CRT/LCD laptop display toggle in XP

[artguy]

We have a Dell laptop at church (don't know the model no. off the top of my head) and are having problems displaying the exact same display on both the laptop LCD and the projector screen. We did it once or twice and now when you toggle through the modes (function + function key # whatever) now you get the desktop to display on the projector but the laptop only shows the background image of the desktop but not what is being displayed on the laptop such as the full desktop or powerpoint or whatever.

One time we got it to work after starting in safe mode and restarted then it worked but only once. Is there a setting some where I'm missing in XP to mirror what is being displayed on the projector AND the laptop simultaneously? Or can someone at least recommend a place to look or what to search for? Nothing comes up in google that fits the description.

Thank you for your time.

Bob

 

[Nelviticus]

It'll be somewhere in your display settings (Control Panel, Display), probably on the Settings tab. You may have to click on the Advanced button and go through the tabs that appear.

I only have experience of nVidia graphics cards but you can set them to either a) split the desktop across two displays or b) clone the desktop across two displays. If it's split then each display can show something different, if it's cloned they'll both be the same. It sounds like your display is split across the LCD and the projector - you want it to be cloned to both instead.

Hunt around through the advanced display settings and see what you can find. You may see an option called something like "expand my desktop across two monitors" - if so you wan to un-check this.

Without knowing more about what hardware you have it's impossible to be more specific.

Regards

Nelviticus

 

[artguy]

I'm checking on the exact specs from the church but I know it's either an Inspiron 9100 or 9200 but I'll get back to you on specifics.

We made sure the "extend my desktop" wasn't checked and it isn't. We've been looking for some kind of option that was similar to what you had said...something with clone or mirror in it but haven't seen anything yet. We've scoured all of the tabs under the advanced section but nothing seemed to work. It worked at one time but now doesn't.

Thanks for the help. I'll post back here with the specs or if we solve it.

Bob

 

[Nelviticus]

The 9100 and the 9200 both have ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics (or possibly the 9800 if you went for the top option). It may be worth your while downloading the latest ATI drivers for this chip set and burning them to a CD to take with you.

I don't know much about configuring ATI cards as I've always used nVidia. An overview of the Mobility Radeon 9700 can be found here, and it talks about something called Hydravision for multi-monitor support. Not sure whether you need that for cloned displays or just for the fancy stuff, but you can find out about it here.

Regards

Nelviticus