Connecting TV to laptop
 

I currently have a dell xps M1710 laptop running vista with an NVIDIA 7900 GS (256mb) and i'm trying to connect to a samsung LCD tv (LE19R86BDX) with a VGA cable.

I can get the image to appear on my tv ok, but everytime i close the laptop lid the image disappears. Obviously this is somewhat irritating because i want to keep the lid closed so i can use the TV as my main screen.

Is there anyway i can prevent the image going from my tv, or something along the lines of keeping it there?

Many thanks

I assume you don't need the keyboard, like you're just watching dvds or something with the laptop as the source? All laptops have a little bitty button on the hinge end of the base. When you close the lid all the way this button is depressed, and the unit goes to sleep. Try not closing the cover all the way.

Once you've connected the television to the laptop, check your display properties and make sure the television is properly recognized as an external display and your resolution settings don't exceed the televisions limit.

If that doesn't work then try scaling back your gpu settings until you find a solution.

Despite the seemingly standard VGA port, televisions aren't intended to be use as computer monitors - especially with all the bells and whistles that are coming along with these new graphics cards...

Peripheral keyboard, peripheral trackball, gigundo LCD TV...

Make a laptop into a real computer through modularity.

Go to control panel on the laptop. Go to power settings and browse through the tabs until you find the section where you can choose what happens when you close the lid on the laptop. Change it to "do nothing" and see if that helps.

I've tried changing the power settings on keyboard close, doesn't work.

However, when watching a DVD on mediacentre one can close the lid perfectly fine and the signal stays on the tv. When you shut down the program it dies.

*just now* I think i've solved it, i have to have an active program running (like office or media centre e.t.c) so that it has something to run and output.

Weird.