witch Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 I have just built an old laptop up for use as a spare and all seemed well - I cross-checked it with another of the same breed and all drivers etc are present. However, when I hook it up to a projector all images (background, school logo, icons etc) are pixellated. If I connect it to an external monitor everything is absolutely fine. I have tried it on two projectors with the same result. Can anyone explain what is going on here? It is a old HP Compaq nx 7400 running Windows XP. Resolution is 1024x768 - exactly as it is on the working machine.
plexer Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 Have you tied it on something like 800 x 600? Ben
plexer Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 Ok following on from that and my misspelling have you tied it to a brick and thrown it in the river What refresh rate is it using when connected to the projector? Also have you tied one of your others of the same breed to see if they exhibit the same issue? Ben
witch Posted November 8, 2011 Author Posted November 8, 2011 (edited) Others of the same breed are fine and I have set the refresh rate to whatever it is on the identical working machine (cant remember it now) I'll just tie a brick round it now, but can I throw it in the sea please? *edit: 60hz is the only option I have Edited November 8, 2011 by witch
plexer Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 Ok wierd and could just be a laptop that doesn't want to play nicely, any chance you can just swap it with one of the others permanantly? Ben
plexer Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 Are you running it on mains or battery? If mains have you tried it on battery only allthough I don't think that will have any effect in this instance. Ben
witch Posted November 8, 2011 Author Posted November 8, 2011 It was on the mains in one room I tried and on battery in the other - no change I'm afraid. I can't swap it out as I have absolutely no other laptops. I want to know what is going on with this one!
plexer Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 You said you had others of the same recipe that you'd tried can't you just swap it for one of those? Is this with vga output only or vga + laptop panel? Ben
witch Posted November 8, 2011 Author Posted November 8, 2011 Nope - I only have one other free that is earmarked for supply. This one is for the cover supervisor/htla to use on a daily basis.
glennda Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 which have you set first? laptop + monitor or monitor + laptop? Try with monitor first - i've seen this on a few machines where they just can't give out enough on the second.
witch Posted November 8, 2011 Author Posted November 8, 2011 Not sure if pixellation happens when just projector is chosen - I think so, will check It is currently set to notebook and monitor - I will swap it over and have a look
Marc-Engineer Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 What make and model of projector is it and is the laptop a Dell? Marc Projector engineer
plexer Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 It is a old HP Compaq nx 7400 running Windows XP. Resolution is 1024x768 - exactly as it is on the working machine. Nope it's an HP Ben
salbematch Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 Have you tried connecting the laptop directly to the projector with a known good VGA cable? I'm assuming that there is a 'plumbed-in' VGA cable from the projector down to the IWB. Also, have you tried cycling through the display modes with the laptop connected? i.e. ltop + monitor ==> monitor only ==> ltop only ==> back to ltop + monitor. I have seen a similar problem with some recycled HP laptops and cycling through the display modes cures it.
witch Posted November 8, 2011 Author Posted November 8, 2011 As it is for a 'roaming' person I tried it in two classrooms where there just happen to be jobshares so there are normally 2 different makes of laptops connected to each projector - but they work fine so I dont think it is the cable. I havent cycled through the display modes - will try that tomorrow
Marc-Engineer Posted November 9, 2011 Posted November 9, 2011 Is the projector OK with the out put from a PC (not laptop) with no monitor connected? check res make sure it is the same. Marc Projector Engineer
witch Posted November 9, 2011 Author Posted November 9, 2011 The projector is only ever used with laptops. I cycled through the display modes and that seemed to sort it (funny, I could have sworn I did it before) but I changed the dual mode to monitor and notebook just in case as well. Thanks guys
glennda Posted November 9, 2011 Posted November 9, 2011 The projector is only ever used with laptops. I cycled through the display modes and that seemed to sort it (funny, I could have sworn I did it before) but I changed the dual mode to monitor and notebook just in case as well. Thanks guys you may find the graphics card is slowly failing! I had this at my previous place with a desktop which wouldn't output signal. We replaced the machine and it worked fine.
witch Posted November 9, 2011 Author Posted November 9, 2011 you may find the graphics card is slowly failing! I had this at my previous place with a desktop which wouldn't output signal. We replaced the machine and it worked fine. Very likely. We dont have any other machines though so it will just have to fail...
accura2000 Posted November 9, 2011 Posted November 9, 2011 If you have an identical machine that does work, why not just ghost it to the one not working?
witch Posted November 9, 2011 Author Posted November 9, 2011 If you have an identical machine that does work, why not just ghost it to the one not working? Because there is no way I can get it away from the teacher it belongs to. Anyway, I am thinking along the lines of graphics fail so an image wouldnt help anyway
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