Simple Laptop Dual Monitor Support?

[Alexia]

My laptop, Dell Inspiron XPS, always runs the LCD at 1920x1200.(8:5 aspect) This is fine. I'm planning on ditching my desktop and using my CRT as a monitor for my laptop in mirror mode. When I plug it in though, I can't set it higher than 1280x1024. I did manage to get PowerStrip to force 1600x1200(4:3 aspect) on the CRT and the LCD did the same. It won't stay the same though.

Basically what I want to happen, when I plug the CRT in I want the laptop LCD to automatically switch to 1600x1200 and the CRT mirror that. When I unplug the CRT, the LCD goes back to 1920x1200. Right now the only way to get that to work is about ten minutes of unplugging, plugging in, changing settings, forcing settings, and restarting. There should be a utility for this. 🙁

ATI Radeon Mobile 9700
Windows XP Professional

 

[dug777]

why don't you just set the CRT as a second monitor and run them side by side 😉

I think you can still choose which screen to use at the primary, but i'd stick with the lappy screen as the primary...

 

[Alexia]

Originally posted by: dug777
why don't you just set the CRT as a second monitor and run them side by side 😉

I think you can still choose which screen to use at the primary, but i'd stick with the lappy screen as the primary...

I only need one monitor at a time. 😉

The other problem I encountered is if I close the laptop, the CRT becomes the primary monitor.

 

[Alexia]

I figured out a solution. ATI's control panel actually has a decent profile manager. Not automatic, but I only have to press one of the two hotkeys I assigned to switch from laptop mode to desktop mode. It took a little work to get everything just right, but works every time after the profile is saved!