[ltp] Thinkpad i1230

[Thomas R. Dean]

Date sent:      	Sat, 19 Aug 2000 20:29:36 -0700
From:           	James Mckenzie <os2support@theriver.com>
To:             	linux-thinkpad@www.bm-soft.com
Subject:        	Re: [ltp] Thinkpad i1230
Send reply to:  	linux-thinkpad@www.bm-soft.com

> > My questions have to do with X.  The screen is
> > a 13" 800x600 HPA screen. It is not a TFT (or at least
> > they do not advertise it as such).  I'm not sure what
> > the technology is. The screen is fine for my purposes.
> > 
> 
> I would definately pick a TFT screen over a DSTN/HPA, but if the screen
> meets your needs...

I have high end desktop machines at home and at work
(A research company specializing in Legacy Code Issues).
In this part of Canada the lowest end laptop with a TFT
screen of any reasonable size is $2500. Getting other
reasonable options such as reasonable base memory
puts the price up around $2800.  A laptop is not
worth that much to me.  Most of my work is on the
desktops anyways. The laptop is for running the projector
in class, for hacking while on vacation and for running
astronomy softare in the field (Astronomy is a hobby).

> > ...

> > My questions are:
> > 
> >   1. Are there any restrictions on the frequencies that
> >      will be accepted by the HPA screen.  Older CRT
> >      monitors could be damaged by out of spec
> >      frequencies. Do I have to worry about this with
> >      the HPA screen? I'm not sure to what extent the
> >      TFT scan rates are applicable to HPA screens.
> 
> I know that the TFT will NOT work with a refresh rate of over 60Hz on
> either a 760ED or 600E.  I would suspect that this is true with the HPA
> as they both use the same 'driver' board.

This is the info I was looking for. Can anyone else out there confirm
James' suspicion? Do you know if there is a lower bound on
the refresh?  I'll narrow my range to 55-60 in the X config file.

> > 
> >   2. If the external monitor is hooked up when I start X,
> >       everything is fine. However, if i use Fn-F4 to switch
> >       while X is running, the external monitor (Komodo)
> >      goes out of range (the leds on the front blink back
> >      and fourth) and when the LCD comes back on, it is
> >      in a wierd mode which flickers, is double interflaced,
> >      and X locks up. Ctrl-Backspace stops X and
> >      everything is fine.  X can be restarted at that point
> >      and everything is fine again. While I don't expect to
> >      be switching, the behaviour was unexpected.
> >      Why would it change scan rates?
> 
> What are you trying to state here?  If you start with your system set to
> use the external monitor and you switch away from it, the monitor goes
> "nuts" or that when you switch from the LCD panel to the monitor, the
> monitor fails to sync and when you switch back that the LCD screen lost
> sync too and you have to 'crash' X to restore the settings?

I start in text mode with both the display on both the panel and the
monitor. Everything is fine.  I start X. Everything is fine.  This is
the mode I will be using for class and astronomy club
presentations. Out of curiosity, I cycled Fn-F4 several times.
On all subsequent stages were the CRT is supposed to be active,
the crt is blank, and the 5 leds on the front flash back and fourth
indicating video out of range (Komodo monitor). When the lcd
panel is supposed to be active, it is flickering madly and although
the cursor moves, the  menus in GNOME do not pop up.
Ctrl-Backspace takes it back to text mode and both monitors are
fine. startx again and everything is fine.

> If it is the latter, this might be a limitation of the monitor and it is
> 'feeding back' to the external monitor port and setting the system to an
> unsupported mode for the LCD screen and when switched back, the LCD
> cannot sync because the vertical sync is higher than 60Hz...

I was just curious. I won't be cycling the monitors again.

> The solution is to hard lock X for 60Hz at 800x600.

The X server complains that there is no mode line that satisfies
60Hz.  That is why I had to broaden the range. The server claims
it used a 800x600 range with a dot clock of 40.0. I'm not sure
how to translate that back to which particular mode line was
used other than commenting groups of mode lines
out until the message changes.

> > ...
> 
> I need to update my Geek block and lost the location for it.

http://www.geekcode.com/geek.html

The geek decoder page (if you are interested) is at:

http://www.ebb.org/ungeek/

Thanks..

Tom.

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