I need help with a frustrating computer problem.

Factual Questions
1

I have an older, Compaq Presario 1247 laptop running Windows 98. It survived a car crash last summer, but has never been quite the same since. A connector is broken, so the screen doesn’t work at all. Up until recently we had it plugged into an external monitor. Its purpose in life is just to roll-over phonecalls to the fax machine if a caller doesn’t leave a message, and to run a copier/scanner/printer. It had -lots- of problems, and I was eventually forced to format the hard disk and run a quick restore. After the quick restore, imagine my surprise when the external monitor no longer works! I think that the drivers for it are still installed, but as I can’t see anything, I’m having big trouble changing the settings in display properties to switch default monitors.

I tried figuring out the pattern of keystrokes, on another computer, required to open up display properties and change the default monitor, but for some reason it’s not working, despite my trying several different methods.

So, my question is: How do I go about fixing this? There are no important files on the hard disk that need to be saved, so computer brutality can always be an option.

Thanks in advance,
Cruktar

2

Is it black ALL the time or can you see the POST checks… the counting of memory and such at the very beginning of the boot process?

3

The switching has nothing to do with the software drivers although the drivers can affect external video resolution output options. The video to LCD or to external switch is hardware and BIOS controlled. Hold down the “Fn” function button then press the key on the top row that has a big and little rectangle next to each other. The external video should come on.

4

astro, you are now officially my God. To where should I send the offerings of food and virgins?

As a sidenote…gez, that was easy. Why didn’t I try pushing the little button?