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connecting widescreen notebook to regular projector

post #1 of 7
2/23/05 at 3:46am
Thread Starter 
Hi y'all...

i actually have a PC but I thought you Mac'ers might be better suited to answer my question since Mac invented the whole "widescreen" frenzy.

here's the thing, I have a widescreen PC notebook and when I tried to connect it to a projector in order to do a presentation in class, due to the ratio difference, when I run the powerpoint slideshow (full-screen), parts of the slide (left and right) get cut off. I've played with the display setting over and over and nothing seems to help. has any of you guys with a widescreen apple run into the same issue?

please help!

brian
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post #2 of 7
2/23/05 at 4:21am
Update your drivers and see what happens. You're supposed to get a setting in the display preferences to change the resolution of the second display. I've never done it on a PC, but I've seen the extra settings before.

I'm surprised the projector even worked. Normally they're like monitors in that they don't display resolutions they can't handle.
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post #3 of 7
2/24/05 at 7:47am
update to the vid card manufacturer's drivers. often times u don't get all the functions of the vid card accessible w/ the drivers given to u via dull, HP, compaq, etc.

also, was the powerpoint presentation in any way setup in a widescreen format? in the slide show tab u can set up what res u want the show to work at.
- slide show>set up slide show
- res should be at the bottom if u r working w/ office xp

that might do it, but did u try showing it w/ presenter tools?

hope this helps.

keep us posted
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post #4 of 7
2/26/05 at 3:10pm
The PC laptop should work similar to the Powerbook in that:

1. You can mirror the laptop display to the projector. This sounds like what you were doing, but the PC wasn't smart enough to change to a resolution the projector could support like Powerbooks will.

2. You can have a different image on the laptop screen and projector.

With the Powerbook, the way to switch is the F7 key. PC laptops should have some similar function key, look for two boxes or something similar to indicate a monitor change.

Otherwise when the projector is connected, right click the desktop, and go to properties and see if changing setting on the display tab help.
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post #5 of 7
2/26/05 at 10:38pm
I don't think PC laptops have keyboard controls for secondary displays. I'm almost certain it's all controlled in the display prefs.
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post #6 of 7
2/26/05 at 10:43pm
My Compaq Armada M700 did. It was some combination of the Fn and a F key on the top row. Looking at my Dell Wintendo, it has a similar key setup too.
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post #7 of 7
3/20/05 at 3:16pm
You could switch to a Basic Resolution and see if the Projector follows Suit... but I agree with the other guys you will need to make sure you have the current drivers for you vid card... Keep in mind OEM drivers may not be the best solution as in the case with my lappy I have the newest ATI Catalyst Drivers. The driver is on ATI's Website and will not install without using the Mobility Modder Tool From Tech Connect.
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