Multiple monitors on XP Home anyone ?

[carpetpaul]

I've had a nice big monitor sat at the side of my laptop for about 12 months now, and suddenly the thought struck me about using it. After a bit of fumbling throught the help menu on Windows XP Home, I decided to plug it in and have a go. So, following the instructions, I turned off my computer, plugged in the new monitor, and powered up. Straight away both monitors came on (showing the same) startup screen came and went. Next bit for me, is where I put my password in to log on. At this point my second monitor was sent into standby / sleep. No amount of on and off pushing brought it back to life.
I next followed the 11 steps of the Nvidia 'Nview' wizard to set up various ways in which the monitors interact with tiles and desktop etc. Fine, ok, but the second monitor still isn't on.
I must be missing something here, it comes on again when I boot up the computer, but again, it's sent off as soon as the computer comes to life.
Could anyone tell me where I am going wrong, and how to 'wake' the monitor up permanently so that I can experiment with my extra screen ??
Any help would be great

Thankyou for your time !!

Paul

 

[Lord Kalthorn]

I think sometimes there are buttons on the Laptop which switch from Monitor to Laptop Screen and back; are there any Monitor type pictures on the keyboard?

 

[Dynamix]

If u say it has been sat there for 12 months it might be a bit jacked

 

[airiox]

right click your desktop and choose properties. Go to the settings tab and click the advanced button.

Then choose the tab that has your video card on it. You whould find dual display settings there.

 

[carpetpaul]

thanks to all for your help so far, I'll have a go and I'll let you know if I can get it working.

Cheers - Paul