Laptop Working Though Old Desktop Bits and Pieces

[leon]

Hi Guys, as some of you know I have many problems with my XP desk top with a very slow computer causing problems.

Although a new system would have been the go it was not really affordable at this point in time, so i have re/configured my set up with what i had, and that was a dead desktop, and a very active laptop, which had all the programs that the desktop had.

Anyway, i bought a new Toshiba external HD, download all my files to this unit, mainly the 90,000 photos plus all other files, which is now connected to the laptop.

From there i kept he desktop LCD, and connected it with a VGA cable to the laptop, and kept the wireless mouse and keyboard, which used to be used with the desktop, and retired the said desktop to the shed.

I set the laptop so that if i closed the lid it would not shut down or go to standby, and the display is still visible on the LCD.

So now everything works like a treat, i have a wireless mouse and keyboard working through the laptop and displaying on the connected desktop LCD, internet works the same, and with the lid closed.

I am not that savvy with all this stuff, but have to say it worked out well for me until i can upgrade to a new machine.

Leon

[pw (Peter)]

Good solution given the financial constraints. Well done on getting yourself working again.

[MrB (Simon)]

Nice work, now you need to work out how to activate multiple screens.
As it is now, the LCD is just showing a duplicate of the laptop screen, but you can set it up so the two are independant and show a different program or whatever you want, it is very handy. For example, you can have one screen with the browser open with a processing tutorial, and the other with Photoshop open, saves having to hide/show one or the other as you can just look at the second screen.

I have three screens at work(built-in, VGA and HDMI) and sometimes wish I had another!
Usually the laptop screen has email client or browser on it, another has PDF drawing with clients comments/markups, and last (biggest) screen has Autocad with latest drawing revision. Massive timesaver.

Example(not mine):
http://www.maximumpc.com/files/u1124...la_dot_com.jpg

[noeyedeer (Matt)]

glad ya running on all cylinders Leon and have it sorted somewhat.
as Mr B said, you can specify (usually with function space) which app runs on what screen or if it's a continuous screen ... but you have to set that up in display settings.

matt

[leon]

Thanks guys, but i am pretty happy with the arrangement as is at the moment,

Maybe up the track i might experiment a bit more, but for now it just suits me fine,

Leon

[Astro_Bot]

Good to hear - glad it's all working for you.

It's a bit scary to think how reliant we've all become on computers (of course, it's so well known that it's the subject of block-buster movies, but still ...).