I really really really need two display screens
June 22, 2010 11:00 PM   Subscribe

I can't get my external monitor and my laptop monitor to work at the same time. I have a ThinkPad T60 with an ATI chipset running WINDOWS 7. The external monitor is Sony SDM-HS75. How do I fix it?

If I boot up with the monitor plugged in, I can use the external. If I boot up without plugging in external, I can use laptop monitor. I can never use both at once. The control panel will not show the MULTIPLE MONITORS feature. It will not detect the external when you click "detect" and Win +P does literally nothing. Nothing comes up at all.

I have switched the Power mode to High Performance. That did nothing. I updated my drivers. That changed screen 1 from "generic pnp monitor" to Thinkpad Monitor.
posted by GIRLesq to Technology (4 answers total)
 
When you say the control panel won't show the multiple monitors feature, are you talking about the Windows control panel, or the one built into the ATI graphics drivers?

Also: does your laptop have a "Fn" modifier key down amongst the Ctrl and Alt and Win keys? I've seen quite a few laptops that use Fn to enable a screen selector function overloaded onto one of the top row of F keys in a similar way to the brightness and volume control functions. Look for a vaguely screen-shaped graphic on the keytop (probably in blue).
posted by flabdablet at 2:33 AM on June 23, 2010


When you right-click the desktop with the external monitor connected and powered, what do you see under "graphics options"? On many ThinkPads, there are a series of options for displaying notebook, monitory, notebook and monitor, or extended desktop.
posted by yclipse at 3:17 AM on June 23, 2010


I don't have a T60 handy to check, but if flabdablet's or yclipse's suggestions don't work, three specialized places to get help for ThinkPads are:

Lenovo's own forum
Thinkpads.com
NBR's Lenovo board

Hope this helps!
posted by JaneL at 5:13 AM on June 23, 2010


Check that the laptop is not in Windows 7's presentation mode (which sometimes prevents me seeing the external monitor).

Check that the Power Mode is not using ATI's power saving mode (which sometimes prevents me seeing the external monitor).

I was using Windows 7 successfully with the machine you describe. I occasionally saw your symptoms in the above two circumstances. I once saw the symptoms after a glitch and had to uninstall the display driver (it will reinstall clean again).
posted by blue_wardrobe at 12:14 PM on June 23, 2010


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