One of my teaching colleagues is having a new issue with her laptop / s-video cable which she has plugged into a TV in her room. I've been searching the web to find the answer.

Up until today it has worked fine, but now the following is happening:
-she plugs in the s-cable
-turns on her Dell laptop computer
-the loading screen is visible, but basically as soon as it gets to the main desktop screen the video begins to display on the TV monitor and the laptop LCD display cuts off entirely. When the cable is unplugged the LCD is visible again

Is there a way (there must be!) to change this... She keeps getting a popup now telling her that the display will best be VIEWED with a resolution of 1200X800, but she SAYS the only difference has been that her icons on her desktop have gotten smaller (which I think is probably unrelated?).

Any ideas?
It might depend on the video hardware she has in the laptop. Some onboard video and some after market video cards will not allow a dual display, especially through S-Video. What she is wanting to do is "clone" the display, so the same display appears on both the laptop monitor and the TV.

If you haven't already done this, give it a try:

1. Go to Control Panel, and click on "Personalization".

2. Click on Display Settings, then click "Advanced Settings".

3. At the top of the window there should be some tabs. (Adapter, Monitor, Troubleshoot, etc.) Find the one that DESCRIBES either a video card such as Nvidia/ATI, or describes a Graphics MEDIA Accelerator or something similar. Click on it.

4. From here you might have to click on a "Properties" button, or not. Depends on the hardware.

5. From here it should show a "Multiple Display" option. You will have to connect the TV via S-Video cable at this point. Then it should give you more options.

These steps are based on a Vista operating system. If you are using XP or Windows 7, there may be some subtle differences in steps to get to that Multiple Display window.

If this doesn't work, you might want to post back with her laptop specs. (Hardware installed, Operating System, etc.)On my TOSHIBA with XP I just right click on an open area of the desktop and click "Graphics Properties" . There is also an option "Graphics Options" where I can choose "Output To" "Intel Dual Display Clone" "Notebook+Television"Quote from: cruisin702 on January 27, 2010, 11:10:58 PM

On my Toshiba with XP I just right click on an open area of the desktop and click "Graphics Properties" . There is also an option "Graphics Options" where I can choose "Output To" "Intel Dual Display Clone" "Notebook+Television"