Problems with an external monitor

Question

I have a laptop with intel 945 grafic card and I also use an external monitor (which has a nicer panel).
However I experience some strange problems with my setup:
       I usually (when I am at home) start my laptop and close the laptop screen via
xrandr --output LVDS --off
But, after a random period of time (I have not found any good reason for it) my external monitor goes in some sort of power save mode (the screen goes black and remains that way).
I usually activate the other screen (LVDS) and try to see if I can do anything.
when I type:
xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 2048 x 2048
VGA connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
1680x1050 60.0 +
1920x1440 60.0
1856x1392 60.0
1792x1344 60.0
1600x1200 75.0 70.0 65.0 60.0
1400x1050 75.0 72.0 60.0
1280x1024 59.9 60.0
1280x960 74.9 72.0 60.0 59.9
1152x864 75.0 74.8 60.0
1024x768 70.1 60.0
832x624 74.6
800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
768x576 75.0 72.0 60.0
640x480 72.8 75.0 72.8 66.7 60.0
720x400 70.1
LVDS connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
1280x800 60.0*+ 60.0
1280x768 60.0
1152x768 54.8
1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
832x624 74.6
800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
720x400 85.0
640x400 85.1
640x350 85.1
No matter what I do I cannot live reactivate the external monitor.
(usually I try with the classic :
xrandr --output VGA --auto
Inittially I thought it is a problem with the driver (i810) so I upgraded yesterday the whole system.
Even after I did that and used the new driver (intel) I still had much luck as I had an other blanking event today.
An other ideea is that this is caused by faulty bios, but it is just a guess
My present day solution: reboot (yes, full reboot, because restarting the xorg has not the intended effect)
Any ideas on what may cause this?
Any help would be appreaciated.
Last edited by tiberiur (2008-05-25 20:57:31)

Answer 1

display goes to sleep when colsed because there is a magnetic switch - small magnet opens the circuit.
if it stays on, either magnet was misplaced, some wire disconnected or the issue is with the switch circuit.
on some models switch is part of trackpad, if you have small magnet, try moving it over trackpad, see what it does.