Second Display shows "Out of Range" when Laptop is Closed

[yummygrubs]

Hi all,

My girlfriend has a Dell Inspiron 1525 running Vista Home Basic. I set up a
second display (17" Hewlett Packard CRT) for her so that she could hook her
laptop up, close it and look at the second display on her desk. All was
working fine until she changed the resolution on the CRT, and somehow placed
it in a setting that was OUT OF RANGE.

I have subsequently tried unistalling the video drivers, graphics card,
booting it in safe mode and changing the refresh rate, none of which works.
It's also worth noting that the display funstions perfectly fine while the
laptop lid is open, but reverts to OUT OF RANGE as soon as it is closed.

Is there any way of fixing this?

Cheers,

Chris

 

[GTS]

When she closes the laptop if is probably going into standby or hibernate
depending how it's set. The out of range message is normal when video is
lost on some monitors. You can see if power settings allow the laptop to
keep running normally when the lid is closed, but that would be an unusual
setting and doesn't make a lot of sense. Why close it at all?

 

[yummygrubs]

It's set up so that it doesn't hibernate when the lid is closed - it's so
that she can sit in a proper position for work and typing.

 

[AE Giver]

It's set up so that it doesn't hibernate when the lid is closed - it's so
that she can sit in a proper position for work and typing.

 

[AE Giver]

**sorry about the prior empty reply that was a snafu**

OK here's a real reply.

I have basically the same issue as the original poster, with a DELL Inspiron
1720 recently purchased.

I was able to close the lid fine with the external (VGA out) display working
properly.

Then I ran a game (with the lid already closed and the external display
working), specifically Guild Wars which I think changed the resolution
automatically. Now when I close the lid the external display goes out.

I happen to have a bluetooth keyboard attached so what I did was load up the
change resolution window (Nvidia panel) then, after I closed the lid, I
pressed the print screen button (to capture the "hidden" resolution change).
Then I re-opened the lid and pasted the print screen image into mspaint.

According the the print screen image, the resolution was now at 1440x900
with the lid closed (I had it at 1600x1200 normally which the external
display can also handle). So, to sum up, now the computer automatically
changes the resolution to 1440x900 when I close the lid, which the external
display cannot handle. This is a resolution I use to run games at a lot
which I think is what Guild Wars changed it to. Now somehow that resolution
has gotten rigged into the close-lid action.

I am typing this from the computer and have yet to re-boot which I hope may
"reset" this behavior, but, re: the original post, I doubt I will be that
lucky.

I would like to know how to fix this behavior!!