Unable to undo Extend Desktop feature

[windows_ardent_fan]

Hi,

I am using Windows XP Professional SP2. I have a Dell Latitude D610

laptop and have added a Siemens CRT screen as a second monitor and used the

"Extend My Windows Desktop onto this Monitor" feature. I seem to have a

problem when I undo this feature.

I opened the Display properties dialog and selected the Settings tab,

then selected Monitor 2 in the drop down, and unchecked the option for

"Extend My Windows Desktop onto this Monitor". I clicked on Apply then OK,

This caused the external monitor to report no signal. I unplugged the

external monitor. I then rebooted the machine with the external monitor

still disconnected.

After the reboot I verified the option for "Extend My Windows Desktop

onto this Monitor" was still unchecked, then connected the external monitor.

The monitor reported no signal, so I used Fn + F8 to show the laptop screen

on the LCD. This somehow is enabling the "Extend My Windows Desktop onto

this Monitor" feature instead of displaying my current desktop on both

screens.

How do I get the laptop screen to display on the external monitor

instead of the extended desktop?

Thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide.

[Scarecrow Man]

Windows can only extend your desktop. To 'mirror' the same image on your laptop to your CRT, you will need to use a 3rd party tool.

For example, if you use an ATI video card, the ATI Catalyst program has this feature.

The reason you may not see any video is due to refresh rates. You may need to adjust the refresh rate to match your monitors capabilities.

[windows_ardent_fan]

Thanks for the info,

But the interesting stuff is, I was able to mirror the image on the laptop perfectly fine before I checked 'extend my desktop' option! Also, one more wierd observation is that, with the problem happening and I replace my monitor with a different brand, the image gets mirrod, but the moment the 'extend desktop' is checked, henceforth never I can use the mirror feature on that new monitor as well. I suspect the drivers are updated by windows based on the monitor make, and once updated they can never be changed to work in the (default mode) mirrir mode. This is really drving me crazy! Probably re-installing the driver is the only option

Windows can only extend your desktop. To 'mirror' the same image on your laptop to your CRT, you will need to use a 3rd party tool.

For example, if you use an ATI video card, the ATI Catalyst program has this feature.

The reason you may not see any video is due to refresh rates. You may need to adjust the refresh rate to match your monitors capabilities.

[Scarecrow Man]

In my experience, Windows can only perform the 'Extend' option, making it so if you drag your mouse of the edge of one screen it will appear on the 2nd screen.

Mirroring makes the exact same image on screen1 appear on screen2.

It is definitely not a bad idea to check for driver upgrades.