Vista and external laptop monitor?

I have an HP laptop and use an older external LCD monitor. The monitor
works fine... as long as the laptop lid is open but goes blank and says
"mode not supported" if I close the lid. I have the laptop settings (Vista)
to "do nothing " when I close the lid. Might I have another setting that is
off somewhere?

Thanks... Bob

When you close the lid the PC goes in standby Mode..


--
old okie

"old okie" <> wrote in message
news:...
>
> When you close the lid the PC goes in standby Mode..
>
>
> --
> old okie

In the Vista Power Options menus you can tell it not to, it used to, it do
this way.

Bob

On Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:55:22 -0500, "Bob Newman" <>
wrote:

>I have an HP laptop and use an older external LCD monitor. The monitor
>works fine... as long as the laptop lid is open but goes blank and says
>"mode not supported" if I close the lid. I have the laptop settings (Vista)
>to "do nothing " when I close the lid. Might I have another setting that is
>off somewhere?

It probably depends to some extent on your graphics chip & driver.

My laptop (a Dell D630) has an nvidia graphics chip. I use it in a
docking bay (actually it's the little one - I think they just call it
a port adapter), which has 2 video out connectors, each of which is
connected to a monitor.

In my power settings, I make sure that it's set to "Do nothing" when
the lid is closed and the power is plugged in (make sure you haven't
just set it to do nothing when you close the lid when it's on
battery).

Then I configure the displays using the NVidia Control panel software
- when the laptop isn't docked, the software recognises that, and only
gives me the laptop screen to configure, but when it is docked, I can
configure the external monitors. It might be that you have to connect
your external monitor, leave the laptop open, configure the display
settings, and then close your laptop. Hopefully the machine should
then remember these settings (the NVidia software does a reasonable
job of this but tends to forget which monitor is in which position).

One more thing - some laptops have a setting in the BIOS which
determines which screen has priority. If you have it set to use the
laptop screen as the primary one, then perhaps your machine is
selecting that, but turning it off because the lid is shut.

--
http://www.sgat-computing-services.co.uk/

"Gareth Erskine-Jones" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:55:22 -0500, "Bob Newman" <>
> wrote:
>
>>I have an HP laptop and use an older external LCD monitor. The monitor
>>works fine... as long as the laptop lid is open but goes blank and says
>>"mode not supported" if I close the lid. I have the laptop settings
>>(Vista)
>>to "do nothing " when I close the lid. Might I have another setting that
>>is
>>off somewhere?
>
> It probably depends to some extent on your graphics chip & driver.
>
> My laptop (a Dell D630) has an nvidia graphics chip. I use it in a
> docking bay (actually it's the little one - I think they just call it
> a port adapter), which has 2 video out connectors, each of which is
> connected to a monitor.
>
> In my power settings, I make sure that it's set to "Do nothing" when
> the lid is closed and the power is plugged in (make sure you haven't
> just set it to do nothing when you close the lid when it's on
> battery).
>
> Then I configure the displays using the NVidia Control panel software
> - when the laptop isn't docked, the software recognises that, and only
> gives me the laptop screen to configure, but when it is docked, I can
> configure the external monitors. It might be that you have to connect
> your external monitor, leave the laptop open, configure the display
> settings, and then close your laptop. Hopefully the machine should
> then remember these settings (the NVidia software does a reasonable
> job of this but tends to forget which monitor is in which position).
>
> One more thing - some laptops have a setting in the BIOS which
> determines which screen has priority. If you have it set to use the
> laptop screen as the primary one, then perhaps your machine is
> selecting that, but turning it off because the lid is shut.
>
> --
> http://www.sgat-computing-services.co.uk

Could it be the monitor? I was using one that worked fine.

Bob

Solution: change video mode to a lower res still supported by the TV.
Then change back to your higher res mode but do not apply changes. Tab
until the APPLY button is highlighed. Close the laptop lid such that the
TV goes blank. Press enter on the keyboard to apply new video mode. TV
should pop on and you can accept the new video mode.

Hope this helps, jaga


--
james alexander