man, dual monitors is lame

[paOol]

well, not really, but im having an issue.

i have my samsung 17'' connected to my T61.
whenever i close the lid on my thinkpad, the main screen goes to the samsung monitor.
and when i open the lid, the samsung is still the default monitor (i want my laptop to be the main display)

is there anyway to change this?

[killigrew]

Did you try to create a Presentationdirector profile for your setup?

cu

[NathanA]

YES, I had the same problem, too, (click the link to go to my thread on the issue; it's my #2 point listed in the OP) and it was REALLY FREAKING ANNOYING!

As I described in my follow-up, though, I managed to stop this behavior in two steps:

1. Uninstall Presentation Director or whatever it's called.
2. Kill the ATI Hotkey Poller process (ati2evxx.exe).

Uninstalling Presentation Director still caused the primary display to move over to the external monitor when I closed the display, but without Presentation Director installed, the primary display actually automatically switched BACK to the laptop's built-in LCD upon opening the screen. There might be a way to replicate this functionality with PD itself, but I didn't have the patience to try and PD was the one ThinkVantage utility that was worthless to me, anyway.

Killing the ATI Hotkey Poller prevented the video adapter from even recognizing that the LCD was closed. Sure, the LCD backlight and the panel itself both turned off when the LCD was physically shut, and if I had suspend on lid close enabled that worked as well. But without that process running, Windows didn't try changing the primary display over to the external monitor when closing the lid.

I hope this helps!

-- Nathan

[NathanA]

Oh, SNAP, I just re-read your post and realized you're using a T61, which means you either have Intel (X3100) or nVidia, and not ATI. Sorry.

In any case, removing PD (if you can't figure out how to make it solve your problem for you) should cause the primary monitor location to at least move back to the laptop's panel upon opening the lid, and perhaps nVidia drivers have a similar process to ATI's (or maybe a driver setting through the registry or something) which can prevent it from making the switch upon lid close in the first place. Or, perhaps in the case of either the Intel and/or nVidia, simply removing PD might just be enough.

Let us know how you fare,

-- Nathan

[meditate2001]

same problem here ! it is REALLY annoying...

i just uninstalled the pd, but, nothing changed and the weird thing is that i still can use the fn+ f7 key..... ????

[paOol]

o_o.
i never had presentation director installed

im using a 140M.
lenovo drivers.

[meditate2001]

normally it is preinstalled...look into the thinkvantage folder in the startmenu...is it there ?

[paOol]

it is not, because i reformatted once i got my laptop.

[meditate2001]

and does the fn + f7 work for you ?

[paOol]

that just switches displays.
like, it makes my samsung the main, then my laptop, then dual monitors both.

[meditate2001]

yeah mine too, but it shouldnt coz present.dir. is not installed....i have no idea which program/service/or even reg.entry does that...

anybody ????

[dr_st]

that just switches displays.
like, it makes my samsung the main, then my laptop, then dual monitors both.

So, you are really annoyed by the need to press Fn+F7 once or twice?

[sokos]

I had similar problems with my T61 and a new Samsung 20.1WS with DVI. Just download the latest Presentation Director and create a new PROFILE and run it when you connect your external screen.

It's wonderful!

[meditate2001]

i just thought it is the presentation director who does the switching. but if it isnt installed and the keys works, it isnt that.

now the question is, who is recognised the closing lid and make the actions of switching the configurations....

???

[paOol]

that just switches displays.
like, it makes my samsung the main, then my laptop, then dual monitors both.

So, you are really annoyed by the need to press Fn+F7 once or twice?

its really buggy. sometimes, it stays on the samsung display only, and my laptop display is basically disabled. i have to run tne nvidia display wizard to get it working, then i have to go to properties, and put my laptop resolutino at 1400x. and the main display gets switched around and stuff. so i am annoyed by it.