I'm using a DVI -> HDMI cable from my desktop video card into my HDTV that sits on my desk and use that as a second monitor for the desktop. I have one 19" lcd monitor and it has one input from the desktop and one from the laptop and I use it as the primary for either one, then use the laptop as a secondary for the laptop and the TV as a secondary for the desktop. When i want to work on the desktop, I switch the laptop to single monitor and watch my email etc on the laptop while I work. (or work on the 19" as a single monitor for the desktop and watch TV on the TV while I work <g> there is a DVR, a VCR, three cable inputs and god knows what all else in the mix as well - sometimes I don't even remember how it all works <bg>)


>I made the pleasant discovery this afternoon that my video card already supports more than one monitor (one VGA connection and one DVI, not to mention an S-video connection which I suspect is output), so all I will need when the time comes is another monitor. May pay another visit to the local Circuit City before they vanish in smoke.
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>>when I'm using the laptop in the office I always use an external USB keyboard and mouse.
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>>>Thanks for the tip but I only use the laptop in a pinch, mainly away from home. Can't stand the keyboards on any laptop I have ever used and would not want to work all day on one.
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>>>>FWIW your Dell laptop probably alread has multiple monitor support through the NVidia controller. Just plug a monitor into the VGA port, right-click on screen and pick NVidia and then go to change display configuration and pick configure monitors separately. The relationship of the two screens (one over the other, side by side etc) gets set in the regular windows screen properties on the same page where you set monitor resolution and you have to do that each time.
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>>>>Give it a try. I think it works on pretty much every Dell laptop I've seen in the last four or five years.
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