Multiple Monitors on Laptop?

[Guest]

I have a 4 yr old Dell 2650 laptop running under XP SP2. With my old eyes
it's getting difficult to read the small print especially when the laptop is
on a table next to my chair and a wireless keyboard is in my lap. Since it
has a connector for an external monitor I thought I would get a 19 inch LCD
and move it close to me and put the computer somewhere out of the way since I
really don't need to access it regularly. But in following some of the
messages on this board it seems it may not be as easy as I had hoped.
Several questions arise:
1) Can I expect to get to reasonable performance with my onboard 16MB
NVIDA Geforce2 Adaptor?
2) Will I be able to essentially turn off the onboard LCD display using
XP and if that's possible does it ensure sufficient RAM for the external
monitor?
3) Somewhere in this forum a program called Ultramon was touted as
making dual monitors easier to setup. Would this be helpful in my case?
4) And finally, what have I missed?

 

[Steve Shattuck]

I have a 4 yr old Dell 2650 laptop running under XP SP2. With my old eyes
it's getting difficult to read the small print especially when the laptop
is
on a table next to my chair and a wireless keyboard is in my lap. Since
it
has a connector for an external monitor I thought I would get a 19 inch
LCD
and move it close to me and put the computer somewhere out of the way
since I
really don't need to access it regularly. But in following some of the
messages on this board it seems it may not be as easy as I had hoped.

Without knowing waht you do on your laptop, answers are hard to find.
However, have you tried to change all the display font settings so that text
is larger on the laptop's screen?

Several questions arise:
1) Can I expect to get to reasonable performance with my onboard 16MB
NVIDA Geforce2 Adaptor?

I'll assume that 16MB is a type, but again without knowing what you're
runnming, performance is application deptendent. In general, it will be at
least as fast as the laptop, probably faster.

2) Will I be able to essentially turn off the onboard LCD display using
XP and if that's possible does it ensure sufficient RAM for the external
monitor?

Yes, and also have both on, and if the laptop has a dual head video chip,
two separate monitors, all at the touch of a function key.

3) Somewhere in this forum a program called Ultramon was touted as
making dual monitors easier to setup. Would this be helpful in my
case?

No idea for the same reason.

4) And finally, what have I missed?

Adequate info to give a reasonable answer.

 

[Guest]

How To Configure and Use Multiple Monitors in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307873

UltraMon (dual monitor)
http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/

 

[Guest]

Thanks to all who responded to my questions. I guess I didn't make it clear
in my message that I had not yet purchased an LCD monitor but was trying to
determine whether it was wise to do so. It seems the consensus of opinion
is that it should work with my current hardware and software configuration.

As to my usage I imagine it is pretty normal stuff like web surfing, email,
spread sheets, several street and trail mapping programs, Photoshop Elements
and occasionally Google Earth graphics. No games.

As to whether I had taken full advantage of increasing my text size I have
to admit that I really hadn't done all I could although it does increase
readibility it also requires more hozizontal scrooling.

Please let me know if this still isn't adequate information.
Thanks again,
Larry Crowley