Thinkpads Forum

Hi everyone, I use a W530 as my daily driver, usually in a dock with an external display (1920x1200) connected via DisplayPort/HDMI adapter cable. The laptop lid is closed. Graphics is set to discrete in BIOS and it runs Linux Mint 20.2, sometimes also with Windows 10 in VirtualBox. This setup has worked well for several months. Recently I've started to have issues with the external display blanking, usually when the PC is being driven hard such as doing videoconferencing. The display is a fairly new AOC, unlikely to be the problem I'd say. When the display blanks I lose the whole picture and the sound (I'm using the display's built-in speakers) for about 15 seconds, then it returns and I'm presented with the Mint login screen. I don't do anything to get the picture back, and trying the mouse or keyboard whilst it is blank has no effect. My first thought was overheating protection kicking in, but temperature monitoring is showing the CPU at about 75C and the Nvidia card at 55C, which both seem quite reasonable when the W530 is working hard. I'm starting to suspect a hardware failure, perhaps a failing capacitor given the age of the W530, but Googling hasn't revealed any pattern or problems. Any ideas please? Thank you.

Please try using another cable, I had the same with my P50 in a docking station connected to Lenovo G24-10 monitor.

simes wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 13, 2022 1:00 pm

Hi everyone, I use a W530 as my daily driver, usually in a dock with an external display (1920x1200) connected via DisplayPort/HDMI adapter cable. ...

I'm having a very similar problem. W530, whether in the dock or not, with a mDP to HDMI cable connecting to an AOC screen. Both the screen and 3 different mDP to HDMI adapters work in a desktop running Ubuntu 22.04, though with a single screen, so they are known good. In my case the laptop lid is open and the AOC is recognized by Ubuntu 22.04. I set the screens to mirror mode, and I can move windows on and off the AOC "blindly". Graphics is set to Optimus in the BIOS. The external display is completely white, except that I can see a trace of the first couple of pixels across the top of the screen with just the head of the icons that are supposed to appear there. I've dug through the AOC settings and I can't find anything likely.

If anyone else has ideas, I'd love to hear.

Edit 1: This guy claims you get this problem with blown capacitors in the AOC, and shows you how to fix it. How mine works with the desktop but not the laptop, is beyond me....

Edit 2: Ok, I got it. It won't work under Wayland, but it works fine under X. I don't know if that's you're issue, but it fixed min. I've got X on my desktop and my T530, and I'll stick with that for now. Wayland has been presenting way too many problems.