extra monitor for laptop

[topr8]

my laptop has a monitor socket at the back and i plugged in a monitor ...

when xp (pro) boots up the splash screen displays on both monitors but after that only on the built in screen,

i can't strech the screen across the two in the normal way, the laptop doesn't seem to recognise the second screen i thought it would just be plug and play - i don't even want to stretch across two screens i just wanted a larger screen (both screens showing the same display)

any ideas

[Angelis]

Is the extend my desktop accross these monitors option greyed out in the display properties screen?

[topr8]

the second monitor doesn't even show, only the laptop built in screen shows.

(i'm running multiple monitors on my desktop pc - so am a little familiar with the display properties)

[Angelis]

Have you updated the drivers? I know the drivers that come with my Laptop are older ones and I have to upgrade them to use multiple monitors.

There is a control panel with mine where you can specify the order of the displays etc, mine is a ATI 9600...

Might be worth trying to update the drivers and see what happens.

[topr8]

makes sense will try that

[topr8]

there was a control panel, thanks to your prompting angelis, i found it - driver didn't need updating but i needed to tick the box in the control panel to 'turn on' the extra monitor.

once i'd done that it worked as i was previously expecting and the 2 monitors showed in the display properties screen.

[Angelis]

Np

[Rimpy]

once the system starts and up till the windows screen the display will be on screen and the monitor ...after whch you have to use the function keys ......FN and f1 to f10 ...probably f7(the key will contain the monitor and the laptop screen on it)...by pressing this the fn and f7 first time the dispaly will shift from laptop screen to the monitor...and when u press the fn and f7 key again it will shift back to the laptopp screen and the third time it will be shown on both.