledge). Your T400s has an Intel graphics processor, therefore it can't drive dual-link DVI.

However, there IS a workaround. You have DisplayPort, which does support 2560x1600. Using a DisplayPort to dual-link DVI *active* adapter (passive adapters rely on your laptop's DVI support, which doesn't support dual-link) such as the one from Dell (it's $100), you should be able to drive a 30" monitor at full resolution using the DisplayPort connector. Since your dock has dual DisplayPort connectors, this should allow you to drive both monitors.

Note that you might still run into framebuffer or performance limitations. The GMA X4500MHD doesn't typically push that many pixels, and it's possible that you will see poor performance or even functional issues. It's also possible that things will run just fine, as long as you don't want to run anything in 3D.

 

I will be able to try the different theories once I get into work, but one idea that crossed my mind is this:

The notebook came with 2GB of RAM, and I upgraded it to 4GB. I have been using a 32-bit OS all along. It is possible that the 32-bit addressing limit is preventing enough graphics memory from being allocated, since a majority of that addressing space has been allocated to the RAM alone. This theory is a long shot (and doesn't make too much sense, I will concede!) but I figure I don't have too much to lose.

I thought about the active adapter issue. Can you send me a link to the adapter on the Dell website? Last time I searched on Google about 2 weeks back I couldn't find it in stock anywhere.

However, the Mini Dock Plus 3 I purchased (top-of-the-line) is spec'd to have 2 dual-link DVI ports. Neither of those delivered, so far.

I will report back once I have some news.

Thanks for the feedback thus far!

 

Are you sure you are actually using a dual-link DVI cable?

No dual-link cable, no 2560x1600..

 

150% sure

I managed to find the active display port to dvi-d converters on Dell's website and ordered a pair which might arrive tomorrow morning. I will post back results as soon as I'm able to.

 

Well folks, the *Active* Display port to Dual Link DVI adapter from Dell did the trick. But I could only get it to work with dual displays in XP, not Windows 7.

So, I'm a happy camper, though I wish I didn't have to spend an extra $200 to get my set up running optimally.

Thanks everyone for your feedback.

 

@waqqas31, do you have any idea if that will work with Linux (I'm running Ubuntu 9.10 32-bit)? Also, any idea why it didn't work on Windows 7?

 

I output 1920x1080 on my three year old T60! Not sure why your newer hardware cant drive more than WSXGA+

 

its all software problems.