2400MP and 1800MP Projectors Displaying Video From Notebooks

Question

Here at my company, we have a 2400MP Dell Projector, and we just recently purchased a 1800MP Dell Projector, and for some reason whenever we hook certain notebooks up to those projectors, we do not get any video displayed from the projector.  The projector continues to read 'Searching for signal.'  The notebooks that we are using did display video through those projectors before, but for some reason they are not displaying any more.  Any suggestions as to what we may need to do in order to have the projectors display video again.  We are using a Toshiba Tecra M2/M3 notebook as well as a Dell Vostro 1500, both running Windows XP SP2.  Thanks for your feedback!

DELL-Chris M · Answer

Killarmy,

The notebooks that we are using did display video through those projectors before, but for some reason they are not displaying any more.
* Did you do some Windows Updates on these PCs? Perhaps a new video card driver was pushed during the update?

Killarmy · Answer

I do not use those PCs personally, but I'm quite sure that they experienced some Windows Updates though.  If in fact a new video card driver was pushed during the update, what can be done now in order to have those projectors start displaying video again?

DELL-Chris M · Answer

Killarmy, The Vostro user should reload the Dell video card driver. I do not know about the Toshiba Tecra M2/M3 notebook.

Robertvw · Answer

I had a similar problem with my Vostro 1500 notebook: I had to give a presentation at a meeting and the projector (2400MP also) didn't 'see' the signal from the notebook.  Oddly, the Vostro could tell it was hooked up, and even identified the projector model. We were using a very long cable (100 feet).  I tried using a shorter cable (6 feet) and it started working.  It would appear that either the graphics card wasn't sending a strong enough signal, or the cable connector for the long cable wasn't making a good connection on all pins.  The fact that the VGA port doesn't have screw-holes to secure the cable is not reassuring.   Unfortunately, without having a projector available myself, I can't experiment.  Would the graphics driver affect the signal-strength coming out of the VGA port? The notebook was brand-new (this was mid-september), so presumable it was using the Dell driver that it came with, although I suppose it's possble that it was immediately updated by a Vista update the night before the meeting. OS: Vista Business Graphics: NVidia GEForce 8600M GT

DELL-Chris M · Answer

Robertvw, Everyone should be testing with the default 6' cables we sent. Yes, there will be a video signal degradation.

Projectors

2400MP and 1800MP Projectors Displaying Video From Notebooks

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