T30 external monitor

[richk]

I have a friend's T30, which she dropped. The LCD is broken and the top is slightly damaged, but the lower part appears to be undamaged. I have been trying to get the machine to work with an external monitor, with limited success. If I turn the machine on, with an external monitor attached, the machine goes thru the boot process. (throughout the whole process, the LCD has only faint lines and shadows) The external monitor shows the IBM splash screen, the windows logo, and nothing else. If I hold the F1 key at power up, I can get to setup and view the external monitor. (At that time, I used setup to select "both" internal and external monitors as default at startup) If I hit F8, when I see the windows logo, I can select "boot in VGA mode", and windows will come up in VGA mode on the external monitor - the internal monitor still shows faint lines and shadows. At that time, I can set display properties to anything the external monitor will support, and things seem to work fine. If I shut down, and later restart, the external display doesn't work at all, unless I start in VGA mode. I know the machine boots all the way when not in VGA mode, because, even though I get no display, I can close the lid and go to standby and wake up when I open. Fn +F7 seems not to switch displays, unless I start in VGA mode. I think that the owner would not think the cost of fixing the machine was worth doing, but she would use it for some things if I could get it to work with an external monitor without much screwing around.

Thanks, and sorry about the long-winded message