Need some computer advise

[TheMace]

I bought my wife a laptop 10 inch screen the last time I was in China as she wanted something that was light weight and small enough to carry in her purse. Now that she is here, I am trying to hook up a 19" monitor to it so she can use it to study English as the 10" is to small for her to read for any length of time. I hooked up the VGA to the 19" then connected it to her laptop. When I turn on the monitor I get a

"no signal" msg on the monitor. Is there something I am doing wrong, it seems like it should be a simple hook up plug in the vga cable to the monitor at one end and connect it to her laptop and power them both on. At first I thought is was because she has windows xp chinese version, so I tried it on my laptop but get the same no signal on the 19" monitor. Any help will be welcome.

 

Thanks,

Gary

[Sam and Fen]

It should work as connected but try this.

 

On one of the function keys on the laptop there should be an icon for the monitor.

Press down the ctrl key and hit the monitor function key. (not sure if its the alt or the ctrl key so try both)

[Randy W]

Also try right clicking on the desktop background. Select "Display Properties", and the Settings tab. Make sure that the second display is enabled.

[TheMace]

Also try right clicking on the desktop background. Select "Display Properties", and the Settings tab. Make sure that the second display is enabled.

Thanks Sam and Randy, I'll have to have my wife do your suggestion Randy as it is all in Chinese

[david_dawei]

Another variation is to "extend" the screen to the larger one... she'll get independent use of the smaller one and the large one.

[RobertH]

Some laptops you need to go into the BIOS and enable the external monitor port.

[Spekkio99]

There is a blue "fn" button on the bottom left of the laptop keyboard.

And there is a one of the function keys (usually F7) that has a blue monitor icon on it.

 

You need to press both of those keys together while the laptop is hooked up to a monitor with a vga cable.

[dnoblett]

There is a blue "fn" button on the bottom left of the laptop keyboard.

And there is a one of the function keys (usually F7) that has a blue monitor icon on it.

 

You need to press both of those keys together while the laptop is hooked up to a monitor with a vga cable.

Yep this what is needed to be done.

 

Also once monitor is switched on you can change it's resolution to match the larger display by right clicking on the desktop and selecting properties.

[TheMace]

There is a blue "fn" button on the bottom left of the laptop keyboard.

And there is a one of the function keys (usually F7) that has a blue monitor icon on it.

 

You need to press both of those keys together while the laptop is hooked up to a monitor with a vga cable.

Yep this what is needed to be done.

 

Also once monitor is switched on you can change it's resolution to match the larger display by right clicking on the desktop and selecting properties.

 

Hi, thanks for the answers, but this may not be important non of the keys are blue, all are black unless what looks like white is a faded blue on the fn and f5 keys. I have conected the Vga to the laptop and external monitor and laptop, keyed the fn and f5 at the same time, but still get the no signal on the external monitor, I've tried the following keys along with the fn and still get the no signal f3, f5, f7, f9, f11. The only f keys I haven't tried are f2, 4, 6, 8, 10. Do you think it is possible since the laptop originally had windows xp in english and now is running windows xp chinese it is causing some problem with the laptop trying to communicat with the external monitor. I have the same brand laptop just a little larger and it's running windows xp english and I have no problem connecting with the external monitor when I key fn and f5. ?????????????????????/