Laptop Output Resolution changes when closed??

mhornnt · 10-25-2006, 12:11 AM

Well I finally got around to getting myself a Lilliput 7", and have now been workin on gettin the display all set up. My laptop has an nvidia card, and using powerstrip I've been able to get it to output 800x480 and while the lilliput doesnt detect it as such, the picture looks good and as far as I can tell is indeed 800x480. Problem is, as soon as I close the lid to my laptop, the resolution on the lilliput jumps to 800x600, and the custom settings Ive set up in powerstrip are gone. Open the lid back up and everything returns to normal. Any ideas? I figure keeping the lid open or removing the sensor letting it know its closed isnt feasible because that'll just be wasted power and heat runnin the lcd that need not be on. i feel like this shouldnt be all that difficult to fix, but I'm out of ideas.

Thanks

walky_talky20 · 10-25-2006, 12:15 AM

Maybe there is something in the BIOS? See if there is any "power save" options or similar things in the BIOS.
What kind of laptop is it?

Peace.

mhornnt · 10-25-2006, 12:29 AM

The laptop is a Dell Latitude D800. I'll go ahead and take a look at the BIOS, butim not really sure what would a powersaving feature have to do with keeping the resolution constant? Unless you mean as a way of keeping the lid open and cuttin down on the wasted power and heat.

Thanks

grumps · 10-25-2006, 01:28 AM

There is a setting in control panel/power options/advanced.. it sets what the computer does when the lid is closed, if it is set to "do nothing" it must be something else causing the problem..........

mhornnt · 10-25-2006, 09:16 AM

I actually did have that set already. It one of the first things I change when I get a fresh copy of windows on there because i hate my laptop going to sleep everytime i close the lid. It seems though that "do nothing" is a bit misleading, as while it doesnt go to sleep or hibernate, the screen does shut off which is where the problem arises.

Playing around some more it seems the issue is with the nvidia software/drivers. I've configured the mutliple displays to have the lilliput clone the lcd display, with the laptp lcd being the "primary" display and the lilliput as the clone. WHen the lid closes, the laptop lcd shuts off and it seems that the lilliput becomes the primary display. When this happens, the available resolution options change in both nvidia and windows software and in powerstrip. However, trying to add custom resolutions through powerstrip a second time yields nothing.

walky_talky20 · 10-27-2006, 12:27 AM

What if you try making the lilliput the primary display, and the laptop LCD the secondary (clone) display? Then adding or subtracting the laptop LCD (opening and closing it) would not affect it. Is 800x480 available when the lilliput is primary?

Other than that I was thinking maybe disabling the lcd-close switch. You said you didn't want the laptop lcd to be on all the time so perhaps you could unplug the video/power connection to it inside the laptop. That way the switch would tell windows that the lcd is always open, but in reality the video and power to the screen are disconnected. Not sure if this would work.