Vista external display / close lid problem

Wasn't sure where to put this, but it seems to me to be a vista-realted grievance so here goes.

Before you tell me to change the close lid setting to 'do nothing', i already have, but am still stuck with this problem..

When closing lid, the external display also turns off whereas with XP there was no change.

I have my tv connected to laptop via s-video. Rather annoyingly- I have my laptop sat on coffee table between me and tv, so obviously i wanna put the lid down when watching stuff.. but can't! Instead, the only wordaround is to bend the lid the other way and press the LCD-off hotkey (thankyou Asus!), but even then I get a reflection off the glossy screen.

I'm running vista ultimate sp1 32bit, and this annoyance was one of the first things i notice after upgrading from xp earlier this week. My notebook is an Asus F3Jp w/ Ati X1700 + lastest modility modded drivers/CCC.

Looks like MS know something about it, but this isn't much help.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933421

I'm guessing this problem is intrinsic to vista, and there's not much chance of a fix from windows/ati anytime soon (although I live in hope!). But if there's anyone out there with a solution, please let me know!


PS: as for theatre mode under catalyst... it doesn't work! yet another vista annoyance.

 

Is there a key or a software to just turn off the Lcd?

 

well yes, fn+F7 = lcd off, but i want to be able to close the lid of laptop so it's not in the way of telly.

 

Hi,

I have ASUS N50Vn and exactly the same problem as you. My primary display keeps switching to TV when I close the lid of my laptop.
Have you found any solution to this issue?

 

Hmm... Try this.

Go to Control Panel>Windows Mobility Center and click Connect display. I remember it will prompt you asking how do you want your LCD and External to display and there's one option telling your notebook to turn its off while keeping the external one.

By doing this, you should be able to close your lid without affecting the external display.

[EDIT]

I just notice this is an pretty old thread...

Anyway

@minek

What do you mean by "My primary display keeps switching to TV when I close the lid of my laptop".

Are you saying you don't want your external display to display anything when you close your notebook's lid?

 

Thanks for your reply nic.
I meant that I would like to have my extended desktop (empty - just wallpaper) on a TV where I can drag e.g. WMP with a movie, to watch fullscreen while still keeping my primary desktop (taskbar, icons, vista sidebar, etc. on my laptop when the lid is closed.
This was the case with my old Toshiba and Windows XP but with Vista when I close the lid primary display switches to TV (I guess this is fine in some scenarios) -> resolution changes -> then when I open the lid everything goes blank for a few seconds and goes back to laptop with different resolution -> icons are messed up, WMP hangs sometimes, etc.
Yesterday I entered Windows Mobility Center but I saw that secondary display was not connecetd (although I already had my extended desktop running and displaying on TV) so I thought that extended desktop is forced by Nvidia drivers or Vista's TMM disregarding WMC.
I will try to examine WMC more closely today and see if its options will allow me to achieve the above mentioned scenario.

EDIT:

Yeah, I checked the options of WMC and actually there is an option to choose from clone mode, extended display or only secondary display and everything works as it should until I close the lid of my notebook. Then TV becomes a primary display and everything is transferred there until I open the lid again - I would like the displays to remain in the extended mode also after I close my notebook.