Displaying to a External Monitor or Projector

Your ThinkPad is equipped with one or more external display connectors, VGA (all models), DisplayPort (T420s) and Mini DisplayPort (T430s, X1 Carbon), so that you may connect to an external monitor or the classroom multimedia projector.  You can connect to the external display by:

1. Connect your external display to the appropriate connector on the ThinkPad.
2. Use the ThinkPad keyboard combination of Fn and F7 (Windows Key + P on X1 Carbon) to open the Windows display dialog box.
3. Select the display combination that you prefer to use.  You may select:
   1. Disconnect to remove the external display,
   2. Duplicate to display the same screen on both devices,
   3. Extend to create extended desktop space on the new monitor (this is useful to display speaker’s notes on the ThinkPad and slides on the external device),
   4. Projector only to display your screen only on the external device.
       

Screen Resolution

When connecting an external display device, Windows will usually select the correct display resolution automatically.  However, on occasion, Windows selects the incorrect resolution.  You can correct this situation by:

1. Minimize your open application windows until you have clear access to the Windows desktop.
2. Right click on a blank area (no icons) on the desktop and choose the Screen resolution menu item.
3. On the screen resolution dialog box, single click the display that you need to change.
4. Then, select the appropriate resolution from the Resolution drop down list box.
5. Click the Apply button.  Windows will change the display to the chosen resolution and then prompt (ask) you to confirm the setting worked
   NOTE: Do not panic if the screen becomes scrambled and not viewable.  If you do not confirm the setting in 15 seconds, Windows will revert the setting back to the previous condition.