I've had my HP pavillion dv6618ca laptop for almost 3 years now and have never tried connecting it to my tv. the laptop has a s-video tv out and the tv only has rca connections so i bought the cable required. My laptop will not let me use 2 displays or clone the single display onto my tv. Laptop has the Nvidia Geforce Go 7150m graphics if that helps at all. I have talked to friends who have done this and they cannot figure out why it does not work. I am running Vista which sucks but I dont have the money to upgrade, or downgrade to XP(which somehow is better than vista....)Any help would be appreciated.
Help with connecting laptop to tv
- Thread starter KKSF1
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Right click on the desktop, select Personalize. Lower Left Corner should say Display. There click on Change Display Settings. There should be the option within the settings there to Extend the display to the TV. Do not, i repeat NOT, make the TV the main screen. If by any chance the laptop gets disconnected, you will not be able to get the screen back without a lot of headaches.
Ya i've been into the display options in both the windows personalization and in the nvidia control panel, i was assuming it would of been a simple plug in and go. windows display options does not let me select the second display, every time i try checking the box to extend the desktop and click apply the box is then automatically unchecked and the display is unattached. In the nvidia control panel it only shows my laptop screen as the only monitor and will not detect my tv and i think my tv wont get detected because rca does not transmit data or something like that. so far all ive gotten from this is headaches and wish i had a newer tv 
Techbabbler
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I've never used vista so not sure about the exact layout of the menus but in xp, you have to select the second monitor and designate that it is a 'generic television'. Once that is done it should act as a second monitor. I've had problems setting this up myself but now I just use a network streamer for watching content on the tv.
Techbabbler
Techbabbler
Do you mean laptop or tv screen ? . I may have this problem with my TV and so Mac, how does one restore your TV back to normal if this is the case, reffering to
your last part of the above post. My TV is not working anymore due power failure with laptop connected to it.
Tks.
You may have some other options that must be enabled within the nVidia control panel for outputting via the S-Video. I remember i had to do that way back in the day when i had my Radaeon 9800 Pro. Dont wish you had a newer TV, not all the new LCD/LED's come with S-Video.Ya i've been into the display options in both the windows personalization and in the nvidia control panel, i was assuming it would of been a simple plug in and go. windows display options does not let me select the second display, every time i try checking the box to extend the desktop and click apply the box is then automatically unchecked and the display is unattached. In the nvidia control panel it only shows my laptop screen as the only monitor and will not detect my tv and i think my tv wont get detected because rca does not transmit data or something like that. so far all ive gotten from this is headaches and wish i had a newer tv
I mean the TV. You never want the TV to be the main screen for exactly the reason you state. If something happens to the TV, you cant connect and use the laptop anymore. You will have to connect the laptop to another TV or another Monitor and hope that it picks it up. If not your going to have to use the recovery media.
I actually did get a new tv from my parents, it has HDMI which my main computer has, so problem solved and in the process of getting hdmi cable. The laptop was just preferred cause its more portable. now i just have to find my wireless keyboard and mouse
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