Connect a monitor to a laptop vista

It's in the left panel. Click the menu next to "When I close the lid" in the "Plugged in" column. Several options will appear. Select Do nothing from the menu. This tells Windows not to shut down if you close the lid of your laptop as long as the laptop is plugged in. If you choose this option for "On battery," the second monitor will stay on even if you close the laptop if you're not plugged in.

This could drastically decrease the life of your battery, so it's not recommended. Click Save changes. Now, as long as your laptop is plugged in, you can close the lid without turning off your external monitor. Method 4. Find your MacBook's video output. You'll need to make sure you have a port on your Mac that is compatible with an input on your monitor. But if your monitor and your laptop don't have the same ports, don't worry—in most cases, you can get an adapter that can bridge two video types, such as Thunderbolt to HDMI, which makes it possible to use nearly any type of monitor with your MacBook.

You'll see a lightning bolt icon near this port on MacBook Air models from , and MacBook Pros from On MacBook Pro and Air models made between and , you'll see a square with two vertical lines instead. Find your monitor's video input. Look at the back of your monitor for ports labeled "Input" or that like the port you found on your MacBook. If you don't have identical ports on both devices, you can usually get an adapter that will connect the two.

Most of these monitors come with a cable that will fit into these ports and work immediately. Get a cable and an adapter if necessary. If your MacBook and monitor don't have matching ports, you can use an adapter to bridge two different cable types, such as Thunderbolt 3 to HDMI. If you're confused about which cable to get, this should help: MacBooks with Thunderbolt 4: Use a Thunderbolt 4, Thunderbolt 3, or USB-C cable to connect to any of these types of monitors.

Plug on end of the cable into your MacBook's video port, and the other end into your monitor's video input port. If an adapter is required, connect the cables with adapter to bridge them. In most cases, you should see your MacBook's screen either extended or mirrored on the second monitor. If you are using a monitor or TV that has multiple inputs, you may need to select the port you connected your laptop to on the monitor. Press the button that says "Input", "Source". If you don't see your MacBook's screen on your monitor, you may need to detect the display.

Method 5. Open your Mac's System Preferences…. You'll find it in the Apple menu, which is at the top-left corner of the screen. This is where you can control how your second screen acts on your MacBook. Click Displays. It's the monitor icon in the System Preferences window. This takes you to the Display tab. Click the Arrangement tab.

It's at the top of the window. Remove the checkmark from "Mirror Displays. But if you want the second monitor to act as a second desktop to give you more space for multitasking, don't check this option. If your plan is to close the laptop and use the second monitor as your only monitor, mirroring is the option you'll want. Choose the primary monitor. You'll see two rectangles at the center of the window—one represents your built-in monitor, and the other represents your external monitor. A thin white bar runs along the top of the rectangle that's set as your primary monitor, which is your laptop's built-in screen by default.

If you want your external monitor to be the primary monitor, click and hold the white bar with the mouse, and then drag it to the other monitor. The menu bar will only appear on the primary display. If you want to keep your laptop as your primary monitor, you don't have to change anything here. Rearrange the screens optional. Drag the second screen to its actual position so the arrangement looks how it does in real life.

This makes it so you can easily drag a window from one monitor to another without having to guess which direction to drag it in. Method 6. Connect a keyboard and mouse to your MacBook. If you want to use your second monitor as your only monitor while your MacBook's lid is closed, you'll need a mouse and keyboard that work with your Mac. Plug your MacBook in to a power source.

You can only use a second monitor as your only monitor on your Mac laptop when it is connected to a power source. If your MacBook is not plugged in, your external monitor will turn off when you close the lid of your MacBook. This is also called "closed lid mode" or "closed clamshell mode. Turn on screen mirroring. If you want the external monitor to display the same thing you'd see on your laptop's main monitor, you'll want to mirror the screens.

Here's how: Click the Apple menu and select System Preferences. Check the box next to "Mirror Displays. Adjust your energy saving settings. To prevent your screen from turning off when the lid is closed: Click the Apple menu and select System Preferences. Click Battery. Drag the slider at the top all the way to the right to "Never". Close the lid of your MacBook. Now when you close your MacBook, your external monitor will act as the only monitor.

How do I hook up two monitors to my laptop? My laptop will only use one at a time. Maybe your laptop has hardware restrictions. Check your graphics card to see the maximum monitors it supports. Not Helpful 3 Helpful My laptop has crashed. It is 10 months old, and now I can't get into the files. Can I use a monitor to get out important files? The monitor just lets you see the image on the screen or add an extra display.

You should try the disc recovery tool. Pretty much; if you have an old monitor you should plug in a vga cable and the power cable. If you have a newer monitor, you need an hdmi cable with the power cord.

Not Helpful 2 Helpful My laptop screen is broken. Can I use my laptop screen with an external monitor? Yes, you can as long as you've got the required cable to connect the two.

Not Helpful 14 Helpful That is probably because your monitor doesn't have any speakers; try plugging in speakers or headphones and see if that works. Not Helpful 12 Helpful 8.

The screen on my Toshiba CLQ keeps going dark. A torch shows it's all happening on the screen, but hard to see. It keeps happening, then the screen was replaced two weeks ago, and now it's happened again. What do I do? Maybe you could try making the screen brighter. Most laptop computers will come with hotkeys that adjust the screen brightness. Not Helpful 6 Helpful 3. Go to Settings, System, Display, and click on Detect to find the monitor.

Then you can choose the way you want to expand your display. Not Helpful 17 Helpful 2. How can I view the data from one laptop on another laptop? The screen is broken. You would have to select a setting to share your screen from the broken-screened laptop to the working one, but as it is broken, this cannot be done.

The only way to get your data back is to recover your hard drive. Not Helpful 3 Helpful 0. You will need a VGA cable as well to connect the adapter to the monitor. My hp i5 laptop screen is broken. How can I get visuals on an HD television? I'm using a0HDMI cable but it won't work. Jarod Smith. Some of them require you to use F8 to transfer to the TV. The only other option is to try to replace it. Not Helpful 1 Helpful 2. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.

By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube. DisplayPort, HDMI, Thunderbolt 3 and later, and USB-C can all carry audio, meaning that your monitor's speakers should be able to transmit your laptop's audio output if you're using one of these connections.

Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0. If you want to connect your laptop to a monitor wirelessly, you may be able to do so using a compatible Smart TV. If you are using an older video cable, you may not be able to get sound on your TV. You can transmit sound to an external set of speakers using the headphone port on your laptop. Use a 3. Use an adapter to connect to the speakers or audio input, if needed. If your monitor isn't displaying your laptop's contents, you may have a faulty cable. Try connecting with a different cable, or using a different connector if possible.

This will open the Display Settings program. Once you have done this you will see something like the image below. If you have a second video card installed on your computer then you will see two graphical representations of computer monitors.

If you have more than two video cards then you will see a graphic corresponding with each video card you have installed. The monitor you are currently using is "1". We are wanting to turn on monitor "2". Click on the box with the 2 in it and you'll now be dealing exclusively with the second monitor. Once you've done this you'll see something similar to the window shown in the second image. By now you've probably clicked the "Extend the desktop onto this monitor" checkbox and seen your second monitor display an image of your desktop background.

If you haven't then now would be a good time to do so. Once you've done this you can use your second monitor as is, but it's helpful to align it, and set the proper resolution. To align the second monitor in relation to the first one you just click and drag the "2" box until it's in approximately the correct position as related to where the monitors are actually sitting on your desk.

This is important because when you actually want to use the second monitor you will need to physically drag the windows you want on it "off the edge" of one screen and "onto" the other.

It's easier to see, and do, then explain. Once you've done this click the "Apply" box and you'll be presented with one last dialog box asking if you want to keep the settings. If your screen goes blank and you see nothing then just wait for a minute and it'll come back.

At this point you may also want to adjust the resolution of the second monitor to get it to look right. The trickiest part of the entire dual monitor setup is learning how to use it. What we've done is enlarge the desktop and stretch it across two monitors. With mine setup as shown in the pictures, when I move my mouse to the far left side of the laptop monitor it will vanish from my laptop screen and immediately appear on the right side of the screen on the second monitor.

Basically, just pretend that you have one monitor and you've cut in half and it magically still works. When I maximize any window on my computer, though, it will fill the screen that it's on but not both.

To help clear things up, take a look at the images. The first one is a screen capture with all of my windows minimized. The division that is seen is the border between the two monitors. When I want to move between them I just move the mouse, or window, in the corresponding direction. In the second image I've brought up the instructables website on the right, another browser playing a video on the left, and a third window in between them.

To see how this looks on the monitors just take a look at the last image. In conclusion, I hope this instructable has been helpful. I mainly want people that are using laptops, or wishing they had larger screens, to realize what a normal person can easily do to help make their lives easier.

I mainly use this to watch video on the second monitor while I do other things on the laptop LCD. This lets me do other things without having to resize windows to ridicules dimensions.

I've only have this setup for a day and my computer handles it just fine although the second monitor does tend to flicker every once in a while due to age. Hope you've enjoyed and found this helpful and insightful! Thanks for reading! You can also try this guide too!!

Reply 7 years ago on Introduction. Reply 12 years ago on Introduction. This may sound like a stupid question, so please forgive me, but how do I check if my laptop has a graphics card with multiple outputs? The only stupid question is the one not asked!