Thinkpad T40p Radeon Drivers

[esaleris]

I brought this issue up in a "dead" thread, but haven't gotten much response, so I'm post this here. Hope you guys don't mind and we all learn something!

So for the ATI Radeon Mobility FireGL 9000, the only drivers I have been able to install are the ones that IBM have on their website. I have heard of Mobility 9000 users being able to use the Catalysts, but what about us FireGL 9000 users?

In my display properties, the "OpenGL" tab is missing completely. Is there any way to fix this? And is there any way to "force" or whatever the ATI Catalyst drivers, which are updated more often anyway.

P.S. - Readers of this thread might be interested to know that the June refresh of the T40p won't include an updated Radeon 9600. 'IBM Announces Thinkpad with 'Trusted Computing'.

 

[Shivatron]

What? No 9600? Well, I wouldn't be terribly suprised if the June update didn't include an R10 (9600)... but then again, I take what The Inquirer says with a grain of salt as well.

 

[esaleris]

Well it makes sense. Right now the "powerhouse" laptop, the A-series only has a FireGL 7800. That model was last revised March 2002. My guess is that in order to keep their product differentiation, IBM will offer the 9600 first on the A31s, in the next few months. A31s tout performance through high P4-M clock speeds and this would go well with their plan.

 

[azazello]

OK, try this (it worked with my Mobility 9000). The steps are not exact.

Download the FireGL drivers from ATI.

Run the executable. It will unpack its files (probably to C:/ATI or somesuch). Leave it running, don't proceed with the dialog.

Go to your adapter properties (device manager->display adapters) and click "Update driver". Click "I will choose the driver to install". Click "Have disk". Browse to the C:/ATI folder and browse the subfolders until you find an inf file. There may be two, one for Win2K and one for XP. Uncheck the "Show compatible hardware" checkbox, if any. From the list, pick the driver for FireGL (or any driver that you feel most closely matches your chip). Proceed. It may say that it can't verify if the driver is for this hardware. After installation, it may not boot. In that case, you'll have to boot in safe mode and revert to the initial driver via a similar procedure.