First of all, i put this into off topic, as, despite being PC related, it had nothing to do with gaming

Back story/general info if it helps

So here is the deal.. i have an Inspiron 9300 that i used to be able to connect to my TV via s-video port on my laptop (then through a convertor into composite cables) and into the yellow slot on my tvs AV slot, and as of a few months ago it stopped connecting, and instead of my laptop screen, the tv started showing no input

I call dell, say the s-video port has buggered up because the cord/tv combo still work when i tried it with another household computer.. anywho i got that switched out for a new one, and it wasn't the problem

I sort of gave up on it until a few days ago, since i got a new tv this week and wanted to start using it with my laptop again (this new tv and the old cord still works with the other laptops in the house)

the graphics card on this laptop is NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800, there probably isn't a problem with that though, since one of the laptops that still works uses an older nvidia model. I have the most up to date version of it installed too.

Problem at hand

So today I noticed within the NVIDIA Control Panel (in the "Change Display Configuration" tab) that the TV was listed as a display that is currently connected.. after a quick reality check i made sure that it wasn't, and sure enough it wasn't connected.. so why on earth is it saying that it is connected.. i tried restarting, plugging in and out the svideo and no changes were apparent.

So my problem, I figure, is this: I can't connect to the TV because the computer thinks i'm already connected to the TV.. how the hell do i get it to realise that it isn't

Things i've tried

- Obviously restarting the computer
- Install the driver again on top of the already installed driver
- Uninstall the driver and install it from scratch

Still, it claims the TV is indeed connected, and my tv still doesn't show that it is picking up any input at all (Still says "AV4" in the top corner, meaning it isn't recieving anything)

Note: it happened a long time ago, so I wouldn't have a clue how far back to (if i wanted to) system restore to, so that's out of the question

Possible solution I haven't tried yet (but don't want to)

I figure that since NVIDIA has been completely removed and reinstalled, the problem is a corrupt Windows app or something like that, and so the 'possible but unwanted' solution is to simply reinstall XP, but i don't want to do that.. so I ask, before i start backing up my files, What else can I attempt to do to fix this?

(Sorry about the long long post)

Well it might be the cord but since it works with your other system then that is not the case unlike what one of my problems are.

My question to you is since it is a laptop are you just trying to use the nvidia display menu to display it on the tv or using the laptop hotkey (Function F4) to switch to display on the tv?

I use the laptop hotkey (in my case, Function F8) primarily, but like always when that doesn't work, i screw around with the nvidia display menu to attempt to get it to show (which also doesn't work)

Oh sorry most laptops i have dealt with is F4 for hotkey guess sony doesn't like to be the norm :P

Since you have tried using the newest drivers I actually might suggest trying to find the preset drivers (originally cd :D) for the laptop if possible so that you are using the drivers that you initially used while it was still working. Cause if you have the newest drivers and it is not working then
a) newest drivers might be bugged and not working functionally
b) then ur s-video port is screwed up (but again not the case)
c) try vga to dvi for your new tv :D if your new tv supports that

Yea so my only current suggest is try to find the preset nvidia drivers and try that if that doesn't work I am out of ideas since I gotta go to work in 7 hours :P so I might think something else while at work and post.

thanks, i'll give that a shot

Nah, I tried it, unfortunately no success though