Hi,

I am trying to connect my computer to my TV thru using a S-Video cord. When I connect my cord to my TV and then into my laptop, my laptop screen goes blank and sometimes but not all the time, colors will appear on my TV running back and forth, and other times it will just be black. I did switch it to the S-Video channel for my TV but I am unsure of what I am doing wrong. I have an HP laptop running Windows Vista 64 bit if that is any help.

Thanks

Some things to do when trying to extend your monitor or just simply clone your desktop onto an external TV using an S-Video cable.

1. Make sure that the cable you're using is not defective. (you'll hate yourself for trying so hard to make it work and find out that it was a defective cable in the end)
2. Plug in the cable on the S-video OUT port on your notebook and on the S-video IN port on your TV.
3. Switch the video to the correct channel/mode. Some TV's, like the one I have at home, have up to 3 video channels.
4. Notebooks/Laptops have specific Fn-key combinations that you need to press to toggle between displays. Here are some Fn-key combinations, some of them are model specific so you'll have to play around to find it. Acer Fn + F5, Dell Fn + F8, HP Fn + F5, IBM ThinkPad Fn + F7, Sony Fn + F7, Toshiba Fn + F5.

Hope this helps.