W540 + Dock + Dual U28D590 (UHD) monitors [ Edited ]

[adante]

Hi,

I have a W540 dock previously driving 2xDell U3011 monitors. It worked okay (there were problems with the U3011 going into a sleep-freeze-hell mode but from what I could gather it was more a problem with the U3011 firmware).

I've just upgraded (or tried to) to 2xSamsung U28D590 UHD monitors. This does not appear to work well at all. I've experienced the following symptoms in the following conditions:

(excuse bullet point formatting - cannot figure out how to nest bullet points)

1. One monitor plugged in - either monitor, on either display port - works fine. Monitor goes to native, laptop lcd goes to native.
2. Both monitors plugged in, Laptop open - I can drive ONE of the D590's to the native (3840x2160) resolution. The other monitor connects at 1024x768. Any attempt to change resolution on this one gives the ambiguous "Unable to save display settings" error.
      Any attempt to disconnect the laptop screen in the screen configuration also gives the "Unable to save display settings" error.
3. Both monitors plugged in, laptop closed
      Ths initial state here is glitchy. The screen config thinks both screens are on, but only one is actually showing anything. It is also periodically flickering (the screen goes dark, for maybe a tenth of a second) as if it is in a lower-power configuration, and as far as I can tell this is happening consistently at 1hz. I haven't run this for long because I am afraid it is doing damage to the monitor.
      After some tinkering I can get both screens to show at 2560x1440. Any attempt to push either screen to native simply causes the screen to flicker and the "Do you want to keep these display settings?" prompt to come up - however the screens remain at 2560x1440. 

Has anybody else had any experience with trying to drive 2 UHD monitors? I'm really hoping I haven't just wasted a lot of money.

I'm happy to not use the laptop LCD if that is necessary. I would try discrete only BIOS mode but this has been removed for reasons beyond my understanding.

My configuration:

Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1

• W540
     - 20BGCTO1WW.
     - Bios version GNET60WW (2.08). I know the BIOS is old - the laptop originally shipped with 2.09 - but I had all manner of hellish problems getting my RAM to work (see http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/W540-with-G-Skill-F3-1866C10D-16GRSL/td-p/1459... and ended up downgrading. I've checked the BIOS changelog and nothing seems to relate to this issue so I have avoided upgrading for the moment to avoid the risk of bricking my laptop
     - 2880x1620 LCD
     - Quadro K2100M - drivers 9.18.13.1269
     - Intel HD Graphics drivers 10.18.10.3910
• Dock 40A20135AU (yes, the 135W dock - I was told on these forums this was okay, and indeed is the unit shipped/recommended for the W540 by Lenovo Australia).
     - I believe I've upgraded the firmware available from here http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/pd028011 . I'm not 100% because after running it, it showed a progress box for flashing which disappeared and there was no confirmation prompt.

[ColonelONeill]

Have you tried setting the graphics option to Advanced mode in BIOS?

[adante]

Thanks for the suggestion. Switched to advanced mode still does not let me drive it at native. Infact it removes the option entirely. Now the highest resolution it can go to is 2560x1440.

Actually that isn't strictly correct. When I first booted there was a lot of faffing about to get the screens showing anything. At first I had the first D590 screen at native and the other D590 screen at 640x480. It would not let me change the resolution of the other one at all (so stuck at 640x480). After dropping the first to 2560x1440, and hitting apply, it would then allow me to set the second to 2560x1440 as well. But the option for 3840x2160 has now disappeared.

[ColonelONeill]

Just noticed that your K2100M drivers are more than a little old. Try 344.65:
http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/344.65/344.65-desktop-win8-win7-winvista-64bit-international-w...

Also, are you hooking both monitors up by DisplayPort?

[adante]

I have avoided latest video drivers due to this issue: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/W540-laptop-display-does-not-enable-after-wake...

But will give them a go anyway. Downloading now - will post later with results

[pdth]

I have this configuration working, using two Thinkvision Pro2840m monitors, at their native resolution of 3840x2160. I have Windows 8.1 Pro 64. Both monitors are connected via the Displayport connectors on the dock. It was a little flaky until I updated the monitor drivers. The generic pnp Windows drivers won't go up to this resolution, but the Lenovo driver works. These monitors are truly beautiful.

Wish I had more knowledge of this to help you, but at least I can confirm that it does work. I wonder if it might be worth installing the Thinkvision Pro2840m driver, even though you have a different model of monitor?

[adante]

Colonel, just realised I didn't answer your previous question - yes, I am driving both monitors from display port cables.

I've updated the NVIDIA Drivers to 9.18.13.1269. Unfortunately this hasn't made a difference (well, it has broken wake from sleep again, but it has not helped)

I've also installed the monitor drivers but this also has not made a difference unfortunately.

ptdh thanks for the information. The fact that I was able to drive a single monitor at 3840x2160 makes me suspect something else is afoot. Not entirely sure if the Pro2840m drivers would work at all on my monitor or even a good idea - from what I understand they are different panels?

Maybe there's just better inherent support in Win8 because of the drive for retina level everything. At the moment unfortunately I don't have time to go and install Win8 on a test drive just to check this.

I have a suspicion it might be a problem more with the Intel side of things thanks to the convoluted optimus display. But sadly I cannot force discrete at a low level because in their infinite wisdom Lenovo have removed that option from the BIOS.

Also tried installing the Intel drivers (not sure if the correct ones - here https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=23764&lang=eng&ProdId=3319) but unfortunately due to the usual OEM/Vendor faffery they won't install on my system. 

If anyone else has more input (any official comment from Lenovo rep? I have emailed support but it's been radio silence so far)

[ColonelONeill]

Does 344.65 work? Or at least fix wake issues?

You can force the integrated graphics driver to install by using Device Manager and Have Disk.

[adante]

344.65 works as in I can drive dual WQXGA displays. But I still cannot get the dual FHD. I still cannot drive the D690 at the UHD4K resolution.

I consider it a regression because

• suspend/resume seems to have gotten worse (although recently this may have stabilised, so not sure if there was another confounding factor)
• the discrete graphics driver is incredibly aggressive in kicking in now, so discrete graphics is constantly being used. Where previously the 'NVIDIA GPU Activity' tray tool would only display sensible seeming things, now it always shows 2 displayport connections in the 'used programs' list (bit odd in and of itself) and also a bunch of programs it did not previously consider as worthy of GPU acceleration (in pic below, visual studio and thunderbird).

[adante]

Correction - the displayport connetions using discrete GPU was caused by setting the display mode to "advanced" in the BIOS.

As this did not help me in being able to run 4k FHD resolution I've disabled it.