Not able to use as a monitor
At the rear or side of the PC there should be either or both of a 15 Pin DIN Plug, HDMI socket. or a Yellow RCA or 4 -7 pin DIN. Now IF these are present then YES you can connect to a TV. Now some TV's have a connector a DB15 MALE, so that the cable from the PC to the TV, is DB15. this plugs in directly, with appropriate DB15 cable. This, however, will ONLY take the VIDEO to the TV, Audio is delivered via the "Audio Out" Jack on PC, and Plugged into the AV Sockets on the TV, with a dual cored coaxial cable, they are Red & White. Some PC's also have a Yellow RCA Connector, OR a 4 -7 Pin DIN Socket, that requires a Special Adapter Cable (That generally came with the unit, and are colored and marked as to output) to use, for Video/Audio Out to TV. This signal is Composite or SVHS Video & Stereo Out. This connects up TO the TV's Composite/SVHS input Jacks and the Red & White Audio IN, RCA Jacks, &/or DIN SVHS socket.
First you need to know if your PC can output to a TV. Then you need to get the adapter & cables that connect the PC to the TV. Then you need the correct TV drivers installed for your video card. When they are all installed, you need to "Enable" that Monitors, the TV's, Desktop. You need to set either a "Cloned" display or "Spanned, Extended Desktop". Go to "Display Settings" Now ensure the TV/Monitor connected has the correct input/output display settings. Adjust the screens resolution via the resoloution "Slider", it is best to start with, 800x600 32 bit color. or even lower. and once working OK, THEN increase to max resolution, your TV can handle, find out from manual. Once it is all connected up. It should all just work great. Now, from then on, &, to get it to work every-time, the process is. Turn everything OFF. Connect the leads between PC & TV, Turn the TV, ON. Then, startup the PC up. It should "Detect" that it has TWO "Monitors" ie: One Monitor & One TV/Monitor, & you should see your desktop appear after a bit. Now you have screen 1 & screens 2. Now, if you are using "Cloned" mode, then whatever is displayed on the Master monitor, will be displayed on the TV. If you used Spanned, mode, in this mode, however, you will have to."Drag" the Video window, over to the TV, and it is though, you have one "Big Desktop". Now IF using Nvidia or ATI then BOTH of those have thier OWN, Control Panel, this, all then can make it all a lot easier to do it. So I would suggest that this method be used. But if you get stuck, or just want to do it by hand, then the the "By Hand" method is the only way.There is a great program called MultiMon, this allows great control over dual displays, and is well worth installing.
Can you?
Right, well, IF your TV has a DB15 Female Plug on it then you CAN, connect it up and it will work, as a second "Monitor". OR If the laptop, has a "Composite Video" a Yellow RCA socket, then you can, connect to the TV's Composite IN. & it will be a second monitor. Otherwise you cannot, the VGA signal is NOT compatible with a TV's input. SOME cards have a connector that plugs into the DB15 and to the TV, but they are "Special". In saying that though you can "Micky Mouse" things together and get an output, but it real poor quality, and disappointing results, there are various posts on the net about doing this if you wish.
Remember DRIVERS, you also need the drivers installed & setup correctly in order for the hardware to work. As a tip, When connecting to a TV, always connect like this......First, plug all cables into TV's correct Video input(s). Connect up the Sound, plug all cables into laptop, turn TV ON. NOW, start the laptop, you should now soon see the an image.
NOTE: Some laptops & other devices, have HDMI out, sometimes, the AUDIO is not passed through, the HDMI cable, & the Audio must be run from Audio/Line OUT on laptop to AV IN on TV. Also some laptops have a socket that a multi-way 4/5/6/7 pins. A connector plugs into this, you then can connect to these connections, as you would normally.
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