[Stewie]

Recently i got a new external monitor for my laptop the monitor is a Dell ST2420L and the laptop is an alienware m17x running vista with a Nvidia Geforce 260m graphics card.

When i first got the monitor it worked perfectly with the laptop with a VGA cable and also a HDMI cable at separate times of course but one day all of a sudden it has stopped working. I have tried everything i possibly can, ive update and reinstalled drivers for the laptop and monitor.

Ive also had a look around in the Nvidia control panel settings but it seems pretty pointless in there and not much i can change around.

Ive tried different cables and also the windows mobility center and no luck.

I think the problem is that the laptop isnt detecting that the monitor is connected, it isnt the monitor though because my xbox 360 and ps3 both work on it through VGA and HDMI.

I'm really hoping someone here can find a solution to my problem because for the past 4 days i think ive googled everything possible to trying to find a solution to this.

Thanks, Stewie.

 

[konefsta]

if you plug vga or hdmi , in device manager shows the connection with the monitor ?

 

[Stewie]

No. It shows nothing.

 

[Stewie]

:4-thatsbaNo. It shows nothing.

 

[konefsta]

well try this , power down your laptop. Plug in the external monitor. Boot the computer , it may show the external monitor by default. Then shut down normally. after that pull the monitor cable, boot your laptop normally, reattach the cable, and check if you can change display .

EDIT : when you power down your laptop , firstly turn on the external monitor and then power on your laptop .

 

[Stewie]

Just tried that no luck :S
I dont understand why it just suddenly stopped working its so frustrating.

 

[Kieran_in_Perth]

Hi Stewie,
I also have an Alienware M17x running Windows 7, 64-bit (Service Pack 1) and a GeForce GTX 260M graphics card.


I’ve also been using a Dell ST2420L external monitor for about 5 or 6 months with no problem, but today it didn’t work; the graphics card could not detect the monitor.


Here’s a bit of background that may or may not be relevant. I use the monitor at work. At the end of the day, I shutdown the laptop, unplug all the cables and go home. The monitor stays on and powers down. In the morning I plug in all the cables a power up the laptop and it detects the external monitor.


After a bit of googling around I found something that works.


I unplugged the monitor from the laptop, turned it off at the power point, left it like that for a few minutes, then turned the power back on and reconnected the monitor to the laptop.


It worked.


So I don’t know what the problem was, but maybe it has something to do with the monitor being on all the time.
K