[NTLUG:Discuss] Video Help Needed

[Mike Hart]

If you don't see a picture on the vga port, it is unlikely that you will see it at all. 

However, there is one more thing you can try & I should have described this before.  Be sure to have your external monitor (VGA or DVI) plugged into the laptop and powered on BEFORE you power on the laptop.  You are trying to get the BIOS to detect the hardware and set the dual screen mode before the xserver kicks in. (You can poke around the BIOS settings and see if you have an option to select the video to BOTH the internal and external monitors.) Without the nvidia server, your video is only going to behave the way it sets itself up at boot.

good luck!