Laptop will not remember settings for external monitor - advice?

davidclayton

Recently purchased a DELL laptop (Inspiron N7110) running Windows 7, and it's not playing nice with my HD TV. The TV is a Samsung 1080p 40".

I want the TV to duplicate what is shown on the laptop screen. When I hook up the TV using either the VGA or HDMI cables, the TV says "Mode not supported". The graphics are onboard (Intel HD Graphics 3000). Messing with the resolutions in the regular Windows options yields no results, so there is an advanced option, which opens the Intel software - here you can add a custom resolution, and by entering the following, it works perfectly:

• 1920 x 1080
• 60 Hz
• 32bit
• Timing: CVT-RB

If I either turn off and on the laptop, or unplug and plug-in the HDMI cable, it does not remember the settings, and I have to go back into the advanced panel and enter the custom resolution all over again - very frustrating.

Is there either a way to solve this problem, or maybe an alternative software I could use to manage the graphics/monitor settings so that it remembers it?

All advice appreciated...

Blazer

A lot of laptops are flaky like this even modern ones....
I find the best resolution to use it 720p as it seems to recognise this perfectly...otherwise you're constantly tweaking the settings etc..
I know Nvidia/Ati has controls within their relevant software that would remember your settings but not sure about intel.
I think there was some third party software out there that would allow you to do the same..let me root it out later on when I get home.

davidclayton

Had a little look for 3rd party graphics software, but came up empty... do you remember the name?

Blazer

Can't seem to bloody find it

But below are two links which should help you..

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/252280-33-laptop-external-monitor-resolution

http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-022544.htm

davidclayton

Thanks. I'll have a look at those links when I get home, but the problem is not that I can't get the TV to work - I can, using custom resolution settings. The problem is that it won't remember the settings, so I have to create the custom resolution every time.

Blazer

ok..I'll try and root out what I did before to resolve that...it's been a year or two and I'll had a look over the weekend..

srsly78

It's coz you are using vga / hdmi. HDMI always requires manual tweaking for me, it won't remember the settings. If I use displayport or dvi it works fine.

davidclayton

srsly78 wrote: »

If I use displayport or dvi it works fine.

I don't think it has these ports, will check when I get home, but a quick google tells me that these are the connections it has:

(2) USB 3.0
(1) USB 2.0
(1) USB 2.0 with E-SATA & Power Share
HDMI v1.4 Port
VGA Port
Integrated network connector 10/100
LAN (RJ45)
AC adapter connector
Audio jacks (1-line out, 1 Mic-in)

srsly78

Have you tried VGA? That might work better.

When using HDMI I always had to adjust scaling settings in driver manually. Try updating drivers, maybe they have fixed this?

davidclayton

I have latest drivers and have tried VGA

Moon54

I've had issues like this before and I've discovered it is simpler to Extend the
display rather than duplicate what's on the laptop screen.

Extending means you will have 2 displays, side-by-side,
and each display can have the proper resolution assigned to it.

This works well for me as Windows Media Center automatically goes to the TV display (drag the window over to it and maximise it),
and a lot of modern games allow you to choose which display to output the game to.... eg Fallout etc.

davidclayton

tried single display, clone, extended desktop. same results.