connecting my tv to my pc
 

Just bought a VGA to component cable, when I tell my laptop to go to a different monitor the tv just says "Not Available" Any ideas?

punch it. go to display setting. does it show a second monitor as an option at all?

Standard tv's... non-monitor tv's require much lower resolution... Newer operating systems like Vista, will not let run monitor dual with a standard screen running that has requires higher resolution.

I beleive my tv, runs like 400x600. but I dont run a pc monitor. I had to set up the resoultion to that size on a pc monitor, then plug into the tv. I tried using Componet cables, but it would not happen, I have settled with s-video cables.

I do a little geeking on... thegreenbutton.com

goodluck

Yes, and if I tell my laptop to stop then the TV goes back to "VIDEO2".

My Sony lcd tv has a VGA input for hooking up the tv as a monitor, so I just bought a cheap 10' VGA cable online and hook it up whenever I want a bigger screen. My cheap HP/Compaq laptop with Vista has no problem running both as monitors.

EDIT: on my laptop you can hit fn+f4 to cycle the monitor options between just the laptop screen, just the tv, or both working.

Are you sure your laptop is capable of providing an NTSC component output?

Most computers cannot output a component display. A link to the specific cable you bought would be nice, but my guess is that it's for one of the few cards (like an ATi Radeon) that are capable of producing a component output.

I have an ATI Radeon 3100 graphics card.

ATi 3100 is an integrated graphics card on a lot of mobo's.

Do have the settings for the TV past 1280x720? Component inputs can't read past that resolution. (1080i/720p)

Huh...

Well, for what it's worth, I was never able to make my old Radeon produce a satisfactory component output either. Wound up sticking with S-video until I got the Xbox360.

But good luck with that.

Oh, on the one I had, the dongle that plugged into the card to produce the triple-RCA output actually had some DIP switches on it- it wasn't just a plain ole' cable. Maybe yours has the same requirement?

As mentioned above, on HP's it's fn+f4 to get an external monitor to work. But you can probably google the answer for your specific brand.