Multiple Displays Problem

[Baboy]

Trying to run another monitor off a Toshiba Tecra M5 and 1 screen works fine but the other does not.
Its recognizing the second screen as the mouse moves across but it remains black.
Connections are fine as I can have either with a display and the other blank.
Clone and Dualview makes no difference.
FN/F5 changes the setup but 1 screen is still totally black (no flickering etc).
When the BenQ is the active screen it even chooses the correct resolution.
I installed Win 7 64bit and windows update installed all required drivers including the latest graphics driver (a later version than the NVIDIA website shows)
This lappy has a "Presentation button" which changes display options but doesnt do anything it seems under Win 7.
It does say in the manual it only works under XP even though the laptop is also "windows vista capable"

What am i missing here?

[thebrad]

So just to clarify, you can see the mouse pointer on the second screen?

If so can you drag stuff across?

[Baboy]

No the display is totally black.......the pointer will move off the active display so im assuming its on the blank display.....and yes you can drag things across,not that you can see them!

And at the moment the 'recycle bin' and another icon arnt on the active display so Id guess they are on the other desktop/screen.

[Baboy]

Originally Posted by Rezin

When you say the mouse moves across... that just means it disappears from your active monitor, but doesn't appear on the other one? Have you tried a different cable?

Edit: Does this particular monitor have VGA and DVI? If it does, is it in the right mode?

The right mode?........cable is fine as its presently the active display......lappy display is black.

The mouse pointer moves across off the right side whereas u cannot do that left top or bottom so im assuming its going onto the second display.

[Baboy]

Originally Posted by Gnatty

Right click desktop, screen resolution. Is 'extend my desktop' ticked?

You can press Win+P to cycle the options.

Are you use the resolution/refresh rate are compatible with the monitor too?

Win+p does cycle them but lappy screen remains black.......when u disable the lap display the icons (mentioned above) come back to the main screen again.

[KriiV]

It seems on your second monitor options it doesn't have the '+ Digital Flat Panel'. Would there be a reason for this? Just trying to help. Is one of the screens a CRT?

[Baboy]

Both displays are there in the nvidia control panel and the windows control panel....
Both are LCD screens.

All settings and options are working but 1 display remains black

cables are fine and screens are fine as I can alternate between which one is displaying and which one is black..........

I cant even really try older vid drivers as these are for Win 7 and any older ones would be for Vista or XP

[Gnatty]

Are you using a VGA or DVI cable? The video card may not support output over VGA (or DVI) at that resolution. Try dropping the res to 1024x768 or something.

EDIT: Oops, I forgot you said that the monitor will work, just not at the same time as your laptop display

[Baboy]

Originally Posted by Gnatty

Are you using a VGA or DVI cable? The video card may not support output over VGA (or DVI) at that resolution. Try dropping the res to 1024x768 or something.

EDIT: Oops, I forgot you said that the monitor will work, just not at the same time as your laptop display

Its on VGA.....yea the card must support it as it works fine and sets the correct and "recommended" resolution itself.....
As mentioned it seems everything..settings,options,resolutions,refresh rates etc, are all ok but 1 screen just remains totally black as if its "off"....

[Baboy]

Answer from Toshiba forum......

Given your link and statements above we can probably assume that you have the base Tecra M5 model, and that you did not follow Toshiba's instructions for doing a clean install of Windows 7, or use their utility.



Tecra M5 Toshiba Download site, etc



How to Custom Install Windows 7 and add Toshiba-provided drivers & utilities with the Toshiba Softwa...



Toshiba Software Installer for Windows 7





As well, as your system can only handle 4GB of RAM maximum there was no real benefit to installing the 64bit version of Windows 7. See this article. In fact, your old 32bit software (eg. MS Office) will actually run a bit faster on Windows 7 32bit.



In addition, Toshiba has not supplied a full set of Windows 7 64bit drivers and utilities for your model. They only have a full set of the Win7-32bit drivers and utilties. Unfortunately, this includes their nVidia display driver.



I would advise you to do another clean install of Windows 7, using the 32bit disk this time, following the directions in the 'custom install' article linked above and using the utility.



Toshiba laptops are very finicky about only using Toshiba supplied hardware drivers to work properly. That's why I recommend disabling automatic Windows Updates. 



When Windows is being set up, at some point it will ask 'Do you want to allow automatic Windows Updates?' Answer 'No, I will decide later'. After Windows is fully setup, click 'Start - All Programs - Windows Update', on the menu at left click on 'Change settings', under 'Important updates' click on the drop down menu at right and choose 'Never check for updates (not recommended)', and click OK. Then only manually check for Windows Updates, check all available updates carefully, and never allow Windows Update to change any of your hardware drivers. But, you should regularly check for updates.



Good luck.



Mike