Help!

I'm trying to connect my Samsung LCD LE32R74BD to my HP laptop using a VGA (male to male) cable. It doesn't seem to want to work! I have checked the cable using my PC monitor and that works fine. When the cable is plugged into the back of the TV (and I've pressed Fn+F5 on the laptop to change the output) nothing happens. I press "source" and all it flicks between are the Sky box and DVD player, which are both plugged in with scart cables. Does anyone have any idea of what I am doing wrong??

Thanks

Is the laptop actually outputting anything to the VGA cable? I have to alter the settings on mine to run a clone, extend the desktop or switch the default to VGA.

Second, is it running at a resolution the TV can handle. My TV won't take a signal over 1024 x 768 (from memory .... I'm at work).

It's either because the video res and frame rate from the laptop is not one the TV can handle, or the PC input is disabled in your TV's menus.

I'm not familiar with that particular TV, but on many TVs, when you have an up/down button that cycles through the available inputs, you can set some inputs to "skip", so that you don't have to cycle through lots of unused inputs.

Ok I'm not really an expert at these things, I thought it would just be simple to plug in and away I go! The laptop is quite old (4 years) so I wondered if that might be the problem. How do I change the resolution setting so that the tv will accept it? I have tried going through the menu on the tv and nothing I press seems to get it to pick up the laptop, nothing in the guidebook indicates anything about being able to skip things.

No idea about the TV.

But on the laptop, it depends what the graphics setup is.

Right click on desktop, properties, settings .... and it'll be in there somewhere. Can't remember exactly but maybe in the 'advanced' area? As I say, depends on the laptop. On mine, I have to switch the secondary input on and make sure the reolution is right for the TV. I think theres a hotkey that switches it as well, not sure what it is though. At work at the mo so can't check any of this ....

If your TV only changes between Sky and DVD, then you're never selecting the computer input?.

It should display PC (or something similar) on screen - try without the PC connected. However, the 23 inch Samsung I've just tried here has a separate PC button you press on the remote, pressing the AV button just switches between EXT1 and EXT2.

Perhaps your Samsung has a separate PC button as well?, pressing it once switches it to PC, pressing it again cancels it.