I have an IBM ThinkPad Z61t laptop with Intel 945 Express Chipest - it does not have an DVI connector at the back of my laptop. However, my Docking station has DVI connector but when I connected with a DVI cable between the back of the docking station and my Monitor. My laptop will not see the Monitor is connected but if I switch back with the VGA cable then everything is a “OK”. My question is that - is this because my graphic card does not support DVI? Will the Plugable UGA-2K-A USB 2.0 allow my laptop to connect the monitor with DVI? I was told that DVI will display much “better” picture than the regular VGA connection. I can have display up to 2048 by 1536 with my VGA cable but it just not as clear as I wanted. - Thanks for your help
Hi Gary,
Many thanks for your question.
After doing some research it seems that some ThinkPads are having issues with the DVI connector on their docking stations. Have a look at these forums:
In page 2 of this, somebody actually suggests it’s a BIOS setting to turn DVI on. I would also recommend calling the IBM support line to talk to them about this issue.
To answer your question, using the Plugable UGA-2K-A USB 2.0 you’ll be able to connect your monitor using the DVI connection. As far as the better picture quality is concerned using DVI, some people are reporting a much crisper image and others report no difference, so there’s no clear answer.
From the laptop model you have given us, we cannot really tell it’s hardware specifications. Generally for the USB2.0 Graphics Adapters a dual core processor is recommended, as this places quite some stress on your CPU.
Hope this helps!
Please let us know if there’s any other questions we can help you with!
Regards,