on my laptop it is throwing the primary to the external monitor and leaving the laptop blank when I plug in using the vga plug. I want the laptop 1 and the monitor secondary. when I plug it in its not giving me options either? I have turned it off and back on with no luck, yada yada.. thanks
I know this works in XP I can't remember the exact way to do it in Vista but it should be similar. Go to your display properties and you want to extend your windows desktop to the the secondary monitory. Click on the laptop monitor and set it to the primary monitor. Does your laptop have a key to switch displays?
Go to your Display Properties (right-click on desktop -> personalize -> display settings). Make sure that display #1 (your laptop's screen) has "This is my main monitor" checked. Display #2 should have "Extend the desktop onto this monitor" checked. Depending on what video card you have and what make your laptop is, I know there is an option to turn off the integrated display when an external monitor is plugged in...
with monitor plugged in it isnt giving me the option to chech the boxes? those boxes and text are light gray.
The video card in your laptop may not support multiple monitors. Your only option might be LCD or external monitor (typically cycled by a function key combination).
On your keyboard is there a key (usually function key and another button) to switch between the laptop display and an external? If there is how many options does it give you when you press it?
First things first: look on the bottom of the laptop, write down the model number, then tell it to us (along with the brand). This way, we can determine what video chipset you have. That determines what's available for you to use. For instance, on my laptop, if I have a monitor plugged in, I can use hotkeys to change the video desktop settings (clone/extend/replace) or go into nVidia's control panel and change these settings, or in Windows.
I got it to work, thanks for the help. It took a ton of messing with, even though theres only like 8 different options between the 1 and 2 monitor.
