The Conservative Cave
The Help Desk => Computer Related Discussions & Questions => Topic started by: Godot showed up on July 30, 2010, 09:40:16 AM
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I have another problem that maybe someone here can help me with, though; nothing so critical as the virus problem I had the last week and a half (now cured). I want to output to my tv from my desktop with a VGA cable--the tv has a VGA input in back and should be capable of being used as a monitor. But no matter how much I play with it, the tv (an LED LG) is still displaying "invalid format." The desktop definitely sees the tv as a monitor; it comes up as "2" in the control panel. But as I said, I can play with the resolution forever and it still comes out "invalid format."
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Let's start with what video card/ chip do you have??
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Ill have to answer that when I get home: it's NVIDIA, but probably old by now.
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Stupid question, but have you read the manual for the TV? Maybe there's a setting you're missing. A VGA-to-VGA connection should work without any issues.
TVs aren't my thing. I really don't know much about them. Have you tried turning everything off before connecting the cable and starting it up after the connection has been made?
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Stupid question, but have you read the manual for the TV? Maybe there's a setting you're missing. A VGA-to-VGA connection should work without any issues.
TVs aren't my thing. I really don't know much about them. Have you tried turning everything off before connecting the cable and starting it up after the connection has been made?
Not a stupid question--lots of people don't read manuals. But I have. The only caveat/instruction is that the VGA cable have a ferrite core, which this one does.
BUT, I haven't tried the second idea--I'll give it a shot. It's certainly worth a try.
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See if windows will "clone" the other monitor (TV)
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Check that the TV is capable of displaying the refresh rate that the laptop is supplying.
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Last year I purchased a 32 inch Toshiba to use to stream Hulu from a pc.
In my case after connecting the vga cable and booting the computer it was necessary to use the "input" key on the remote to select "PC" as the source.
On some TVs this might be under a menu function. On my Toshiba there are 7 different inputs which can be selected.
I remember having refresh rate issues when I used my laptop when first setting things up.
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If it IS Nvidia, go to nvidia.com and download the latest drivers. Nvidia has them all rolled into one. Then, access the nvidia control panel and start from there. It's a pretty easy interface to use.
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Get it working yet?
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Things have been so nuts the last few days (weekend included--don't ask, you don't want to know) I haven't had a chance to try. This coming weekend I'll finally get an opportunity to try again.
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If it IS Nvidia, go to nvidia.com and download the latest drivers. Nvidia has them all rolled into one. Then, access the nvidia control panel and start from there. It's a pretty easy interface to use.
Oh this is interesting. I'll admit I did wonder if this might have something to do with the problem--I CAN'T access the NVIDIA control panel. I keep getting some kind of error message (I always have been unable to do so; I just never cared about it before). I'll have to wait until I get home from work to give you the exact error mesage.
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Hi guys. I installed the drivers (they had to come from HP, not Nvidia, since this is an HP Pavillion--I have no idea why).
Still no joy though. I thought having the proper control panel might have made difference, but not. The laptop sees the monitor and identifies it, but they're still not synching up. Tried clone, extend monitor, etc. I have a feeling I need to find a custom output resoltion, but I haven't a clue what that should be.
How would I know if the tv can deal with the refresh rate?
The input is correctly selected.
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You should be able to view the TVs refresh rate from the display properties dialog box or from the tv itself.
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Whoa! It suddenly worked. I put the resolution up to the HIGHEST setting and then it suddenly worked!
Thanks for the help guys. I'm sure this would never have worked if I hadn't followed your advice on the drivers. This is so cool! A 47-inch screen sure beats a 17-inch screen. And it's crystal clear, too.
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