Trouble Connecting Laptop To TV Usin VGA Cable

[Meghan]

Hi there,

I've just tried to connect my old Toshiba Satellite laptop to my tv using a VGA cable. Upon start up the tv recognizes the laptop as its main screen then, after loading loses signal. The problem I'm facing is that my laptop screen is completely broken so I am blindly attempting to correct the issue using any suggestions I've found online by way of key shortcuts, including changing the resolution. So far, no luck.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[hello_hello]

I don't have one handy to check with but most laptops run a second display via one of the F keys, usually in combination with pressing the function key. In this pic for example, it appears you'd activate/deactivate a second display by holding down the Fn key and using F7. Normally if you keep the Fn key held down and press the F7 key more than once it'll toggle through various display modes, such as two independent monitors or just mirroring the laptop display on the second monitor etc.
http://www.casperservis.biz.tr/wp-content/uploads/laptop-keyboard_6950_1.jpg

I'm not 100% sure, but if you can get the display going on the TV that way you might then be able to use Windows own display properties to move the desktop to the TV. That's pretty much what I did with this computer (only in reverse) although it's a desktop. In my case the BIOS messages run on the TV as it's got to be connected to the primary out on the video card (the other is VGA connected to the CRT PC monitor). If the TV isn't on, I don't see anything while the PC boots. Once Windows loads though, it switches the PC to dual monitor mode and puts the desktop on the PC monitor.

[Richard_G]

It may also be that the laptop is sending a higher resolution than the TV can display. The Windows startup screen is sent at low resolution (640x480 maybe) but when it boots it sends at whatever display resolution it was last set at. So if you laptop was at 1024x768 for instance but your TV has a maximum display of 800x600, you'll get nothing.

[hello_hello]

Yeah.... that's a point, you could also try starting in safe mode as that'll get Windows to start using a low display resolution. It's been so long.... it's the F5 key which you tap to boot into safe mode isn't it?
Admittedly I don't know if Windows can run more than one monitor in safe mode though......

[Meghan]

Yeah.... that's a point, you could also try starting in safe mode as that'll get Windows to start using a low display resolution. It's been so long.... it's the F5 key which you tap to boot into safe mode isn't it?
Admittedly I don't know if Windows can run more than one monitor in safe mode though......

Thanks so much for the advice...it totally worked! I restarted in Safe Mode and changed the resolution and everything works fine now.

[hello_hello]

I'm glad it worked. Richard_G deserves the credit for the resolution cleverness though..... it's an obvious possibility once you think of it, but you've got be clever enough to think of it first.