OsakaWebbie
Programmer
I'm trying to use an old laptop (Toshiba Dynabook 2100, Windows 98 SE) to run Powerpoint on a projector (actually two different projectors on different days of the week - I'll call them Big and Little). Although the Toshiba's manual does not mention multi-display support, it appears to support it - I have two displays I can configure in the Control Panel Display Configuration, and they are even different resolutions. I am aware that the display memory may be barely able to do it, but it's doing it. But on "Big" (unfortunately the one installed in a hall we simply rent once a week - I can ask to be let in to test this at other times when the hall is not in use, but not too often or I will annoy someone), the display on the projector appears "squashed" vertically - the aspect ratio is wrong and it's not using the top and bottom of the screen.
A little history. The first time I ever tried it was with Big - I was only expecting to show the same thing on the projector as the PC display, and at first only the projector worked and the PC display was blank. But it was using the the full screen at the right aspect ratio, and Powerpoint slide shows looked great too. Then I went into Control Panel's Display configuration to try to get stuff to show on the PC monitor, and after some wrestling with settings (I don't remember everything I did, but I remember repeatedly turning off the checkbox about spreading the desktop across monitors, after which it would warn me that the second display was displayed and would I like to enable it...duh!), it began to behave in multi-display mode - showing a plain desktop background color on the projector while showing my desktop and windows on the PC. At the time I didn't know how to get Powerpoint to utilize the second display (I know now), so that's as far as I got, and I don't remember whether the plain background was full size at that time or not. Next was with Little, which after installing Plug-n-play drivers worked like a charm, including dual-display Powerpoint. (Caveat: every time I boot with a projector plugged in, it first only displays on the projector, then after boot and user login, it eventually switches to showing my stuff on the PC and the background on the projector. Is that normal?)
The next time I was able to plug into Big was "showtime", weekly church worship in a rented hall. It successfully switched to the driver it had used the first time, but when it started using it (showing stuff on the PC display and treating the projector as secondary), I noticed that the image on the projector was vertically squashed, both the plain background and the Powerpoint slide show. I searched and searched for a setting to change, but couldn't find anything. The configuration dialog claims that the "A" display is 800x600 and the "B" one (presumably the projector) is 640x480. Strangely enough, it seems to be using the projector driver for both A and B, but the PC display looks fine. Can anyone tell me what to try checking? I'm a computer veteran, but this is the first time I have ever used a PC in multi-display mode, so I don't know how I should expect settings to appear and what I can control. Since I have limited access to the hall where Big is located (outside of the time we rent it every week, when I don't have much time to experiment), I need to go in armed with a variety of troubleshooting possibilities rather than trying one thing at a time and then coming back to the forum. I hope to try getting in tomorrow (it's midnight now here in Japan, so many of you will be reading this while I'm asleep), so flood me with ideas!
A little history. The first time I ever tried it was with Big - I was only expecting to show the same thing on the projector as the PC display, and at first only the projector worked and the PC display was blank. But it was using the the full screen at the right aspect ratio, and Powerpoint slide shows looked great too. Then I went into Control Panel's Display configuration to try to get stuff to show on the PC monitor, and after some wrestling with settings (I don't remember everything I did, but I remember repeatedly turning off the checkbox about spreading the desktop across monitors, after which it would warn me that the second display was displayed and would I like to enable it...duh!), it began to behave in multi-display mode - showing a plain desktop background color on the projector while showing my desktop and windows on the PC. At the time I didn't know how to get Powerpoint to utilize the second display (I know now), so that's as far as I got, and I don't remember whether the plain background was full size at that time or not. Next was with Little, which after installing Plug-n-play drivers worked like a charm, including dual-display Powerpoint. (Caveat: every time I boot with a projector plugged in, it first only displays on the projector, then after boot and user login, it eventually switches to showing my stuff on the PC and the background on the projector. Is that normal?)
The next time I was able to plug into Big was "showtime", weekly church worship in a rented hall. It successfully switched to the driver it had used the first time, but when it started using it (showing stuff on the PC display and treating the projector as secondary), I noticed that the image on the projector was vertically squashed, both the plain background and the Powerpoint slide show. I searched and searched for a setting to change, but couldn't find anything. The configuration dialog claims that the "A" display is 800x600 and the "B" one (presumably the projector) is 640x480. Strangely enough, it seems to be using the projector driver for both A and B, but the PC display looks fine. Can anyone tell me what to try checking? I'm a computer veteran, but this is the first time I have ever used a PC in multi-display mode, so I don't know how I should expect settings to appear and what I can control. Since I have limited access to the hall where Big is located (outside of the time we rent it every week, when I don't have much time to experiment), I need to go in armed with a variety of troubleshooting possibilities rather than trying one thing at a time and then coming back to the forum. I hope to try getting in tomorrow (it's midnight now here in Japan, so many of you will be reading this while I'm asleep), so flood me with ideas!