Cannot connect laptop to TV

For the past several years, I’ve hooked up my Compaq laptop (with Windows Vista) to my 2001 Toshiba TV via S-video cable and everything worked great.

A few weeks ago, my Compaq died and I got a new Dell Inspiron 15 (N5050) with Windows 7 Home Premium. The Dell did not have a S-video port, so I hooked it up to my TV via VGA to component. Now, I cannot get anything on the TV as I did with my old Compaq laptop.

When I plug the VGA cable into the port on the Dell laptop, the screen gets thinner. I click on display to set up the 2nd monitor (TV), I click Clone. For monitor 2, it says "Generic non PnP monitor". I click ok, but nothing ever appears on the tv screen.
On the TV, I’ve doubled checked the cable and I made sure I set it to the right input source. Still nothing.

Can anyone help?

sure, depends on the tv, what resolution it supports. if it's an hd type lcd, it should support 1080 lines, 720 lines, or 480 lines.

kegobeer said:

How are you converting the signal? What hardware are you using to do the conversion from VGA to YPbPr?

I'm only using a VGA to YPbPr cable. Do I need a converter box?

Yeah, those are two different types of signals. You can't simply use a cable unless your PC video card outputs a YPbPr signal. Which the Intel H67 doesn't. Does your TV have a HDMI port?

carwiz said:

Yeah, those are two different types of signals. You can't simply use a cable unless your PC video card outputs a YPbPr signal. Which the Intel H67 doesn't. Does your TV have a HDMI port?

There's a HDMI port on the laptop, but not on the TV. I guess my best bet is to buy a converter box.

I bought a converter box, and that got the images onto the TV screen. Now I have another problem:

When I plug the VGA cable into the laptop, for 5 seconds, I get images on both screens (laptop and TV). Then, both screens go black and then I only get images on the laptop. Then, after 5 secs, the screen goes black and then I get images on both screen again....and so on. Because I only have 5 secs, I don't have time to make any changes unless I unplug the VGA cable.

Also, each time the screens switch (from 2 to 1 back to 2 to 1...) for five secs, I hear the sound that you hear when you plug in a thumbdrive.

Any ideas?

I wonder if your laptop is trying to use bad settings from the old setup? You're a little skimpy on info about the converter box so try the following.
Unplug the VGA device. Go to Device Manager and expand the Monitor line. If both are shown as Generic, you'll have to verify which is which__Right click the first one and click Properties. Click on the Details tab then in the drop-down menu under Property, click on Hardware Ids. It should say MONITOR\xxxxxx. The xxxxxx should relate to your laptop display. Do the same for the second monitor. In most cases, you should be able to deduce which is the TV.
Delete the entry for the TV then reboot.
After you're up and running, plug in the TV and turn it on. See if the laptop will install another monitor for the TV.

Here's a snipit of monitors on my PC. Yours should be similar except for the Hardware Ids.

I went to Device Mgr and clicked under Monitors. There was only one listed...a generic non pnp monitor. I clicked on Properties, but I couldn't tell of it was my laptop monitor or not. I took a chance and disabled it, shut down, and rebooted.

After it had booted up, I pluged in the VGA cable and got the same results.

I then went into the device mgr and undid what I did (I "enabled" the gen non PnP monitor.)

You can't just disable it. That retains the settings. Follow the instructions I gave you. Was the TV off when you plugged in the VGA? Is your Windows up to date? What "converter box" are you using? Is it powered? If so, turn it off before plugging in the VGA.