I have a toshiba laptop and want to connect to a dell projector, but the screen from projector reads searching for signal.. What do I do?

You can switch to an external monitor or data projector by two methods. 1. Connect the external monitor to the laptop's video port, power up the external monitor first and the laptop. The video information will automatically switch to the external monitor. 2. If you power up the laptop first then you can switch the video output to the external monitor by pressing the Fn key and one of the Function keys, depending upon your make and model laptop. You can also toggle between the external monitor or both LCD screen plus the external monitor or back to LCD screen only by pressing the Fn key plus one of the function key a few times. Here is a list of key combinations for some of the laptops :- IBM ThinkPad = Fn + F7 HP and Compaq = Fn + F4 Toshiba = Fn + F5 ASUS and Dell = Fn + F8

Rebootthe laptop whilst connected to the projector, with the projector power on. This works 99% of the time. You may need to manually enable your external VGA output. Cycle through available options by locating the "Fn" key, in the bottom left of the keyboard and pressing the key in the top row which has a monitor icon (or words such as LCD/crt) in the same colour.

Hold the Fn key down and pressthe top row key. Wait for 5 seconds and see what happens. Then try it again. You should find that the local screen goes blank and the external one is activated. Keep pressing til you get both screens on.

Set the screen resolution to one which the projector can accept.

laptop connected. projector on and running. blue screen up and reads "searching for signal" has been doing that since both machines were turned on for thirty minutes. what now?

Once the projector is connected to your laptop, and both devices are powered on, press the Fn + F8 keys on your laptop to toggle your screen to the projector.

Try fn + f8, then wait and see if the projector detects the port (15 seconds or so) if no change, try Fn+F8 a 2nd time

reset the settings to factory default. when you plugged it into the 2nd computer, it searched for matching resolution, to no avail. when you put it back with yours, it was on the default setting.

Hi Circuitrider

Just change the resolution on your PC to match that of the Projector i.e. XGA Projector = 1024x768 resoltuion.

If the problem still persists , the Mainboard is at fault and will need either replacement or repair.

start your laptop first then your projctor-if the problem still excit-press-control+f4 or control+f6 or control+f7

There is an "Auto search for signal" setting on the projector settings menu. This may be turned off.