Hello. I have an IBM Thinkpad T60 that I have connected to a dock w/ a external monitor connected thru dvi. I currently have the external monitor set as the primary and the laptop as the secondary. Everything works fine untill I close the lid on the laptop. What happens is the screen on the external flickers and then shows the desktop again (this is fine). The problem is when I re-open the laptop - it re-assigns the laptop as the primary monitor along w/ the external. So now both are showing as the primary monitor (and with this the laptop screen mirrors/clones the external). Is there a way that upon opening the lid that it would revert back to the settings I made before closing it - without having to go back into the display properties and extending the desktop.

Are you just looking to use the external monitor as primary, with the built-in panel turned off, when you are docked?

That's what I do -- I have Presentation Director configured to automatically switch to external 1600x1200 when docking, so when I snap my X31 into the Ultrabase, the built-in panel turns off -- until I undock.

The one thing I don't do, though, is close the lid -- I close it down to a 30-45 degree angle, but not completely. (I have the power settings configured to suspend when I close the lid, and I never felt like messing with my settings for that.) Is that what you are trying to avoid?

Basically - the user that I am doing this for hasnt grasped the concept that he should not be closing the laptop lid or it will screw up the monitor configurations that I have setup. I was just curious if there is a way for it to re-initialize my monitor settings once the laptop lid is opened instead of what it is doing now.

I currently have the laptop set to suspend when the lid is closed.

Having just tested this this morning ... the easy way to handle this is to tell your user to simply dock his suspended (and closed) ThinkPad when he arrives in the office. It will power on when docked, and pick up the video settings from Presentation Director.

If he wants to open and close it while docked, I suspect you will need to change the lid behaviour to not to suspend.

i am having exactly the same problem. i use both the internal and external in an extended-desktop arrangement. when i'm not using the system, i want to keep the thinkpad's lid closed, in order to turn off the screen and reduce dust.

when i close the lid, the system switches from extended-desktop mode to replicated primary desktop on both monitors. i suppose the assumption is that i can continue to work on just the external monitor.

the problem is that when i reopen the lid, it stays in replicated mode, instead of switching back to extended-desktop mode.

i can work around this by assign Fn-F7 to put me back into the mode i want, but i'd prefer if this happened automatically.

if anyone knows a way to make this happen, please let me know. thanks.

well, i stumbled onto a good work-around. if i "lock" the computer (hit Fn-F2 or ctl-alt-del and choose "lock") before closing the lid, it leaves the display settings alone.

the next time i want to use the machine, i just open the lid and run my finger over the fingerprint reader, and i'm back in business.

I don't see this problem when I close my lid. I do not have Presentation manager installed. I also have the external (DVI) display set as primary in the system BIOS.