Ok so yes another post about yet ANOTHER of my broken laptops...this time a different issue hopefully easier to solve. I did actually look to see if i could find a way to activate my Dell external monitor but so far no dice. What's weird is i am currently using my Dell monitor on an ancient desktop....but no matter which laptop i plug the monitor into it simply will NOT show the display from the laptop.

In THIS case i know the AR graphics card is working because the lamp went out and when i SHINE a flashlight on the screen i can still see the windows logo and all that.  The problem is i dont want to sit there with a flashlight to use the computer...so i have this cool external monitor but i'm not able to get it to work during bootup. 

anyway, the AR is kind of a bad laptop....build quality wise....just complete junk especially the screen hinges...in my case both broke very soon after acquiring it.  If anyone can HELP me with the external monitor issue id be very grateful!

cheers

[recovering disk space, attachment deleted by admin]Have you tried telling the laptop to output to the external monitor?

You will need to do this in your display options (Same place you set the screen resolution).

Using it during bootup is trickier - As the internal screen is dead, disconnecting this from the motherboard can usually force the laptop to work on the external monitor by default.Thanks for the idea to disconnect from the MB....im going to try that tonight and see if it helps.....very cool of you for that!  But yes theres no way for me to do it within windows because i have forgotten the windows password to that HD havent used it for so long....thats part of the reason im trying to do this so i can do a REINSTALL and eventually make the laptop ACCESSIBLE through SSH or remote desktop type thing....will have a status update sooni had to basically disassemble the entire computer to get to the various screen cables that plug into the mobo.....after powering on i have a working external keyboard but no signal to the monitor. Problem with external keyboards is they dont have the function+screen keys that you normally use on the laptop to tell the laptop to switch the output signal to an external screen...yeah..and the other problem is the laptop keyboard is toast a long time ago so ive always used an external keyboard to use it.   Is this thing just ready to be thrown or parted out or would i have better luck with a different brand/model of external monitor?  thanks!The external keyboard should do the same commands...did you use the Shift/Tab keys ? ?i did not try the shift/tab keys.....do i need to use them in combination with other keys to activate the external display? I have search engined 'external monitor sony viao' and variations on that theme....closest i found was fn+f7  and i dont have a function key on my external keyboard.  The one thing i havent tried yet is to see if the display from the AW220 will plug into the laptop of the AR630....that would be quite amazing if it was the same plugs....but i havent had the gumption to totally disassemble the AW220 yet to check the lcd connectors.  Will probly have to wait till tomorrow as my head is already swimming from this round....THANKS guys for your help!Since the screen is cracked how difficult would it be to use a 17" screen/panel from say an HP dv7? Are the wires the same even if i have to swap out the plugs from the Sony? If the wires are the same and all i have to do is wire new plugs onto the panel i would do that.....anyone have any experience with doing this kind of surgery?


thx