Laptop Video Out Problem

[Franco]

Ok, so im probably I am being really dumb here.

I have just recently purchased an Acer Aspire 3020WLMi and I am over the moon with it. The only thing that is bugging me is I can't seem to enable the video out to allow me to watch the laptop screen output on my TV. I tried using an S-Video to RCA adapter without any luck. I have also bought a VGA to S-Video/RCA adaper but I do not seem to be having any luck with that either.


I have taken a couple of screenshots of my display properties etc which should hopefully give you guys more of an idea of whats going on.

This is a screenshot of my multiple monitor properties screen. I think the major problem is that for some reason I cannot 'turn on' the TV output button (using the S-Video out) or Monitor (if i use the VGA out) output button.



This is a screenshot of the Display Properties screen. I have tried to select the 2nd monitor and click on the 'Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor' box before selecting Apply or OK. All that happens here is that the laptop screen goes blank and there is a faint line on the connected TV screen for a few seconds before the laptop screen turns on again. Obviously there seems to be some kind of signal getting through.



Someone sugested putting the resolution down to 800x600 but this hasnt seem to help.

Does anyone have an idea what I am doing wrong? I am sure it is something simple.

Thanks in advance.

[Zero_Hour]

One thing to try -

Make sure you have your TV powered on and connected to the Laptop. Try and use the Keyboard shortcuts for toggling the display output. This is usually the Fn key held down while pressing the appropriate Function Key (The Gateways I use ate work use Fn + F4).

Sometimes this will help 'Detect' the secondary display, and then you can work on fine tuning the resolution settings at that point.

You might also take a look at the CMOS settings, and see if there are any Display settings relevant to your problem. I've seen some that do and some that don't, but It can't hurt to look theree if you are still stuck.

[Franco]

Thanks for the sugestions. I tried the shortcuts when connected to the TV, it looks like the shortcut is F5 or F6 but it doesn't seem to work.

I had a look in the BIOS but there was nothing there unfortunatly. I did notice the TV that the laptop is connected to was much more active all the way upto when windows started, it kinda looked like a channel is just about to tune in.

Ive posted on a laptop forum too, if I dont get anymore suggestions I think I will contact Acer customer support tomorrow.

Thanks.

[jbox]

The function key is different for different laptop (eg. mine is F+F8), but it looks like you did work that out yourself. Other things to try:

- try shutting it all down, plugging it all in, then booting. my laptop "defaults" to video-out whenever I boot with one plugged in

- remember there are usually three different video modes: LCD only, LCD + TV, and TV only. sometimes one or the other mode makes a big difference to how well your video card spits out an image

- lastly, turn down the resolution. start with the lowest resolution you can (usually 800x640) and only go up after you get it working. Particularly for wide-screen laptops, not every resolution will work properly on TV-out

If you can get the BIOS showing on the TV, but then it freaks out once it hits windows it is most likely a resolution problem or similar windows setting, rather than a BIOS or hardware problem.

[shmokes]

It sounds to me like it's not sensing the TV and my guess is that it has to be plugged into an honest-to-god s-video port rather than into an RCA port with an adapter.

Also, make sure that you are holding down the function (fn) key when pressing F5 or F6 to switch video modes.

[knuttz]

Also you may want to try and see if Acer has its own svideo to rca adapter.  My HP laptop's svideo port has extra pins for rca output.  Using a HP svideo to rca adapter yields much better quality than using a generic svideo to rca adapter.  This is because no down conversion is taking place.  This would also probably eliminate the problem smokes is talking about.

[Franco]

Thanks guys,

I tried a normal s-video to s-video cable and it worked on a tv that has a s-video input. 

The only problem is that the tv i want to use does not have a s-video input. Ill have a look to see if Acer do have there own adapter, Ill have a look around.