Iv recently been using my television as a secondary display from my laptop , i now go to use my laptop, the windows loading sign come up as i start up then the desktop loads up as i can hear the correct sound effects but the screen on my laptop is blank i believe an alteration has been made with the primary display but as i have no display i cant change any thing the only menu i can view is by holding f8 on start up os:-Windows XP Pro.

1. Check in Screen settings to make sure the video output is going to the laptop screen, not the secondary out put.
2. make sure that you choose Extend displays.
3. There is probably a FN key at the top that will toggle between primary and secondary displays.

Immediately after turning on the unit, press F8 repeatedly. In the next display that appears, use the arrow key up or down to highlight recent configuration that worked, then press enter.

If the vga connection does not display the image it means the secondary display is not enabled into your computer ..Go to the image settings in control panel ..(the driver settings for the video card..)..open them and look for the option for enabling the second monitor ..It will start a wizard and you have to choose the mode and settings fro it ..(by mode I mean choose how you want to be displayed as clone ...or extended...first will clone the monitor and the second one will extend the monitor and you can even run different applications )
Also be sure you have the video driver installed cause if it works with the windows generic driver will not have all features for it ..and will not work )
for most laptops..the enabling of secondary monitor is possible when you press Fn+ the F key indicated with the monitor sign ..(it can be F4 or F5 or F7 ) ..

Hi help808,

Welcome to FixYa! How are you doing?

You did not specify what operating system you are using, whether Windows Vista or Windows 7.

Please try to do the following to resolve the problem:

1. Please try to boot your computer to safe mode. You can boot to safe mode by doing the following:

• Turn off the computer. Turn on the computer then immediately start tapping repeatedly.
• Use the arrow key on the keyboard, scroll down to Safe Mode then press .
• Login to your User Name.

2. Use System Restore to restore the computer's settings to an earlier date:

• Navigate to the Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools.
  
• Click on the System Restore program icon.
  
• Click Next > on the Restore system files and settings window.
  
• Choose the restore point that you want to use.
  

Note: Check the Show more restore points checkbox to see more than the most recent restore points.

• Click Next >.
  
• Click Finish on the Confirm your restore point window to begin the System Restore.
  

Note: Windows will shut down to complete the System Restore.

Hope that resolves the problem. Thank you for using FixYa!

There is a button that you have to push when you use an external monitor - see if you can find reference to it in the manual or go to the web site for further assistance.

You may even be able to google for the info.

hi you could alter the resolution for the projector and see how that goes

it could be or a virus not that i really thinkso or it coul be dirt try too clean it a bit

Hi there.
Sounds like the boot order has been changed in the bios.
The secondary drive sounds like the CD drive as most laptops only come with 1 HDD installed.
Change the boot order to the primary drive by Pressing F1 during startup when the ThinkPad logo is displayed..
Once in the bios change the boot order, save and exit, the computer will restart and boot from the hard drive, when you get into windows check to make sure that the CD rom recognizes CD/DVD's.
Please post back if you need any more help.

Good luck and thanks for using FixYa!!

If you are looking at Device Manager, the computer must be working to some degree. Since there are no drives on the SATA controller, you're probably using an IDE drive and don't need the SATA controller anyway. Disable it in the BIOS. And get more memory.