Hel80 External display fault

ok, I hope there isn't a post somewhere answering my question..

I have a Hel80, everything as defult +1gb RAM
windows 7 Ultimate

I've been using it mainly more as a stationary PC in one place and an external monitor (BenQ M2200 HD) plugged in + keyboared & mice

I experienced no problems for over 2 years with this set up, plugging and unplugging the monitor from the laptop as needed when i wanted to connect to a different machine.

However, a few days ago, as I wanted to move the monitor to another room to watch a film more comfortably, I reconnected the monitor to the Hel80 and cannot get a stable screen display on the external monitor.

The video card (GeForce Go 7600) is functioning fine when using the laptop screen (I also updated the drivers, as I thought that was the problem).

The monitor works fine with an old laptop running Fedora.

The monitor is detected and drivers are installed (correctly i guess, I uninstalled both monitors and did a scan for hardware changes installation of drivers)
- Generic PnP Monitor
- BenQ M2200HD D-SUB

I think the laptop is unable to boot successfully with the monitor connected.

The external display occasionally "decides to work" when I leave the desktop settings on "extended" to both. However, after changing the BenQ as the main display, there is a loss of signal again and it goes blank/black.

I'd appreciate any ideas.

 

You "think"? Did you try it? I think it's very strange if a laptop won't boot when an external monitor is connected - I really doubt that happens.

Anyway, the BENQ is the external monitor, right?

How do you switch output settings, like output cloning, extended view, setting main display?

Do you do it with the keyboard shortcuts, Windows display settings or with the NVidia driver tools (don't know if the latter support this).

Did you try all methods? No method works right?

Cheers

 

As there was no display on the external I disconected it from the VGA port and a system repair/restoration windows thing was in progress.

yes, I tried all three known to me

- keyboard short cuts (Fn+F3)
- screen resolution
- nvidia control panel

none are succesful

Cheers

 

Maybe try Ubuntu 10.10 from a flash drive. It's really ease and done in no-time.

A tougher think would be to do a parallel install of Windows 7, maybe.

This is just to rule out any hardware fault.

I am still not 100% sure if I get your problem. You simply fail to get any display on your external monitor, right? Or does it work sometimes, or when extending the dispay from the laptop and the external monitor?

Good luck!

 

it worked a couple of times spontaneously, when the settings were set to extended display. In general, the monitor displays "no signal" (but not "no cable detected") and I can't get anything to show on it, even during start up no BIOS diagonistics are displayed. Moreover, the power button doesn't even change colour. (So it looks like there really is no signal, but sometimes, as I said the display shows sth....)

 

I'd try with a Ubuntu 10.10 flash drive bootable. It's really done in under 10 minutes.

If you don't get it working with that, I'd say you have an issue with your NVidia 7600 - it's not that this would be so totally uncommon ...

I am already quite sure that this is the case, as you did get a display on the external display during POST before, if I am not mistaken. As there are no drivers loaded, it can't be a driver issue (even more as I installed a monitor driver only once in the last 15 years!).

But as the Ubuntu flash drive thingy is really done fast, I'd try that just to be sure.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

 

thanks anyway. I'll check the ubuntu tonight, need to download it first. I'll post back if I find a sure answer as to what's wrong.