plea for help with external monitor with a T41

[t41user]

Dear forum members:

This dummy user pleads for help using an external monitor with my T41. When I first connected the monitor and set the 2nd monitor display properties in an ATI utility window, I had this cool situation where both monitors were on and functioned as one extra wide monitor - when I moved the mouse beyond the right edge of the thinkpad monitor, it appeared on the left edge of the exernal monitor. Similarly, when I moved the mouse beyond the left edge of the external monitor, it appeared on the right edge of the thinkpad monitor. I was able to move select windows between the two monitors.

I loved this setup and can't figure out how to get it back. I clicked on something in the choose presentation/display scheme after pressing fn+F7 and lost the setup described in the above paragraph. Now I can have the same output displayed on both monitors (or, I think, turn one of the two monitors off). Could someone please tell me how to get the prior setup back? If there is a name for this setup, could someone please tell me what it is?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time and consideration.

[t41user]

i found the answer to my first dummy question by searching the forum. but here's another question:

when i'm running both monitors at the same time, my thinkpad monitor seems more dim, as if it might be drawing less power than it does when the external monitor is turned off. is this common? is it an illusion, created by the image of the external monitor? could it be a sign of a problem, or something dangerous?