driver issues

radome

Baseband Member
Messages
31
Location
United States
is this the right category to ask driver questions. if it is, i have a sony vgn-120aw laptop that originally came with windows vista. i aslo had an hannspree hf257 monitor connected to it. it worked great.

Recently i upgraded my operating system to windows 8.1 pro. i cannot get the hannspree monitor to connect to the laptop. when i use the charms to try and install, it states that i cannot install an external monitor. i immediately thought driver problems. tried to find a driver i could download for this monitor to no avail. i am trying to get a handle on all the capabilities of windows 8.1 but it is a lot to learn. can anyone help me with this problem.

thanks in advance,

radome
 
You shouldn't need to install drivers for an external monitor, usually the software it installs is simply provided in case you want to change the colour balance using software.

Is the image displaying on the external monitor? Usually you can click the "Fn" key andone of the F keys in order to change to the monitor if you need to.
 
Press [Windows] + P to change Presentation options. Try to see if setting to extend will bring your monitor up.

Also, on the monitor make sure the correct video source is selected (e.g. VGA, DVI, etc)
 
thanks for your replies guys. I have left the location where the laptop is but i do know two things:
1. I have a full keyboard so no Fn keys
2. when i bring up the charms on the right side of the screen and click on devices it tells me that no external monitor can be run on this computer. I know it can because when I had Vista, it worked fine.

long story but i had to use a reboot process because i somehow lost my administrator file and couldnt do anything with the computer. after many hours of complaining, finally got microsoft to show me how build a reboot disk from one of my other computers and when i rebooted, that is when the problem started. it is a PnP monitor but i dont have anythng on the drive to recognize it.
it is getting over my head and i am rambling but i hope i have explained it.

just remember the problems you had before you became competent. i was ok with xp and vista but 8.1 has to many capabilities to comprehend.
again, thank you for your responses.
 
I had a problem with my laptop running an external monitor and the ethernet port when I put Windows 8/8.1 on it. My lappy was just a low end Dell Inspiron which originally came with Windows 7 on it. The VGA port worked fine with Win 7 on as did the ethernet port. There was absolutely nothing that I could do to make the VGA port nor the ethernet port work on 8. They also didn't work when I ran the lappy with Win 10 technical preview installed. But everything was fine whenI put Win 7 back on. I eventually gave up and put it down to a quirk with Win 8 and 10. I did inform the Win 10 feedback people but I had no reply vfrom them.
 
one more thing. i just tried the win key + p and, on the laptop, that is where it tells me that no external monitor can be run on that computer. have i lost a component of the operating system?

radome

---------- Post added at 03:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:33 PM ----------

i dont think it is a quirk in 8.1. the all in one in am on now with 8.1 has no problem displaying an external monitor. hope 10 is better.

radome
 
Interesting.

Sounds like 1 of 2 things to me:

1. Your video card driver is cheesed. Find out what Video Card your laptop has and update it.
2. Did you do an actual "Upgrade" from Vista to 8.1? If so... this could the source of many issues. Microsoft came out and said (when 8 was released) that their upgrade logic was crappy. I myself had a TON of issues when I went from 7 to 8, but they were all fixed once I wiped clean and just did a regular install.

Check the video card stuff first. Press [Windows] + X and click on "Device Manager". Do any of the devices (specifically 'display adapter') have a yellow exclamation next to them?
 
iPwn, sounds like you are on to something. tomorrow when i get back to that system, i will try your suggestions.
I actually upgraded from vista to 8.1. it was a download from the microsoft store. it worked good for a while then while i was deleting a password, somehow i deleted the access to an administrator capabilities. finally was able to get microsoft to walk me thru a reboot from a new all in one that i had just purchased. did a usb drive reboot and got my administrator capabilities back. lost my external monitor capabilities.

thanks for giving me some things to try. i will follow up with you

radome
 
there was one unknown device listed under other devices and it had a yellow exclamation point next to it. i disabled it.

under monitors, there is only one monitor listed and it is named a non PnP monitor and it is working properly, i have the external monitor hooked up but i am assuming it is not being recognized as there is only one monitor listed, the non PnP one.

when you say update the video card, is that a software update or a piece of hardware that must be installed in the computer? i hope you are still there because i am learning.
 
Look here:
Capture.PNG

Do you have anything under that?

If not, then that device under "Unknown" is your Video Adapter and you need the drivers for it.

Use a program called SIW (available here) and find out what video card you have and then go to the manufacturers site to get the drivers.

Once it opens and finds everything (may take a bit), look here:
index.php


Get the drivers, install, reboot and try that monitor again.
 
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