5-11LESSON 1 CONFIGURING AND TROUBLESHOOTING THE DISPLAYDECISION IS THAT WHEN YOU ARRANGE YOUR DISPLAYS ON THE SETTINGS TAB, THE LOCATIONOF THE MONITOR ICONS ACCURATELY PREDICTS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MOVE YOURMOUSE POINTER BETWEEN DISPLAYS

5-11Lesson 1 Configuring and Troubleshooting the Display

decision is that when you arrange your displays on the Settings tab, the location

of the monitor icons accurately predicts what happens when you move your

mouse pointer between displays. For example, assume that you have two dis-

plays side by side. One of the displays is a 19-inch monitor and one is a 15-inch

monitor. You can arrange these displays on the Settings tab so that either the tops

or the bottoms of the displays are aligned. If the tops were aligned, whenever you

move your mouse pointer from the bottom of the bigger display toward the sec-

ond display, the pointer would get “stuck.” To get the pointer over to the smaller

display, you would have to move the pointer upward to the point where the bot-

tom of the smaller display was. Although it seems as if it might not be a big deal,

losing track of your mouse pointer because of this arrangement is a common

complaint among multiple-display users.

How to Troubleshoot Multiple Displays

If you encounter problems with multiple displays, use the troubleshooting guidelines

in Table 5-4 to help resolve them.

Table 5-4

Troubleshooting Tips for Multiple Displays

Problem Solution

You cannot see any output

Activate the device in the Display Properties dialog box.

on the secondary displays.

Confirm that you chose the correct video driver.

Restart the computer to confirm that the secondary display

initialized. If not, check the status of the video adapter in

Device Manager.

Switch the order of the adapters in the slots. (The primary

adapter must qualify as a secondary adapter.)

The Extend My Windows

Select the secondary display rather than the primary one in

Desktop Onto This Monitor

the Display Properties dialog box.

check box is unavailable.

Confirm that the secondary display adapter is supported.

Confirm that Windows XP Professional can detect the

secondary display.

Run the application on the primary display.

An application fails to display

on the secondary display.

Run the application in full-screen mode (for Microsoft

MS-DOS-based programs) or maximized (for older

Windows-based programs).

Disable the secondary display to determine whether the

problem is specific to multiple-display support.

Lesson Review

The following questions are intended to reinforce key information presented in this

lesson. If you are unable to answer a question, review the lesson materials and try the

question again. You can find answers to the questions in the “Questions and Answers”

section at the end of this chapter.