Display mess I caused

Running Vista Home Premium on my laptop. Worked fine. I bought a new LCD
TV which has a VGA input on it. I connected a VGA cable to TV and to my
laptop. Turned laptop on. It must have recognized my new TV/monitor. When
I selected the input source on the TV/monitor as "PC" the pc output went to
both my computer and the large TV. Great.

Well, not knowing when to leave well enough alone, I got into the
personalize display section and started fooling around with resolultion
settings, lost video to both screens, got it back, not sure how, but just to
the laptop. The personalize display program can recognize both #1 and #2
monitor for me. # 2 is the TV/monitor. As a setting in this program, I
have the monitor #2 (TV) checked to "send desktop to the monitor" and
unchecked "this is my main monitor. Well the background of the desktop
goes to the TV but other than the background, nothing else. No icons, no
program output, e.g. pictures I plan to show via the TV etc. Frustrated.
What did I do to mess it up and how do I fix it.

Thanks.

Chet

"Chet" <> wrote:

>Running Vista Home Premium on my laptop. Worked fine. I bought a new LCD
>TV which has a VGA input on it. I connected a VGA cable to TV and to my
>laptop. Turned laptop on. It must have recognized my new TV/monitor. When
>I selected the input source on the TV/monitor as "PC" the pc output went to
>both my computer and the large TV. Great.
>
>Well, not knowing when to leave well enough alone, I got into the
>personalize display section and started fooling around with resolultion
>settings, lost video to both screens, got it back, not sure how, but just to
>the laptop. The personalize display program can recognize both #1 and #2
>monitor for me. # 2 is the TV/monitor. As a setting in this program, I
>have the monitor #2 (TV) checked to "send desktop to the monitor" and
>unchecked "this is my main monitor. Well the background of the desktop
>goes to the TV but other than the background, nothing else. No icons, no
>program output, e.g. pictures I plan to show via the TV etc. Frustrated.
>What did I do to mess it up and how do I fix it.

Try running System Restore to a point preceding your messing around.

"Manny Weisbord" <> wrote in message
news...
SNIP


>>What did I do to mess it up and how do I fix it.
>
> Try running System Restore to a point preceding your messing around.

I was/will try that. I just was hoping that someone here might know
specifically what did it and what specific thing would fix it. I find it
interesting. A system restore might fix it but I'll never know what it
was!

Chet

using Windows Restore point is easy but not intelligent. Go play with Video
settings again and try to avoid restores, in fact I disabled restore service
was eating immense amount of disk space and SLOWES down your processor is
busy creating restore points....
I know I take chances, but I use other methods of protetcion, too long to
exaplain. Foolproof, dump to external Firewire800 or Ethernet harddisk
pumping at 1Gbps.

Anyways, you can follow that person's advise about WindowsRestore or I'd go
back to Video settings and try to restore manually.
Restore point will kick some of your new settigns back to history unless it
was made liek yesterday, or upto a week ago?

Right click on desktop> Personalization In left column under TASKS, Click
on "Connect to a projector or other external display"

You will be in Windows Mobility Center.
Click on "Connect Display" even though it might say "already connected"
in the External Display box.
"New Display Detected" will come up.
Select "Duplicate my desktop on all displays (Mirrored). THIS STEP
WAS THE FIX
Then click Apply

This gives you identical output on the external monitor as what you see on
the laptop monitor.

However, as before, the resolution on the external (TV) monitor is quite
good, but the resolution on the laptop has deteriorated. I had noticed this
before but don't know why other than the fact that the VGA output to the
external monitor is different from what the laptop takes.

Settings I end up with at highest for laptop is 1024x768. External monitor
is running at 1280x720 despite being capable of 1920x1080. Now I
remember how I made the mess before. I was experimenting and put the
external display at 1920x1080 and lost all output to the laptop and only had
a cursor on the external. Couple restarts got me into the mess (fixable)
that I first wrote about and have now fixed.

Thanks. Any thoughts on the different resolutions? Perusing the Acer
manual, it makes some passing reference to the possibility that resolution
might have to be reset after using external devices for "Presentations."
Haven't gotten in to that too much yet.


Chet

"Chet" <> wrote in message
news:%234F$...
> Running Vista Home Premium on my laptop. Worked fine. I bought a new
> LCD TV which has a VGA input on it. I connected a VGA cable to TV and
> to my laptop. Turned laptop on. It must have recognized my new
> TV/monitor. When I selected the input source on the TV/monitor as "PC"
> the pc output went to both my computer and the large TV. Great.
>
> Well, not knowing when to leave well enough alone, I got into the
> personalize display section and started fooling around with resolultion
> settings, lost video to both screens, got it back, not sure how, but just
> to the laptop. The personalize display program can recognize both #1 and
> #2 monitor for me. # 2 is the TV/monitor. As a setting in this program,
> I have the monitor #2 (TV) checked to "send desktop to the monitor" and
> unchecked "this is my main monitor. Well the background of the desktop
> goes to the TV but other than the background, nothing else. No icons, no
> program output, e.g. pictures I plan to show via the TV etc. Frustrated.
> What did I do to mess it up and how do I fix it.
>
> Thanks.
>
> Chet

"Chet" <> wrote:

>"Manny Weisbord" <> wrote in message
>news.. .
>SNIP
>
>
>>>What did I do to mess it up and how do I fix it.
>>
>> Try running System Restore to a point preceding your messing around.
>
>I was/will try that. I just was hoping that someone here might know
>specifically what did it and what specific thing would fix it. I find it
>interesting. A system restore might fix it but I'll never know what it
>was!
>
>Chet

It was YOU... be more careful when you play around.

Make a restore point before playing.

Have a good backup strategy in place and up to date.

"Manny Weisbord" <> wrote in message
news:...
> "Chet" <> wrote:
>
>>"Manny Weisbord" <> wrote in message
>>news. ..
>>SNIP
>>
>>
>>>>What did I do to mess it up and how do I fix it.
>>>
>>> Try running System Restore to a point preceding your messing around.
>>
>>I was/will try that. I just was hoping that someone here might know
>>specifically what did it and what specific thing would fix it. I find it
>>interesting. A system restore might fix it but I'll never know what it
>>was!
>>
>>Chet
>
> It was YOU... be more careful when you play around.
>
> Make a restore point before playing.
>
> Have a good backup strategy in place and up to date.
>

Such an arrogant post in a help forum!
Christ, if advising the use of System Restore is the answer to all problems,
I'll be an MCSE in no time!
If you don't know the answer, just say so.

"Chewie" <> wrote in message
news:362175AC-256B-4E87-8611-...
>
>
> "Manny Weisbord" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> "Chet" <> wrote:
>>
>>>"Manny Weisbord" <> wrote in message
>>>news ...
>>>SNIP
>>>
>>>
>>>>>What did I do to mess it up and how do I fix it.
>>>>
>>>> Try running System Restore to a point preceding your messing around.
>>>
>>>I was/will try that. I just was hoping that someone here might know
>>>specifically what did it and what specific thing would fix it. I find it
>>>interesting. A system restore might fix it but I'll never know what it
>>>was!
>>>
>>>Chet
>>
>> It was YOU... be more careful when you play around.
>>
>> Make a restore point before playing.
>>
>> Have a good backup strategy in place and up to date.
>>
>
> Such an arrogant post in a help forum!
> Christ, if advising the use of System Restore is the answer to all
> problems, I'll be an MCSE in no time!
> If you don't know the answer, just say so.

This is not a "forum." It's a public newsgroup. If you don't like what
you're reading, turn off the computer and step out your front door and visit
the real world.
--

Don't pick a fight with an old man.
If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.

Just some thoughts, I do not have a dual/TV display so cannot check if I am
correct.
When you have two displays with different resolutions then in the video card
there must be maintained two separate memory segments. This means that more
memory is needed than if only one display is used. It MIGHT be true that if
you reduced the resolution on one display (TV for instance) that you could
increase the resolution on the other (laptop).

Michael

"Chet" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Right click on desktop> Personalization In left column under TASKS, Click
> on "Connect to a projector or other external display"
>
> You will be in Windows Mobility Center.
> Click on "Connect Display" even though it might say "already connected"
> in the External Display box.
> "New Display Detected" will come up.
> Select "Duplicate my desktop on all displays (Mirrored). THIS STEP
> WAS THE FIX
> Then click Apply
>
> This gives you identical output on the external monitor as what you see on
> the laptop monitor.
>
> However, as before, the resolution on the external (TV) monitor is quite
> good, but the resolution on the laptop has deteriorated. I had noticed
> this before but don't know why other than the fact that the VGA output to
> the external monitor is different from what the laptop takes.
>
> Settings I end up with at highest for laptop is 1024x768. External
> monitor is running at 1280x720 despite being capable of 1920x1080.
> Now I remember how I made the mess before. I was experimenting and put
> the external display at 1920x1080 and lost all output to the laptop and
> only had a cursor on the external. Couple restarts got me into the mess
> (fixable) that I first wrote about and have now fixed.
>
> Thanks. Any thoughts on the different resolutions? Perusing the Acer
> manual, it makes some passing reference to the possibility that resolution
> might have to be reset after using external devices for "Presentations."
> Haven't gotten in to that too much yet.
>
>
> Chet
>
> "Chet" <> wrote in message
> news:%234F$...
>> Running Vista Home Premium on my laptop. Worked fine. I bought a new
>> LCD TV which has a VGA input on it. I connected a VGA cable to TV and
>> to my laptop. Turned laptop on. It must have recognized my new
>> TV/monitor. When I selected the input source on the TV/monitor as "PC"
>> the pc output went to both my computer and the large TV. Great.
>>
>> Well, not knowing when to leave well enough alone, I got into the
>> personalize display section and started fooling around with resolultion
>> settings, lost video to both screens, got it back, not sure how, but just
>> to the laptop. The personalize display program can recognize both #1
>> and #2 monitor for me. # 2 is the TV/monitor. As a setting in this
>> program, I have the monitor #2 (TV) checked to "send desktop to the
>> monitor" and unchecked "this is my main monitor. Well the background of
>> the desktop goes to the TV but other than the background, nothing else.
>> No icons, no program output, e.g. pictures I plan to show via the TV etc.
>> Frustrated. What did I do to mess it up and how do I fix it.
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> Chet
>

"Chewie" <> wrote:

>
>
>"Manny Weisbord" <> wrote in message
>news:.. .
>> "Chet" <> wrote:
>>
>>>"Manny Weisbord" <> wrote in message
>>>news ...
>>>SNIP
>>>
>>>
>>>>>What did I do to mess it up and how do I fix it.
>>>>
>>>> Try running System Restore to a point preceding your messing around.
>>>
>>>I was/will try that. I just was hoping that someone here might know
>>>specifically what did it and what specific thing would fix it. I find it
>>>interesting. A system restore might fix it but I'll never know what it
>>>was!
>>>
>>>Chet
>>
>> It was YOU... be more careful when you play around.
>>
>> Make a restore point before playing.
>>
>> Have a good backup strategy in place and up to date.
>>
>
>Such an arrogant post in a help forum!
>Christ, if advising the use of System Restore is the answer to all problems,
>I'll be an MCSE in no time!
>If you don't know the answer, just say so.

I take it that you didn't make a restore point and that you don't have
a backup.

You're a bozo.