Display Disaster! Help!

[Andrea]

After many successful PowerPoint presentations over many years, I ended up
totally unable to display one tonight even after trying two different LCD
projectors. It was a technological disaster! My wallpaper displayed,
although it looked very grainy, and although I could see the slide show on
my laptop, it wouldn't project. Togged with Function/F7. Turned the
projector and computer off numerous times. After an agonizing presentation
based solely on me describing what the slides would have shown (I didn't
have handouts because of an unexpected number of participants), I came home
and tried to figure out what happened. Please let me know if you have any
ideas. I suspect it may have something to do with a change I made a few
months ago when attempting to display dual monitors only to have it dawn on
me that I don't have dual monitors. However, the display setting in the
control panel is still set to dual monitors, and I don't know how to change
it back. Could this be the cause? If so, how can I change the blasted
setting to what it's supposed to be? I know this is not strictly a
PowerPoint question and may relate more to my OS, but I was hoping for some
clarity. I'm using PowerPoint 2003 on Windows XP Professional with SP2.
Thanks.

 

[Echo S]

When you go to the display settings dialog box where it shows the two
monitors (for others who might be following this conversation, right-click
desktop, choose properties, go to Settings tab -- or Start|Control
Panel|Display|Settings tab), you should be able to click in the box
underneath where it says "Display" and change to "2. Plug and play monitor"
instead of "1. Multiple Monitor." Then deselect "extend my windows desktop
onto this monitor." I had to do this just last weekend when I was away from
my office with laptop + monitor setup.

Also go to Slide Show|Set up Show and make sure "Primary Monitor" is
selected there. I suspect it is, but you might as well double-check.

There are probably other things that might cause this. Hopefully others will
chime in with ideas.

(Sorry your presentation was messed up. If it's any consolation, we've all
been there -- or someplace pretty darned close! -- too.)

 

[john wilson]

If you can see "wallpaper" on the projector then you are sending the image
to it.

It sounds like you have set up the graphics card to show the image spanned
across two monitors ie laptop shows normal desktop and projector the usually
invisible area to the right or left of the laptop screen (which is probably
just wallpaper.)

There should be a menu in the control panel for (nvidea or whatever) to
clone image on both screens. Also make sure that you have screen res set
that the projector can handle.

 

[Andrea]

Once I got home last night and calmed down a bit, I remembered the dual
monitor setting, and as you suggest, I tried to change it back. The problem
is that when I go to the Display box, I don't have an option for plug and
play monitor. (I think I did once, but it's not showing up now). Both
numbers 1 and 2 say exactly the same thing--multiple monitors. In the Slide
Show Setup, Primary Monitor is in the box, but it's grayed out.

I've had numerous technological glitches over the years, but the worst until
yesterday was not being able to project anything. Eventually a tech support
person was able to get me set up so I could project, although I still
couldn't see it on my laptop, so I had to keep turning around to view the
screen. Still, I could at least give my presentation! Yesterday was much
worse than that because I was totally blocked from showing the audience my
slides!

Andrea

 

[Echo S]

is that when I go to the Display box, I don't have an option for plug and
play monitor. (I think I did once, but it's not showing up now). Both
numbers 1 and 2 say exactly the same thing--multiple monitors.

Hm. Do either of them let you deselect the "extend desktop to this monitor"
option?

If not, the only other thing I can think is to hook the system up to an
external monitor, not a projector, to disable it. That seems really weird,
but I'd think it should work.

Hopefully others more knowledgeable in this area will post ideas, too!

 

[Andrea]

I responded inline below:

Hm. Do either of them let you deselect the "extend desktop to this
monitor" option?

No! This is very frustrating.

If not, the only other thing I can think is to hook the system up to an
external monitor, not a projector, to disable it. That seems really weird,
but I'd think it should work.

I'm not sure how to do that--and I won't have access to another monitor for
a week or so. If I haven't resolved this by then, I'll try to figure that
one out. Thanks.

 

[Andrea]

If you can see "wallpaper" on the projector then you are sending the image
to it.

It sounds like you have set up the graphics card to show the image spanned
across two monitors ie laptop shows normal desktop and projector the
usually invisible area to the right or left of the laptop screen (which
is probably just wallpaper.)

There should be a menu in the control panel for (nvidea or whatever) to
clone image on both screens. Also make sure that you have screen res set
that the projector can handle.

Yes, I agree that the problem was most likely caused by the multiple monitor
setting. It's too bad that I didn't think of that before I walked into a
room full of people waiting to see a presentation! I should have tested
things out with a projector, but I had very little preparation time and have
used the same projector before with my laptop, so I didn't foresee a
problem. I still haven't figured out how to get the projection back to the
way it used to be, i.e., the same image on my laptop projected to the screen
the audience sees. As best I can tell, the menu is on the Settings tab of
the Display box in the Control Panel--but I can't seem to correct the
settings. The screen resolution may need some tweaking too because the
wallpaper looked grainy, but I hadn't even tried to adjust the focus of the
projector. First, get the image onto the screen, then adjust the focus!

 

[Andrea]

Yes, I agree that the problem was most likely caused by the multiple
monitor setting. It's too bad that I didn't think of that before I walked
into a room full of people waiting to see a presentation! I should have
tested things out with a projector, but I had very little preparation
time and have used the same projector before with my laptop, so I didn't
foresee a problem. I still haven't figured out how to get the projection
back to the way it used to be, i.e., the same image on my laptop
projected to the screen the audience sees. As best I can tell, the menu
is on the Settings tab of the Display box in the Control Panel--but I
can't seem to correct the settings. The screen resolution may need some
tweaking too because the wallpaper looked grainy, but I hadn't even tried
to adjust the focus of the projector. First, get the image onto the
screen, then adjust the focus!

FYI if someone else has this problem: The IT folks at my job found the
solution, and it is in the Display settings but not the grayed out Extend
Windows Desktop box. Even when I connected my laptop to a projector, that
box remained gray. However, when the primary monitor was highlighted and I
clicked on the advanced tab, it opened up a window with more tabs. I'd seen
this before but didn't know what to do. When I click on the Displays tab,
there are three sections: Monitor, Panel, and TV. TV was already marked as
not connected. However, the Monitor (picture of a monitor) had a red corner.
When I clicked on that, the red corner disappeared and it changed that
section to Not Connected--so the Panel section (picture of a laptop) was the
only display selected. Now my laptop projects properly. Problem solved. (The
Extend box is still checked off.)

I appreciate your efforts to help with this problem--and am so relieved that
it's fixed--and it only took a few seconds!

 

[Echo S]

Thanks for posting your resolution, Andrea. I'm sure it will help someone in
future!