T61 14", Terrible display/font quality. Is it Drivers??

[cognus]

I have to say, of all the laptops/netbooks/notebooks I've had or dealt with, the T61 has the worst looking fonts/text etc display of all.  Its so bad I cannot figure out what exactly is making it such and I'm a pretty good tech.

so I come here seeking help from those similarly afflicted.  is there something about the intel graphics that just cannot be remedied on this system, or is it the display panel itself?  no matter what I try, the fonts & text always looks pixelated and inconsistent in color and sharpness [lack thereof, rather].

i tried pulling later graphics drivers directly from intel but by common conspiracy with the maker, driver package will not install and does not leave the driver files themselves unpacked so I could force it.

what to do??

yes its running Windows Vista Basic - ugghh..

[PoPSiCLe]

This is not normal, and something is defective - be it drivers, the LCD-panel, the GFX-chip, or something else entirely.

Have you checked to see if it's running its native resolution? If the wrong resolution is applied, it will look pixelated.

Which model T61 is it you have? It's in the form 8895-CTO (similar, not the same necessarily).

Which resolution is the native one for your screen?

I've owned a 4:3 14" T61 for quite some time, and even though I replaced the original 1024x768 screen with a 1400x900 screen, that was just to get the resolution up, nothing to do with bad graphics or garbled display.

A few more details about the computer and your settings would help.

PS! Have you turned on ClearType?

[cognus]

type 6465-CTO

set to 1280x800 32-bit which I believe is native.  I have the fonts currently at 120% but nothing I've tried in that regard actually looks good, just varying shades of bad.

there are no dead spots or bright spots in the panel, but like where I'm working now in a Google chrome window, the address line in the address bar is partly black, partly gray - i see that sort of thing everywhere.

images, on the other hand, look pretty normal as do videos - at least flash like on youtube.  

but text in either browser or in notepad, wordpad, all the windows controls, etc all look pitiful

[TuuS]

I own several of these too, and even the lowest resolution screens look great. The integrated Intel graphics processor also does a great job, it won't have the same performance as the nVidia models, but they are very reliable. 

Definitely tell us exactly what model you have, four numbers followed by three numbers/letters. If the last three are CTO or CTR, then we won't be able to look up the specs because they are configure to order, but you can look up the parts yourself using the serial number, or if you want you can send me the serial privately (don't post in forum) and I'll look it up.

[cognus]

i gave the model above

6465CTO

intel 965 chipset/graphics

I'm going to update the core chipset drivers. I read the readme and don't see any significant changes technically, just added more models to the list.

per the first tip above, i used the cleartype tuner activex w/ie9 to fine tune ct and it did help a little.

[zoltanthegypsy]

I think you're already past this point, but double check that you are running at native res.  There were several options for the '61:

14.1-inch XGA (1024 x 768 resolution) TFT display
14.1-inch SXGA+ (1400x1050 resolution) TFT display
14.1-inch WXGA (1280 x 800 resolution) TFT display
14.1-inch WXGA+ (1440 x 900 resolution) TFT display

My 14" T61 is 1440x900 and looks just fine.

Z.

[cognus]

this is not a 900p display.  base model and yes its at the native res

[TuuS]

One of my systems is the 14.1" widescreen with 1280x800 and it has a beautiful screen. I also had a 15.4" with 1280x800 as my main laptop for years. It has a much less DPI quality, but even it looked good by any standard.

I can't imagine what could be so bad about yours to be described as looking that bad, can you post some photos of it?

[goretsky Community Moderator]

Hello,

Perhaps a software component of some sort is missing.

Have you run Microsoft Update to update the installation of Windows Vista Basic with the latest Service Pack and hot fixes?  What about downloading and running the ThinkVantage System Update program from Lenovo to install any missing ThinkPad T61-specific drivers and software?

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[cognus]

its ok guys. i think the last display driver update may have helped, and/or the last chipset driver. and as I said the cleartype fine tune definitely helped.
I'm moving on to a vista issue! some process just slams the disk at first startup for like five to seven minutes and so far I can't find which it is. other than that one remaining issue, she's working swell