Hey everyone... I'm a dink, and I just killed my laptop's LCD... and yes... it's my development machine [sad] I've ordered a new LCD, but it won't be here for two days... The lappy runs Windows XP Professional SP 2. There's a VGA port and an S-Video port on the back which I've been trying to use... with limited success. Hooking up to external monitors has been rough. I can only get those to work for me if I start Windows up, and halfway through cut the power... then restart to get to "safe mode". Unfortunately, none of the "goodies" like Direct3D work much in "safe mode" Trying to boot up normally, you get to the "click your username to start screen" and the monitors go blank... and then how can you see the cursor? Is there a way to get these external monitors to function normally? Would "adding new hardware/monitor" in safe mode work? Any other ideas? [sad] Thanks. Chad

my_life:          nop          jmp my_life

when i used to have my laptop(back in the old thinkpad days) i used to just plug it into the back and it dual screened it(provided it was plugged in)
and this has also proven to work on a few other laptops i have used.

it might just take a little fiddling with the graphics cards setting (like dual boot on a two headed card),which you should be able to do from safe mode.

failing that the only other think i can think of would be the bios setting at start up but i have limited knowledge of the amount you can affect screen setup from here.

hope it helps

Cheers for your answer, mate [smile]

The problem was "Windows Extended Desktop", because after starting... there WAS actually an image on the second monitor, but it was just the desktop graphic.

If you move your cursor to the right it will eventually appear on the extended desktop.

This is what I did:

*Create a "new folder" by right-clicking, when in the "extended area"
*Unselect it.
*Press Ctrl+A, to select all... which should select ALL your desktop icons.
*Grab the new folder, and drag it to the right.
*Do that a few times until you have all the desktop icons in the extended area.
*Hopefully within those icons, you find a program (like Explorer) to open.

*Right click on the desktop, and click "Properties".
*The properties box will appear in the "broken area", so you'll have to go "fish" for it.. meaning position your cursor, and then dive into the "broken area", hoping to grab the title bar.

Eventually that worked, and I could click the "displays" tab and DISABLE Extended desktop.

Then it was just press "Fn+F5" a few times to toggle the display, and the whole desktop appeared on the second monitor.

Whew!

Hope this does NOT happen to you... it's a royal pain.


Chad

my_life:          nop          jmp my_life

Nice solution :-D