Solved Adding external monitor to laptop

[Fmik]

I plugged a HP monitor,(mfg date 2003, supported Win 2000, XP) into the VGA connector of my laptop computer but my computer does not seem to recognize that there is a monitor connected because the monitor screen shows message "check video cable". The cable is a VGA to VGA and is brand new. The monitor power cable is supplying power to the monitor. My laptop uses Win 7, I tried all 4 options in the display setting and none of them send an image to the monitor( duplicate, extend, projector). Besides no video image being sent to the monitor, when I tried the extend choice in the display settings, still no image being sent to the ext monitor and also my laptop screen goes completely dark and I have to unplug the ext monitor in order to get my desktop screen back on the laptop.
The monitor seems ok. It should be able to work with my laptop, right? If anyone can help with this I'd appreciate it.

 

[Slartybart]

See if Control Panel -> Windows Mobility Center -> Display tells you anything useful.

Try restarting the machine with the external monitor attached.

You might not get anything on either display, but give it a shot.
There's a key sequence to switch monitors, but I can never recall it.

 

[Digerati]

Every notebook I have seen requires the user to press a specific Fn + F-key combination to enable the external monitor. Sadly, you didn't tell us what notebook you have but on my notebook, it is Fn + F5.

The monitor seems ok.

Seems? Or is okay? Does the monitor work on another computer?

 

[Fmik]

my laptop is a Sony Vaio with Intel Centrino duo, Windows 7 OS.
The help section suggests opening the display settings. If I press the Windows logo key+P I bring up the display settings. There are 4 choices incl. duplicate, Computer, projector,Extend. None of these choices will cause the computer to recognize the monitor when it is connected to the VGA connector.

 

[Slartybart]

See if any of these help:
How to Connect an External Monitor to a Sony Vaio Laptop | eHow
VAIO User Guide | Connecting an External Display or Projector
VAIO User Guide | Selecting Display Modes

 

[Digerati]

my laptop is a Sony Vaio with Intel Centrino duo, Windows 7 OS.
The help section suggests opening the display settings. If I press the Windows logo key+P I bring up the display settings. There are 4 choices incl. duplicate, Computer, projector,Extend. None of these choices will cause the computer to recognize the monitor when it is connected to the VGA connector.

You are talking apples and oranges. Or rather, hardware and software. You MUST deal with the hardware first, as I noted above.

You have to enable sending a signal to the external monitor by pressing the appropriate Function key combination. What does you manual say? Thanks to Slartybart, we see it says, Fn+F7. That enables the hardware (in this case, telling your graphics hardware to send the video signal to the external monitor port.

That has NOTHING to do with Windows or any Windows key. Once you have told the hardware to use that port/monitor too, then you use the Win Key to tell Windows how to use the external monitor.

 

[Slartybart]

These pages might help. Navigating the manual isn't all that intuitive, I had to poke around (click a few links) to find specific pages. An index or TOC would have been more useful ... search is there thouh.

VAIO User Guide:

Note: You cannot use the monitor port and the HDMI output port on your VAIO computer at the same time.

• Connecting an External Display or Projector
  
  
• Selecting Display Modes

 

[Fmik]

Thanks everyone for your help.

 

[Slartybart]

Fmik, this thread is marked solved - would you mind posting what you had to do to solve the issue? It might benefit other members searching for a similar solution.

Thanks,

Bill
.