I can't get 1600x900 resolution on my external monitor with my new T400

[needatech]

Thanks for reading.  I have a 4 year old Lenovo Thinkpad T60 that has a ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 graphics card that when connected via standard VGA to a HP 2009m widescreen monitor displays the full 1600x900 resolution just fine.  In June my company upgraded me to a new lenovo T400 that has a Mobile Intel(r) 4 Series Express Chipset graphics media accelerator driver.  When I connect to the same external monitor to the T400, the highest resolution I get is 1440x900 and the stretched image is not as sharp.  I've tried going to the display settings in the Windows Control panel and in the graphic window but no luck.  Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

D

[RealStranger]

Hi,

so your notebook only has the integrated intel graphics adapter, no switchable graphics, right?

Greetz!

M.T.

[needatech]

Thanks M.T. Sorry, I don't know what switchable graphics are.  The Intel graphics adapter is GMA 4500MHD and is internal in the laptop.

D

[harryc]

Same problem here with a T500 (Intel GMA 4500) and a Samsung 2033SW. 1600x900 is not possible with analog or digital interfaces. This is very disappointing since I had the same issue on an x200.  

[needatech]

Please let me know if you get solution.  I've spent quite a bit of time with upgrades and downloads for the GMA 4500 that got me nowhere.  Thanks.

[lead_org]

The Intel GPU drivers are notorious for lack of resolution support for 16:9 formats. I don't know whether the driver for the Intel driver is editable to include those odd resolutions. 

[kubird144]

I have an X61 w/ Intel 965 video and recently purchased an hp2009m lcd.  The lcd's native resolution is 1600x900 and I also had trouble getting the display properties to allow the proper native resolution of the external monitor. 

I found this thread on another forum and their solution listed in the first post worked for me.  I'm now happily running my LCD @ 1599x900 which is pretty much indistinguishable from 1600x900.

Just some things to note:

-I used a free program called MonInfo to get my monitor's EDID data

-When using DTD Calc, make sure to set your resolution something other than 1600x900 (e.g. I set mine to 1599x900).  The reason is that it seems the BIOS in these Lenovos are set to block certain resolutions (for reasons unknown), and 1600x900 seems to be one of them.

If you're interested in some of the details, check out this article.

[lead_org]

which BIOS are you on?

[harryc]

@kubird144, my findings with the missing 1600x900 resolution are the same. It appears to be a BIOS block. Intertestingly enough, I also found this statement from Intel. 

http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-004685.htm

[harryc]

@kubird144, I just wanted to report that 1599x900 works for me as well on my T500 with the Intel 4500HD GPU using Moninfo/DTDCalc. My LCD is a Samsung 2033sw. I am experiencing a  bit of fuzziness that I need to work on, but it works. My BIOS is LENOVO 6FET66WW (2.16 ), 4/22/2009