How to use external monitor and close laptop lid

[Lyla_01]

Hi
I have a Toshiba with Vista (it is very small) and uses a larger monitor, Syncmaster, at office. I do not have enough space to open the laptop and having the monitor on my desk. I need to work with my laptop closed (using as a desktop harddrive) and use external monitor attached to it. Then I also need to work on the laptop only out of office. Can someone advise how to set up the laptop?

 

[Pyree]

click start, in search box type power, press enter

1. on the left hand side of the window which just came up, click choose what closing the lid does and select do nothing for when I close the lid.

2. Then in your display management interface (depends on your display adapter), select external screen as primary screen, match image output to external screen native resolution and close lid.

Reverse procedure 2 when you want to use your laptop's monitor.

 

[brenbesser]

click start, in search box type power, press enter

1. on the left hand side of the window which just came up, click choose what closing the lid does and select do nothing for when I close the lid.

2. Then in your display management interface (depends on your display adapter), select external screen as primary screen, match image output to external screen native resolution and close lid.

Reverse procedure 2 when you want to use your laptop's monitor.

I can use my laptop with the lid closed, but I cannot restart the laptop with the lid closed. Is there a way to configure it so that I can restart with the lid closed?

 

[Pyree]

Elaborate "cannot restart laptop with the lid closed".

 

[brenbesser]

Elaborate "cannot restart laptop with the lid closed".

My laptop is connected to my HDTV using an HDMI connection, and I have a bluetooth mouse and keyboard. I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

The laptop has to be open to start. Once running I can close it. I've set the power option to do nothing when I close the lid, and I've set the display to use only the external monitor. So, I can close the lid, and it works with the external monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

But, when I choose Restart from the start button, it starts the restart cycle with shutting down, but it never starts back up. If I then open the lid, the LED lights on the keyboard are illuminated, but the computer will not respond to any input from the mouse or keyboard; crtl-alt-del, power-button, esc, enter, clicking, mousing, function-key-monitor, unplugging the HDMI connector, etc.

At that point, all I can do it press the power button and hold for five seconds until it powers down, then, press power again to start it. It then starts up normally.

If I keep the lid cracked open, I can restart successfuly, and for now, that's my "workaround." There's not enough room on the shelf under the HDTV to keep the lid fully open. The laptop is an HP Pavillion HDX9300 "Dragon" with a 20" monitor. It weighs 15 pounds and is very big, and not easy to remove from the shelf to open and close to restart. It would be nice to know how to configure it to work with the lid completely closed all the time.

Thanks, Bren