Acer AL1917A monitor freeze

Get a hold of a PC desktop monitor and plug into the side video port. Start up the computer and if it happens with the external monitor, the problem is the video section on the motherboard, but if the same effect that happens with the LCD Screen on the Laptop and NOT with the Desktop monitor; the problem is the LCD screen on the laptop.

You need to enable the 2nd video output in the video card settings!

right click on desktop select properties and select the settings tab


Select the monitor 2, click on extend my desktop to this monitor.

Then you can drag windows either out from your main monitor, to up, down, or the sides debends on where you set the 2nd display, you can also change the position of the 2nd screen by draging it around in the middle.

Hook a spare monitor to the computer to make sure the video graphics board is okay, assuming everything checked out, next the video cable from the computer to the Acer monitor, if it will detach from both ends, sub another video cable. Finally if it comes down to the Acer Monitor, the video is processed on the main board that is attached behind the LCD screen that is displayed making repairs far to expensive, much cheaper to replace.

Switch Off your monitor for some time may be it help before we go further.

Hi

I assume you have tried right click on desktop, go to properties, settings and experiment with desktop settings.

Cheers cbacer

you have to toggle it on with a FN key which is the blue key by windows key and a combo of another key on my acer 5520 its FN + F5 see if that works for you

can you now see 2 monitor properties i.e. 1 & 2... then identify running monitor ... if it is 1 then select 2 in properties and set it again to be used as extended desktop... open any application and pull or drag it holding it from title bar to the extended desktop....

Hi!

the word split-screen usually applies to microsoft office products. Click on Windows > Split on microsoft excel. Other than that, if you are referring to actually splitting the desktop. So you can have two desktops, then use VMWARE.... try googling it. It can manage multiple desktops.

the monitor is on its way out ,
time for a new one

Terry

I have 2 acer AL2016W's and have the same problem. The earlier ones with the VGA only are the problem from what I can see, they just don't play nicely with the video card for some reason.
First, on your main monitor, click "Show displays in menu bar" on your monitor control panel. This will let you set the resolution for each monitor from the main one, click on the little monitor icon on the top right screen to do this. 
If that doesn't work try this:
Connect one acer as the main monitor and one crappy vga crt monitor as the second.
Set mirrored desktop in the system preferences so that the crappy CRT is displaying the exact same resolution as the acer. (1680x1050 59.9Hz)
Disable mirrored desktop. You should now have an acer and a crappy CRT both running 1680x1050 in extended desktop mode.
Shut down, reconnect the acer in place of the crappy CRT.
This should "trick" your video card into having the right resolution, otherwise you'll just get the stupid "input not supported" screen, with no ability to auto configure or use any of the built in controls.