willway

Hi everyone,

I've just hooked up a 19" Samsung monitor to my new Dell Inspiron 910 mini-laptop (running Windows XP). I've installed the proper driver for the Samsung, and have tried to make the Samsung the primary monitor on the control panel. (I do not want to use two separate monitors -- it would be fine with me if the screen on the laptop were to stay blank while the desktop appears on the Samsung; or, alternately, if I could somehow use "mirroring.")

Here's the thing. When I start up the computer, for about 20 seconds everything is fine -- I can see the desktop on the Samsung, and there's no display on the laptop screen. But then, just after McAfee virus scan pops up on the toolbar, the Samsung goes blank, and the desktop shifts to the laptop again.

If I try to make the Samsung the primary monitor without restarting the computer (i.e. by using the "apply" button) the computer simply refuses to do this and returns to the default setting.

What to do? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Once again, the important thing is that the monitor doesn't fail entirely to work -- but at some point, something happens which makes it unable to keep on being the primary monitor.

Thanks in advance for any advice on this point --

TriggerFinger

Check with your laptop user's guide if there is key combination toggle switch to transfer the screen from laptop to external monitor (i.e. Fn+F4 for some laptops).