Projector not working

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I've got a user who wants to use a new projector on their laptop, they plugged it into another laptop first and it works fine.

Plugged it into their laptop and it doesn't work, projector displays error saying device incompatible. I took control of their laptop, reduced the screen resolution to 800x600, reduced the colour to 8bit and the hardware acceleration to minimum.

The projector occassionally displays for a couple of seconds and then it drops and gives same error message as before.


Any ideas guys ? the user didn't seem to think she had to do anything to enable the laptop to output to the projector. I'm thinking faulty video adapter ? first step get the latest drivers installed for video adapter ?

Do I need to change anything in display settings to enable the projector or something ?

Thankyou

 

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As far as I know from when I used them in a university project, all you did was plug them in and it should detect the projector and display the image.

So I would be inclined to say there is a fault with the video adapter.

 

This is a bit of a long shot but does it have the Catalyst Control installed(if its an ati gfx card)

 

My experience with modern projectors is that they 'just work' with a wide variety of driving PCs.

I think we need to know the model of this proj, and how it is connected to take it much further.

Edit: And thinking about it - the laptop model and OS.

Harry.

 

Thanks guys. Its an inergrated intel video adapter. I don't know the make of projector, it connects via USB.

And to quote the user, it worked when plugged into a colleagues exact same make of laptop 30 minutes ago.

But I will have them test in another laptop next week first and then begin investigating the video adapter if it works.

Appreciate any opinions as always.

 

laptop is a toshiba tecra A2 running win xp pro

 

Eh? Normaly I'd expect a projector to plug into a VGA socket!

I suspect that you will need special drivers to send video to the USB port.

Harry.

 

I've not had much experience with projectors Harry but I thought the same thing when the user phoned in !! I asked how it was connected to the laptop and they said USB, I think I will have to double check this next week lol.

 

There are projectors around that have USB sockets - but that is usualy either for remote control, or PC-less presentations.

I'd somewhat doubt the quality of a video signal sent via USB. TV can be done with USB2, but PCs are usualy much higher bandwidth!

Harry.

 

I agree with Harry.

Also I was thinking, could it be something do with the power saving settings? Maybe the laptop is prohibiting the device from displaying do to some power settings. After all it is a laptop that the projector is connected to.

 

Think I need to get user to try this

http://www.infocus.com/service/tech_library/laptop_chart.asp?site_lang=1&site_region=1&

 

I dont know how the laptop is made, but usually unless its plugged into something like VGA where you do need to use the function keys to switch to that output, with usb its not required. But give it a try.