i've tried googling and going to dell support but to no avail. I have a laptop(dell e5540) and it has the capability of having a dual screen(this works). However, when i connect the vga cable from the projector to the laptop, my screen goes black and it won't detect anything.

when i plug in a different laptop, my SECOND screen is displayed on my laptop while my PRIMARY screen is displayed on the projector.

What i need is my primary on my laptop and my primary on the projector. How do i resolve the problem with the first and second laptop?

it is 10:30pm and i'm still in the office with a 7:30am meeting hanging over my head so all the help i can will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Control Panel ---> Connect to a projector ---> Duplicate

Or if the option for Clone view pops up.

This is what I do, not sure if it helps :0

Some projectors can't detect high resolutions. So if the EDID information coming back isn't something it can handle, you will get no image. Dumb down your resolution.

Bonus post.

Make sure you have the proper display driver installed (not from windows update). Sometimes windows update updates your driver to there terrible driver... which doesnt work correctly.

Also, Fnt+F8 toggles between displaying only on the projector, or both, or your laptop.

Finally, you can right click on your desktop to see if you have Graphic Options, or go into your icon tray (near the clock) to see if you have display software running to toggle your displays.

have you tried unplugging and plugging it back in?

i hope the meeting went well BigBoi

there is an issue with Win8 requiring extra drivers to work with *some* 2ndary displays, prob isn't an issue ;)
(I had that issue with a Tandberg VC system)
take the res down to 1280 or less, it should pick up fine after toggling the dual screen doodah on keyboard - primary / secondary setting

the Function + F-key combo for switching between display usage is different on each of my Dells. you can fix the second laptop by bringing up Display Properties and simply specifying which display you want to be the Primary Display. as for the first one, try restarting it with the projector plugged in. then see if you can access Display Properties. no clue.

Win 8? fug it.

Thanks for all the help guys. I was able to change the settings to clone(displays what is on my laptop screen on the projector) and move on.

Thanks Eric

The laptop going black is still a mystery and i will go through each of your suggestions over the weekend but thankfully it worked. The meeting went well! Thanks Akula for wishing me the best.

HA. EE triumphs again!

Now if computer games had been around in my youth that High Court judgeship would have ben MINE!!

computers are older than you think. wonder if it's still possible to run people thru Babbage's Machine...