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Blank Screen when I connect my Laptop to TV with a HDMI Cable

Anonymous
2010-01-03T05:07:02+00:00

Hello All,

I am trying to coonect my Laptop ( dell studio 1555 ) to my SONY TV ( Bravia KDLW4100 ) using an HDMI Cable. My Laptop is running Windows 7 Home Premium Ed.

I have 2 questions in this regard -

First question is what display settings do I need to change on my laptop in order to get the output on the TV ?

Second Question - While trying to get this stuff working I changed the following settings -- Graphic Options -> Extend > To Digital TV

Since I changed this setting I am having problems getting a display on the Laptop ( when the HDMI Cable is connected )..Even  if I remove the HDMI cable the screen still remains blank and I have to Hard boot the Laptop to get it working...

Is there a way I can get back to my original display settings ?

Thanks in advance for your answers..

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-01-04T01:55:10+00:00

    Hi amit21,

    Welcome to Microsoft Answers!

    To change the display settings, you may go through these steps.

    1. Open the "display settings" in your computer and activate Output to the TV screen. You can either mirror content of your computer on the TV or extend the display just like a dual monitor screen.
    2. Pick up your TV remote and switch to "External Inputs" from the menu. You will need to change the default "Video 1" to a different selection which may be "HDMI 1" or "Video 2" depending on how you have made the connection.

    Important: Make sure you connect the cable to the TV before turning on the computer as sometimes it may fail to recognize external display.

    You may also need to change the screen resolution of your TV using the Display settings in your Control Panel else the picture may appear distorted.

    Tuning

    The second factor in a laptop to TV connection is proper tuning. If the screen resolution and aspect ratio of your TV screen and computer are not the same, the TV picture will be distorted. This is important whether the screen is LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), or non-LCD flat-screen.

    The screen aspect ratio is a monitor’s proportion of width to height. Prior to 2003, most computer monitors had a screen ratio of 4:3, the same as standard TVs. Since then, ratios of 16:10 have become common, especially in laptops. HDTV has a ratio of 16:9; and motion pictures and still photography have even different ratios. One common example of a screen-ratio problem is when wide-screen video is shown on a standard screen. The result is undesirable letter-boxing, with black bars filling the screen at top and bottom.

    Similarly, screen resolution varies between monitors. Resolution is measured in number of pixels across and down. Laptop LCD screens range from 1024 x 768 to 1920 x 1200 pixels, for a 15- or 17″ screen. HDTVs and wide-screen TVs have pixel resolutions varying from 1920 x 1080 to 1366 x 768. Unless your laptop screen and TV screen are the same size, adjustments have to be made to pixel ratio to ensure the best connection from TV to laptop.

    Make sure both screen aspect ratio and pixel resolution of TV and laptop are compatible. You can adjust both picture ratio and resolution with the Display Settings on the Control Panel of a PC laptop. Your laptop user’s manual and manufacturer’s Web site provide information on settings and options for video output.

    For more information visit the following link:

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Connect-your-computer-to-a-TV

    To get the better display settings on your Laptop, visit the following link for more information:

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Getting-the-best-display-on-your-monitor

    When your computer does not display anything on the monitor you have a No Display or Blank Display problem. This can be caused by any of the following reasons:

    · Monitor or System has no Power

    · Monitor is defective

    · Loose VGA/DVI Cable Connection

    · Video Card Problem

    · AGP/PCI-e Connector Problem / Motherboard

    · System RAM Problem

    Note:

    If your computer's video card has been designed to work well with HDTV, it might come with its own software for setting screen resolution to match the 16:9 format.

    For more information visit the following link :

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/HDTV-frequently-asked-questions

    Regards,

    Divya R – Microsoft Support.

    Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think.

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-10-23T02:27:36+00:00

    Try the windows + P key combination. While holding the windows key down, hit the letter P key once or twice. This should disconnect the TV so that you can see your monitor back

    20+ people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2012-03-25T14:47:52+00:00

    I had the same problem.

    Believe it or not, the solution I found to the blank screen problem was to unplug the power chord and plug it back in.

    Not sure how that helped, but it worked. Maybe it's some sort of power management issue.

    Discovered it when someone tripped on my power cable and pulled it straight out.

    3 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2014-12-17T18:30:26+00:00

    I finally found a fix that worked for me! Hope it works for any of you having this trouble also.

    Trying to use my LG TV as a second monitor for my Toshiba laptop (Toshiba Satellite P55t-A5202), I also changed my graphics options to: Graphic Options ->Output to -> Digital Television. After this change whenever I connected an HDMI cable to my laptop, connected the HDMI cable to the LG television, and then selected the correct input on the television both the screen on my television and laptop would go dark (blank).

    After many frustrating hours I was not able to reverse the Graphic Options output to Digital Television back to the factory setting. After I made the change the Graphic Options (right click from desktop to view this option) "Output To" option no longer appeared in the menu.

    I called the Toshiba helpline but the tech didn't seem to understand the issue. He kept asking if I had the latest driver for my graphics card, which I assured him multiple times I had visited the Intel website that I was redirected to the Toshiba website for my graphics drivers because Toshiba customized the driver on the laptop model and selecting a driver directly from Intel is not an option. At the Toshiba website I was able to confirm I have the most recent driver for my graphics card. The Tech then advised me I would need to pay the service fee of $99 to have this issue resolved. The frugal side of me told me to be leery. He assured me that my laptop would be fixed 100% once they went thru checking my drivers remotely and other software on the laptop. I told him no thank you and continued my frustrating search for a solution.

    I then tried Reunans reply dated October 23, 2011 to this posted question.

    With the HDMI cable connected to my laptop, connected to the TV, and both screens dark (blank), I held down the Window Key and pressed the P key repeatedly and slowly, still nothing changed. Then I realized maybe I needed to hit Enter to select whatever option I had landed on when holding down the Window Key and pressing the P key repeatedly. I held the Window Key and pressed the P key about 3 times hoping I was at a selection that would show my desktop on both screens, then I clicked Enter. Voila!!!!! I had my desktop back on both my laptop and now it was showing on my television too!!!

    Holding down the Window key and pressing the P key had brought up the Project menu (project to a connected screen) and I had landed blindly on EXTEND. Which means to extend the desktop to both the laptop screen and the television screen. The only adjustment I did after this was go into my Display Settings and select that screen 1, my laptop screen, be my main screen. Then all my desktop showed  on my laptop as normal, and the TV screen was like a second monitor to my laptop. Now if I want to see something on the TV screen I open it and drag it over using the mouse to the TV screen which was what I wanted to do in the first place!!!

    By the way, now that this has been solved, when I right click on my desktop and select "Graphic Options", the "Output To" option appears. Digital Television does appear, but I will never select that again!!!!!!!!! Automatically it is showing "Extend" as selected.

    I turned off the laptop and then turned off the TV to make sure the fix sticks. I turned the laptop back on, turned on my television and everything continued working perfectly.

    Hope this works for any of you also!!! After 3 hours finally success!!!

    PS. Intel(R) Widi came installed from factory on my laptop. It worked beautifully for the first few months after I purchased the laptop. Then Intel made an update to the firmware for Intel(R) Widi. Toshiba failed to update the driver for the graphics card they customized for my laptop (the most current driver I have is dated 10/28/2013). Therefore, I cannot use Intel(R) Widi because I get an error message that says my graphic card driver which has been customized by my OEM (Toshiba) is not compatible to be used with Intel(R) Widi. Never again will I but a TOSHIBA!!!!!

    2 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2011-02-26T16:43:23+00:00

    I still don't see an answer for the second question? I was doing the same thing but with VGA cable, & I read somewhere to try to right click the desktop & go to graphic options. from there I had to click Output to TV but I could only find monitor & clicked that. now every time my cables are connected , my laptop screen blanks out. I'm assuming it's switching over to my TV as a main monitor but since I never properly got my monitor to work, it doesn't show anything. the Output To option no longer comes up, so I'm assuming it only shows when connected. so I can never try to change it back.

    1 person found this answer helpful.
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