Hi,

I want to connect an external LCD monitor to my laptop and extend the desktop to two monitors. But I don't know which monitor type to use.

I would really like to go with a widescreen LCD monitor, at least 19", but it appears that all 20" widescreen LCD monitors have a recommended resolution of 1680x1050, and all 19" monitors have a recommended resolution of 1440x900.

However, on my laptop, Acer Aspire 3690 running Windows XP Pro, the only resolutions I can select on Display Properties are 1600x900, 1280x1024, 1280x960, 1280x800, ...

My question is will I be able to use a 19" or a 20" widescreen LCD monitor with my laptop, and at what resolution? I only use my laptop for work and not for gaming, so my main concerns are the screen space and decent image quality/speed while running standard desktop applications like browser, text editor, etc.

Thank you for you advise.

When you attach a monitor the system automatically detects resolutions that your monitor can display. Once you connect the new monitor to your laptop you will see resolution options that aren't currently available with the built in screen.

This is how I hoped it would work. But, shouldn't all resolutions supported by the videocard become visible if the "Hide Modes that this monitor cannot display" check box is cleared? This is how I was able to see the resolution of 1600x900 for my laptop's 15" screen.

Nevermind, you're absolutely correct. I just tried it by connecting a different monitor to my laptop - new resolutions showed up. Thanks!