Don't make the mistake I made (new laptop)

[Giles Orr]

On 29 August 2012 21:05, Tyler Aviss <tjaviss-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Aug 29, 2012 5:49 PM, "Giles Orr" <gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>>
>> I just bought a Toshiba P850-057 - specs are a bit hard to come by as
>> this model is "exclusive" to Future Shop.  More on other configuration
>> challenges in email(s) to follow.
>>
>> My mistake was in assuming that because it had a good Nvidia card
>> (GeForce GT 630M) with 2GB of RAM that driving my Dell U3011 at its
>> full resolution of 2560x1600 wouldn't be a problem.  Because, after
>> all, HDMI 1.4 supports 3840x2160.  But.  In looking at documentation
>> (after I made the purchase) for various P850 type laptops with varying
>> Nvidia cards, the max resolution out through the HDMI port is always
>> noted as being 1920x1200.  And that's all that appears to be supported
>> by Windows or Linux on this machine.
>>
>> Looking at the HDMI specs, the max resolution of HDMI v1 is 1920x1200.
>>  Of course HDMI v1.3 is getting long in the tooth now and almost all
>> devices (claim to) support v1.4.  But I'm getting a bit of Bill Gates
>> syndrome here: "1920x1200 should be enough for anyone!"
>>
>> Just a cautionary tale, with the usual punchline: "don't assume."  I
>> still think it was a reasonable assumption, but that requires the
>> manufacturers to be reasonable.
>>
>> While the computer has two video outs (HDMI and VGA), it won't drive
>> two external monitors and the internal monitor at the same time.
>> However, it will drive two externals if the LVDS is turned off.
>> That's fairly nice.  And it's running a Samsung Syncmaster 2343 at its
>> full resolution of 2048x1152 over VGA while also running the Dell at
>> 1920x1200.  And on this machine, Arandr is actually better behaved
>> than Windows' screen configuration utility.
>>
>> Also on the plus side the laptop not only has four USB ports, but all
>> four are USB3.  And when I went looking for instructions on how to
>> change the hard drive, I found a video on YouTube - posted by Toshiba
>> Europe.  So Apple is welding its devices shut, and Toshiba is telling
>> you how to do it yourself.  I can get behind that - in fact, it was a
>> significant selling point.
>>
> What's the native resolution on the internal LCD?

1366x768.

-- 
Giles
http://www.gilesorr.com/
gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://gtalug.org/
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://gtalug.org/wiki/Mailing_lists