Hi,

recently I had to replace the LCD monitor which is connected to my
laptop (Sony VAIO) via a dockingstation.
Although cable is connected (confirmed by the monitor status), the VAIO
fails to switch over to LCD with Fn+F7.
Recently, the pop-up icons which should allow to toggle between laptop
screen, external and both (3 options) did no longer show the external icon.
Any suggestions?


Kind regards,

René Meijn
Hoeven
The Netherlands

Did you replace with the exact same model? If not, are you having to use an adapter between your docking station and the laptop? Does the monitor work plugged directly into the back of the laptop? Have you tested the monitor on another machine? Have you tested your *original* laptop on another machine?

The reason I ask is that it *sounds* like your laptop's external port / docking station's external port is not working anymore, or else that the laptop's video card is not working correctly, and that may mean that original monitor may not be bad at all....

Hi,

yes, it was replaced by exactly the same model.
The odd thing is that the monitor which had broken down was just dead, while the new monitor is now clearly alive as it report not video input signal.
So the new monitor does well, and so does the laptop as it normally runs XP on its own screen.
Strangely only the DVI output on the dockingstation is causing a problem as all other interfaces (USB, firewire) are working correctly.
Nevertheless the option to choose external source with Fn+F7 has disappeared.


Kind regards,

René Meijn
Hoeven
The Netherlands

So, then the old monitor is really dead, and will nto work when plugged into the laptop directly whereas the new monitor is working fine and will work when plugged into the laptop directly - Correct?

It is possible that when the old monitor died it also hosed your DVI output on the docking station....

This can be verified if you remove the laptop from the docking station and then attach the monitor to it directly, and see if the option of external output reappears in your Fn-F7 selection....

Indeed, the old monitor was really dead; no response of whatsoever when the power was turned on.
The new (identical) monitor does not respond to the DVI-output of the dockingstation, whereas it also does not respond when it is directly attached to the laptop by a simple VGA-cable.


Kind regards,

René Meijn
Hoeven
The Netherlands

Then it is probably not the docking stating but the laptop itself that is having issues.

Indeed, this also was my conclusion; refer to the other thread I opened.


Kind regards,

René Meijn
Hoeven
The Netherlands

Back to this thread I can report I managed to reboot my laptop and restored it (using Norton Save and Restore) to a point where the previous external monitor worked fine.
However, it did not work out that way.
The function Fn+F7 does not show the option to switch to external monitor via the docking station, but also on the VGA-port of the laptop the external monitor reports 'no video signal'.
I contacted Sony online support in the meantime and they suggested to reinstall utilities (software that controls hotkeys).
Any thoughts?


Kind regards,

René Meijn
Hoeven
The Netherlands