When I get my thinkpad back from the hospital (tomorrow, unless something else goes wrong), I'll see if I can't probe the video a little more. The W500 has two video chips, an Intel gma and ATI radeon. Might be able to dig into it some, maybe.
I am coming to the conclusions that next to CPUs, video systems are the most problematic in the electronics world today. But, chances are you aren't going to see this much, and if in a year+ from now your X300 needs a new systemboard you might well get a new rev of the video chip which fixes it and then you'll never be able to prove that there ever was a problem, causing close relatives to question your sanity. ;-) --STeve Andre' Quoting "Rosen, Robert (NIH/NIAMS) [E]" <[email protected]>: > Steve, a problem with the graphics chip was my first thought. But it > seemed ok in safe mode. But you could be right in that safe mode > sets it to standard VGA while a regular login tries for the high > resolution (1440x900) that it was set at and the chip goes bonkers. > > What's really interesting is that it set to 4 bit color which is not > a setting it normally shows. Of course, in Windows, the minimum > setting is 800x600. > > You're right in that I don't know of any way to find the Intel > graphics chip stepping. All I can find is the video BIOS is 1736.2. > ________________________________ > Robert Rosen > > Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail > > >> Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:51:25 -0400 >> From: [email protected] >> Subject: Re: [Thinkpad] Thinkpad wierdness >> To: "Rosen, Robert (NIH/NIAMS) [E]" <[email protected]> >> Cc: "'[email protected]'" <[email protected]> >> Message-ID: <[email protected]> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 >> >> Quoting "Rosen, Robert (NIH/NIAMS) [E]" <[email protected]>: >> >> > I just had the weirdest problem on my X301.? I logged in and the >> > resolution was changed to 640x480, 4 bit color.? Going into screen >> > properties, I changed it back to high resolution, 32 bit color, but >> > it wouldn't change.? And the screen still thought it was at the high >> > resolution because only a little bit of the screen could be seen >> > (i.e., a 640x480 chunk out of the high resolution). >> > >> > Rebooted several times including turning the machine off but the >> > problem was still there on a regular log in (safe mode seemed ok).? >> > Reloaded the video driver.? Deleted the video devices and let it >> > reboot and find them.? Reinitialized the BIOS.? Nothing fixed it. >> > >> > Finally said restore to an earlier restore point.? Got an error >> > message saying couldn't execute the restore point.? But then after >> > that error, it was fixed. >> > >> > Anyone ever seen anything like that?? Or know what I did to fix it? >> >> I believe I know whats going on, and its related to the intel gma video >> chip.? You have a highly intermttant problem in the video, one which will >> successfully resit testing and proving that it really is a problem.? It is >> unlikely that this will happen often, but may happen again some weeks >> to years from now.? It would be very interesting to see what the stepping >> is on the chip, to help track that down.? I don't think you can >> probe that in >> software(?).? I know of this happening to one other person who was >> perplexed enough that he took his Windows disk out and booted either >> Lunix or a BSD varient and saw the problem.? After stuffing the Windows >> disk back in it corrected itself and that was that.? It's been >> perfect since. >> >> I would be really interested in hearing if this happens again, or if >> Lenovo comes up with someting on this. >> >> --STeve Andre' >> >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Thinkpad mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad >> >> >> End of Thinkpad Digest, Vol 79, Issue 15 >> **************************************** > _______________________________________________ Thinkpad mailing list [email protected] http://stderr.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/thinkpad
