[bignutsarnold]

can anyone tell me how to put this laptop into presentation mode so i can watch video on my samsung hls6187 television? i would really appreciate the help.

[rgreen4]

You computer should have a round external connector that resembles a PS2 port, but which is actually an S-Video connector. You TV should have one also. You connect the laptop to the TV with the S-Video cable. You may already have one if you have a DVD player or VCR. Here is an example of the S-Video Cable.
The audio is a little more difficult as you will need a mini-plug to audio cable that has the 1/8" stereo mini-plug on one end to plug into the headphone jack and the Red/White separate audio RCA plugs on the other end. You can get these in many lengths from Circuit City/Best Buy/Radio Shack. If you can only find the short one, then you will need 2 couplers to join the short adapter plug to a standard video cable. Here are examples of the couplers. Here is an example of the mini-stereo to audio cable that is 12' long.
Try the Fn F4 Option First:
* Wth your laptop off, connect one end of a standard S-Video cable to the S-Video out jact and the other to the TV.
* Turn on the TV
* Start the laptop
* Press Fn+F4 several time until the notebook display is shown on your TV. You may have to select that input on the TV manually.

If your notebood does not support the Fn+F4 option to display on the TV:
* Wth your laptop off, connect one end of a standard S-Video cable to the S-Video out jact and the other to the TV.
* Turn on the TV
* Start the laptop
Click Start, then click Control Panel. The Control Panel window opens. In the category view, click Appearance and Themes.*
Double click the Display* Icon. The Display Properties dialog box opens.
Click the Settings* tab.
Click the Advanced* Button. The Multiple Monitors Properties dialog box opens.
Click the Displays* tab.
Click the Enable TV button if it is not already enabled, then click Apply*.
Note: if the Enable TV and TV buttons are grayed out, your laptop has not detected the television. Make sure that the TV is turned on and connected correctly. You many need to turn the laptop off and back on again.

[bignutsarnold]

Man thanks for the great response but my laptop does not have an s video port it only has the regular (I don't know what it is called) computer monitor port. My tv however has every one you can think of. I was hoping that I could just hook it up and go like I do with my desktop monitor (also a gateway) but I guess not. I have windows xp if that makes a difference. I just can't understand why I can watch video on my desktop monitor but not my tv. I can get my tv to display the wallpaper that I have on my laptop but if I go to the internet the tv only shows the wallpaper no icons no internet. But I did learn how to hook up the audio from you and I really appreciate your help and the effort that you put into it. Thank you very much.

[rgreen4]

Ok, if you have been able to connect the VGA port (aka external monitor connection) to the TV and get the image, you are fortunate. Most TV's will not accept the analog VGA input. If you had the 24 pin DVI (digital output) you can find some TV's that have that and you can easily find cables that convert DVI to either component (3 individual color cables, red, blue & green) or HDMI which is the newest and carries audio as well.

The main problem with analog TV and analog VGA is they are basically different standards. Digital is a matter on connections and cables.

Playing a video is much different.

Now since you get an image when in the desktop mode, but not when playing a video, try this -

With the laptop and TV connected, and the desktop displayed on the TV start the video.
The video should start playing on the laptop internal screen and the TV should go black.
Press Fn+F4 to toggle the image. The video should appear on the TV and the video display box on the laptop should go black. If the video display box is full screen the entire screen may go black on the laptop.

You cannot display the video on the laptop and the external at the same time.

This is what I have to do when using a projector to do presentations and show videos at gatherings. (Projectors fortunately have VGA input).
Spreadsheets, Word processing documents, Powerpoint (except for imbeded video) can all be shown simultaneously on both screens.

I had one powerpoint presention that was provided to us that was actually an interactive video. Had to look over my right shoulder while using the touchpad, it was awkward.

Let me know how it works out.