A question for some of you computer experts out there can you use a wide screen monitor with just a regular notebook or will it look funny or leave a black edge around the screen?

hi mike, im using one right now no probs at all.
cheers
dennis

thanks dennis does it fill the whole screen? Do you know what resolution you are using? Best Buy has a 19" wide screen lcd monitor for 129 dollars.
thanks again for the quick reply

hi mike, yep fills the whole screen..i always use the maximum resolution for an lcd screen, its the best way to use them, mine is a dell 19" monitor set at 1280x1024...there is usually a key (on the laptop keyboard) with an alternate function for the display which you would need to press to have the screen sent out only the monitor out and not to both the monitor out and the inbuilt screen...most lappies have it, you just gotta find out which one for you (example on the acer aspire series its the fn key+ f5)
cheers
dennis

Most notebook video drivers are designed to handle different resolutions on the notebook and attached display, so long as the attached display resolution is one of those supported by the graphics card in the notebook. Wide screen should be supportable up to at least 1400 x 900.

Thanks guys!

As Mac Allock stated, most affordable widescreen monitors support 1440x900 resolution. thus presenting more things on the left-to-right direction as in cinema displays than on the up-down one, compared to 1280x1024 "TV type" ones

there maybe a concern to you if you are using aplications that tend to grow in the up-down direction.

Example: you are using a soft synths and a VST rack as Forte...
the more synths you stack, the more the stack grows vertically. It may be a poor paradigm but sometimes if you stack 4 of them, they may fit in the 1024 vertical, 4:3 monitor, but in the 900 vertical you may have to scroll up down to get to the last one.

Don't know if I made myself understood here, someone else give a more useful paradigm?

trident thanks, I understand what you mean I don't think that will be a problem in this setup. It is mostly internet and general type stuff no serious music or anything else.

So how do I get the laptop to recognize the monitor my friends LT is a Dell running xp but someone messed with it and I think installed a bootleg xp even though it came with xp. I tried the display properties and settings and it doesn't see the other monitor, on my gateway laptop it was real easy.

[This message has been edited by mikeathome1 (edited 06-03-2007).]

Connect the monitor before you turn the laptop on, and it should be recognised when the laptop boots up, if it is not recognised then make sure it has not been disabled in the bios.
Hope this helps

Bill

Thanks I didn't think about that.

Can you tell me approx what I am looking for in the Bios. My computer didn't show anything about display devices or monitors but also my computer is not the one with the problem.

[This message has been edited by mikeathome1 (edited 06-03-2007).]

It depends on the model, the best way is to go to the Dell web site and do a search for the problem in the Technical Support section. (I had a look, but without knowing the exact details of the laptop it is difficult to ascertain the correct solution)
Normally if you go into the bios and select setup defaults, (The actual wording differs between different makes) this will set the bios as it left the Dell factory.
Hope this helps

Bill

Thanks alot I'll tell him to try that.

Some notebooks allow you to disable the external monitor port as a power saving measure, this might be in the BIOS but usually it will be somewhere in the Power options in the Control Panel. I don't remember seeing it in the bios on Dell's I have fiddled with but then again I havent looked that hard.


Use of the external monitor port is also controlled by a keyboard hotkey, possibly Function + F4; you can just see a symbol a bit like |O| on the appropriate FKey. Successive presses of the key cycles through "Notebook", "Both", "External Only" so don't panic of your notebook screen disappears!

I'd download and install the latest graphics drivers; the XP default ones are very generic.

Dells website is pretty good. The best way to get updates is to use the Service Tag which is somewhere on the bottom of the laptop, usually near the model number. Go to Dells service site (heres the UK one which ought to do:http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=gen) select "Service Tag", enter your value and hopefully you get to the master page for updates to the laptop. Trawl and select!

Hopefully you will then "Graphics Properties" pages that allow you to define the characteristics of the external monitor. The style used depends on the manufacturer of the graphics chip. The ATI / Radeon method is more intuitive than the "Intel Express Graphics" method (and I'd expect the laptop to have one of these two options) but both do the job. With the Intel drivers theres a "Clone" option; if you want to drive the external monitor at a different resolution to the notebook turn this off!

Hotlink didn't work, does this?
http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=gen

Finally got it to work with the function key (f8) thanks to everyone.