Laptop/Whiteboard problem

[witch]

7 year old Dell teacher laptop - worked fine with whiteboard up until last week. Now, I cannot get the display up on the whiteboard no matter what I do. I have reinstalled the drivers, replicated exactly the settings on an identical machine, tried it on another board (no go). I have tried another laptop on this whiteboard -no problem

Has anyone got any ideas, please? Dell say it is the whiteboard, Promethean say it is the Dell

All help very gratefully received

[Guest richard]

Silly question but have you you tried the laptop on a different board?

[PEO]

or even tried connecting a monitor to the laptop?

[witch]

Yes and yes

[laserblazer]

I've seen a similar thing with old Viglen Dossier NS laptops. For some reason, the monitor config in display settings was altering.

[timbo343]

Have you tried outputting to the projector via the display output either in Control panel or in the task bar... Usually on the Toshs it is FN and F5. or you could go the full hog and re-install XP to see what that does... but that is the last option. Could it be the able has been swapped. I know that we have had some really cheap cables and they produced a "ghosting" effect on the board. the resolution on the laptop??

 

Sorry to sound patronising.

 

Tim

[Busybub]

Further to timbo's post, worth checking to see if the VGA output has been accidentally disabled by the teacher. Should be a key in the number row which has two small monitor icons on it, and you can toggle the display outputs using this key and the function key so that the laptop outputs to it's own display, the VGA one only, or both.

 

... I think WITCH definitely has the best siggy on this forum!

[maniac]

We have had numerous laptop VGA ports fail. They display fine on their own screen, but don't detect any form of external display connected to it.

 

My theory is the soldered joints on the between the mainboard and the VGA port eventually break. With the contant plugging and unplugging of the VGA plug, there's an enevertable small amount of pressure you put on the plug each time you plug it in moving the plug against the board. Not normally a problem, but the cumulative effect of un-plugging and plugging it in a lot adds up and weaken and eventually breaks the solderd joints. This is only a theory, but seems logical to me.

 

Mike.

[Andie]

Oh, boy! Don't you just love laptops and whiteboards, and the wonderful time we all have trying to work out whether it is the laptop or the whiteboard just so we can convince the supplier to fix it!

 

You said you had connected a monitor to the problem laptop, but didn't say whether or not it worked. You also said that you had tried the laptop on another board, but it wouldn't work with that either. But the original board will work with a different laptop.

 

So I don't think it's the board. If the monitor wouldn't display from the laptop, then I would guess it is one of two things:

 

1. Dual display mode has been unset on the laptop, as mentioned above (Fn + whatever function key does it on that laptop - but I'm sure you would have tried this already) or some setting for this is disabled, but you said you had copied all the settings from another laptop and that didn't work.

2. Faulty connection to second display - RGB connector pins, faulty monitor cable, or faulty hardware inside the laptop where the RGB port is attached.

 

Also, can you tell if the board itself is picking up the laptop? On the SMARTboards there is usually a red light that turns to green when the laptop connects. This is through the serial/USB cable connection and not the monitor cable connection. If the serial/USB connection is OK, then it is definitely just an issue with displaying to another monitor (or in this case to the projector) and not an issue with other connections between the laptop and the board.

 

Sorry if this is long-winded. I was just trying to work through what you said you had tried and what has been suggested here.

[kylewilliamson]

if you do find it's the vga connection, you could give one of these a wirl

 

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=12852

[iatkinson]

Used one of those vga-usb 2.0 adapters that kyle suggests for a teacher who damaged the vga port on their laptop. Works fine for most stuff though could be a bit jerky with full-screen video. No complaints from teacher since and that was 6 months ago...a new record

[witch]

Thanks guys

I did of course try the dual display thingy - its Fn and F8 on Dells, (been doing this a while!) and I am leaning towards the VGA being duff.

On the prometheans the only way of telling that the laptop sees the board is the icon on the taskbar, and that is fine which would also indicate that the actual system is working, but it is just the display that isn't, wouldnt it?

Connecting a monitor did work, but I havent fiddled with the connection so I will go and do same

Interestingly, I have seen one of those usb to vga adaptors lying around somewhere in one of the schools I work in - now I just have to find it!!

The laptop is over 7 years old so it isn't really worth mending, I don't think

Thanks for the help, people, and thanks for the kind comment, busybub!

[witch]

Oh blast it!

I found the vga USB adaptor but it won't be any good as the laptop is so old it only has one USB port and it needs that for the whiteboard connection.

I will try it on an external monitor just to confirm the problem though

[western]

Some projectors allow you to change the input type of the vga port, for example NEC's let you input a component or even composite scart signal to the VGA port. Check in the menu for the projector.

[witch]

It gets worse!

I can now get the display up on an external monitor, toggling happily using Fn F8 - but if I connect it to the whiteboard, the toggle function is disabled (you can see that it doesn't even flicker). This is done without switching off the machine or changing any settings.

The identical machine works fine on the whiteboard

I have found one difference in the advanced settings relating to the display but I don't understand why that would affect it when attached to a whiteboard but not a monitor.

It won't let me delete the setting so it matches the other machine.

Argghhhhh!!!

[mac_shinobi]

not sure if this is of any use but if it uses an onboard intel graphics card then it generally comes with the intel graphics properties utility and I find that if you do not set things using the util then it over rides the windows display settings.

 

So getting it to clone the display etc is best done using the intel utility.

 

 

Also where are you trying to delete the settings from ?

[witch]

I don't think it uses an on board intel graphics card but I will have a look

Where's the utility then? I have set it up from the display properties, as I have done for all of them

[mac_shinobi]

In control panel if it has an intel graphics card provided the intel graphics card drivers are installed there should be an intel graphics option in the control panel, short of that when you right click on the desktop there should be a graphics properties options in the context menu.

 

If not what make and model of graphics card do they have ?

[witch]

Ah, now I know what you mean. My newer laptops have this option but these older ones do not.

I am at the wrong school to tell you what the graphics card is -will post it later

[witch]

Its got Radeon Mobility

Had another go - no go

[mac_shinobi]

This is just from memory but on ATI graphics cards if you go to advanced on display properties there is a section to configure the external display provided it detects it that looks something similiar to this :

 

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/5060/testdt5.jpg

 

http://www.support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/Gateway/M280/1008547su73.shtml

 

On the 2nd link if you scroll down there is a screen grab of what I mean where you can see what displays are attached to the graphics card.

 

You should be able to configure it there ( http://supcontent.gateway.com/support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/Gateway/M280/ATIDP12.gif )

 

and it should show you if the external display is attached or not etc.

 

Just to get this clear in my head you are attaching a white board via the external vga port on these laptops or can you show me how it is attached exactly ?

 

ie

 

laptop ati vga out --> smart board --> etc ?????

[Andie]

I think you are actually connecting the laptop VGA port to a projector via a junction box, and the projector displays on the whiteboard (Promethean). At a loss now to see where the problem lies, though... VGA port displays fine through external monitor; another laptop displays fine through this projector - so VGA port and junction box and projector are all OK.

 

So if the problem laptop is connected to another projector on a whiteboard and doesn't work then it must be a setting on the laptop that is only picked up through a projector/junction box and not through an external monitor???

 

Sorry, just trying to think it through aloud. Maybe it will help...???

[DMcCoy]

The refresh rate is 60Hz? Also make sure you try 800x600 to rule out any resolution issues.

[witch]

Right

It is a smartboard so there is no junction box - unlike a promethean. The projector is connected via a vga cable directly from the laptop to the back of the projector.

It makes no difference whether the smartboard is connected (via USB) or not SO it must be an issue with how the laptop is seeing the projector.

As I said, an external monitor works fine.

Under advanced properties I cannot get the 'pictures' of the monitors -labelled 1 and 2 to look the same (1 large, 2 small) as they do on the laptop that works, and if I RC monitor 2 I get told it is inactive. I didn' check the settings that show when the external monitor is connected - I will try to remember to do that next week.

On the working laptop, the default display scheme is a blank box, whereas on the duff one it says 'default single monitor' or something else I can't remember (I'm at my other school today) and I cannot get it to stay blank as it is on the working laptop.

Gecko - I cannot access your links as RM has blocked them - but thanks anyway.

It has to be a problem with the way the laptop is seeing the projector but I am damned if I can work out what. I am going round in circles with the advanced graphics settings

It's a Dell Latitude C640 if that helps anyone.

Thanks for all your help guys

NB I have checked the refresh rate and the rest

[chrbb]

I've had this problem with a staff laptop, turns out the teacher had reinstalled windows which had installed a graphics driver that at first glance seemed to be the right one. Downloaded the latest driver from the manufacturer's website and it worked straight away. Do you have the orginal laptop discs still?