external monitor Archives - Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: Why won’t my monitor work with my laptop?

Posted on December 4, 2023

Question from Brenda M.: I took my laptop to the shop because the screen stopped lighting up. They checked it out and told me the screen was bad.

They said it would cost almost $200 to replace the screen. I told them I couldn’t afford that so they told me I could still use the laptop by hooking up an external monitor.

I bought a monitor and hooked it up to the laptop with an HDMI cable, but I can’t get the monitor to show anything besides a blank screen.

How can I get the external monitor to work this laptop? [Read more…]

Q&A: Will using a laptop with the lid closed damage it?

Posted on October 2, 2023

Question from Jane: You posted a tip in the May 13 issue of your newsletter explaining how to set up a laptop to use an external monitor with the laptop’s lid closed.

I bought a monitor and connected it to my Lenovo laptop and then changed the settings per your tip so I could close the lid while the laptop is running. It’s been working fine now for about four months.

The thing is one of my friends saw this setup and he told me running the laptop with the lid closed will eventually kill it due to excessive heat build-up.

Is that true? [Read more…]

Q&A: How do I make an external monitor my laptop’s main display in Windows 10?

Posted on June 14, 2020

Question from Candice W.: I just bought a 23″ flat screen monitor to use with my Dell laptop.

The laptop has Windows 10 on it.

I connected the monitor to the laptop with an HDMI cable, but when I load programs they still show up on the laptop screen.

I’d like to make the external monitor the main screen. How do I set it up like that?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]