new laptop with vista+ trouble adding 2nd monitor

[loveinvain]

Bought new laptop today, cant get dual display to work, just shows the same picture on laptop display and my other monitor.

I would expect this should work somehow as both are siemens fujitsu products.

If anyone has any ideas it would be much appreciated.

If it helps this is what it said on the sales slip.

FS Amilo Pa 1538 TL52 DualCore 1GB160GB DVD GF7400 Vista

[kerowo]

You tried all the check boxes or drop down list boxes in the dispaly dialog box? Somewhere there is an option to have your desktop span both monitors instead of mirror. You can also check the properties of the vid card and see if there is anything in there about mirroring vs spanning/sharing.

[loveinvain]

Which display dialog box?

Where can I check the properties of the vid card?

i've dont this before on a few different computers, but I'm not used to vista either.

I get to the part that shows graphic properties or something but it shows only the one monitor, on other computers I see 2 and I just need to activate the one that's not active. It's almost like it doesn't recocnize the existence of the 2nd display screen but it is there and working, just not in dual mode.

[kerowo]

Your lappy may be set to presentation mode where it automatically mirrors the image for presentations. Read your owners manual about turning that on and off, there is probably a function key with a little picture of a screen or "VGA" on it, try playing with that.

In display properties I have two check boxes one to identify the main monitor and one to say extend the desktop to both, you should also see an identify monitors button if you have more than one hooked up.

You should be able to get to the properties of the video card either through right clicking the desktop (mine says Nvidia Control Panel) or through the control panel itself.