thinkpad t43 won't do widescreen resolutions

[magreen]

hi

I just bought a 21" emachines e211h widescreen 1920x1080 lcd monitor. I'm trying to use it from the vga port on my ibm thinkpad t43 laptop, but the laptop won't show any widescreen resolutions at all. The best I can get is 1440x1050, which is not even close and looks terrible.
Even when I uncheck the hide the resolutions my monitor can't display checkbox, it doesn't show any widescreen resolutions.

I tried changing the drivers, I found drivers to download. I even tried powerstrip. It makes me define a custome resolution in powerstrip, though it can read the monitor's resolution from EDID, and says I'll have to reboot and see if the graphics adapter accepted the new resolution. And after reboot, no change.

This is really frustrating me! Help!

update 12-22: see below

 

[corkyg]

The T43 has a native resolution of 1440x1050. It can't produce more than that. It is not a wide screen laptop.

 

[magreen]

The T43 has a native resolution of 1440x1050. It can't produce more than that. It is not a wide screen laptop.

um, ok, let me clarify.
this is a t43 with the intel 915gm chipset. It's an older one.

As for not being able to produce, it can do 1600x1200, 2560x18.., etc. to its vga output. It just doesn't show any widescreen resolutions.
Those are supposed to show up when I plug in a widescreen monitor. But they don't.

 

[corkyg]

That's because it does not have a widescreen display. If it is capable of widescreen it would be selectable. BTW - how does it know you've connected a widescreen monitor? VGA is not widescreen anyway. Is it not possible to display 4x3 format on your widescreen external?

You can try this approach:

http://forums.entechtaiwan.com/index.php?topic=4068.0

 

[magreen]

update:

sorry corkyg, I don't think you're giving me good advice. but thanks for trying.

I tried plugging in my desktop's widescreen monitor, which is a 1680x1050 Acer, to my laptop and it worked perfectly, no hassle at all. It instantly had the 1680x1050 option as well as other widescreen settings available.

Then I tried plugging in the new emachines 1920x1080 monitor to my desktop, and that worked perfectly, too. It instantly had the 1920x1080 setting available in settings and worked like a charm.

So the issue is the emachines monitor somehow not talking to my laptop and telling it what it needs.

The desktop happens to be a dvi cable whereas the laptop is of course a dsub cable. I doubt that has anything to do with it, but thought I'd throw that out there.

anyone else with any thoughts on this?

 

[corkyg]

The cable has a lot to do with it, and the fact that you are connecting to VGA out. VGA is only 4x3 format.

 

[magreen]

The cable has a lot to do with it, and the fact that you are connecting to VGA out. VGA is only 4x3 format.

no, as I said above, the laptop's vga out worked perfectly for 1680x1050 which is 16:10, not 4x3.

 

[AsianriceX]

Hmm, looks more complicated than I thought.

Take a look at this and see if it helps:
http://forums.entechtaiwan.com/index.php?topic=4068.0

 

[corkyg]

That procedure is worth a shot.

 

[yhelothar]

I have a thinkpad X41 that also contains the intel 915 graphics and also had issues running widescreen resolutions.
There is a solution to this, with intel's IEGD drivers
http://edc.intel.com/Software/Downloads/IEGD/#overview

It doesn't seem to work as well as the standard drivers though. It doesn't support intel control panel, therefore no extended desktop view nor screen rotation.
Although there does seem to be a much more updated driver now than the last I've tried at 5.0.

edit: hmm just read your update.. this is a bit of a different issue than I thought. My laptop doesn't give wide screen options regardless of what monitor is connected. But I'd still give the IEGD drivers a shot.

 

[magreen]

thanks for the updates, y'all. I'll give them a look later on today when I get the chance.

 

[yhelothar]

whoops, I just tried the 10.2.2 and it does not seem to work. I get a blank screen after i reboot from installing the drivers.
Try the 5.1 IEGDs as recommended by the link provided by AsianriceX