While your Windows laptop obviously works great while on the go, you can make it into a proper workstation at home too. By connecting an external keyboard, mouse, and monitor, a laptop can function as a desktop. But there's one problem with this: how do you keep the laptop awake when it's closed?
By default, Windows puts your laptop to sleep when you close the lid. This means that even if you don't want to use your laptop screen as a secondary monitor, you still have to leave your laptop open to keep your computer awake.
Or do you? Thankfully, you can keep your monitor on when your laptop is closed. Here's how.
How to Keep the Screen on When Your Laptop Lid Is Closed
Windows provides a simple toggle to let you keep your laptop screen on, even when it's closed. Find it through the following steps:
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In the System Tray [at the bottom-right corner of the screen], find the Battery icon. You may have to click the small arrow to show all icons. Right-click Battery and choose Power Options.
- Alternatively, to open this menu on Windows 10, you can head to Settings > System > Power & sleep and select Additional power settings from the right menu. Drag the Settings window to make it wider if you don't see this link.
- On the left of the resulting Power Options Control Panel entry, select Choose what closing the lid does.
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You'll see options for the power and sleep buttons. Under When I close the lid, change the dropdown box for Plugged in to Do nothing.
- If you like, you can also change the same setting for On battery. However, this can cause some issues, as we'll explain below.
- Click Save Changes and you're good to go.
Now when you close your laptop screen, your machine will continue to run as normal. This means that you can control it with external devices while the laptop itself is neatly tucked away.
However, remember that when you want to put your laptop to sleep or shut it down, you'll need to use the commands on the Start Menu [or try shortcuts for sleeping and shutdown] once you've made this change. Another option is using the physical power button on your computer to turn it off; you can change the behavior for this on the same page mentioned above.
Beware of Heat When Closing a Laptop Without Sleeping
That's all you have to do in order to close your laptop without it sleeping. However, changing this option has a consequence that you should know about.
The default shortcut for closing the lid to put your PC to sleep is convenient when you put your laptop in a bag. But if you forget about that after changing this option, you could accidentally put your laptop in an enclosed space while it's still turned on.
In addition to wasting battery power, this will generate a lot of heat and can destroy your laptop over time. Thus, you should consider only changing the lid setting for when your laptop is Plugged in, and always plugging in your laptop when you use it at your desk.
That way, you won't forget and put a running laptop in an enclosed space without thinking. This is a good combination of convenience and safety.
Easily Keep Your Laptop Awake When It's Closed
As we've seen, it's easy to change how your laptop behaves when the screen is closed. Keeping it awake, even with the lid shut, allows you to take advantage of your computer's power even if you aren't using its built-in display.
If you often use your laptop in this fashion, we recommend getting a laptop dock for more functionality.
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Hello everyone, I have a few questions to ask about hooking up an external monitor to my laptop with the lid being closed. I am about to order a 21.5" 1ms gaming monitor to my laptop, the laptop will be closed inside my desk. My current laptop display is 1366x768 and it is like 15" or something in that ballpark. The display I bought is 1920 x 1080, will that be an issue for FPS. I also bought a cheapy wired gaming keyboard for like $60. My main worry is that I will lose a lot of FPS while playing games. I do not want to not be able to play games just because of the display and I really need to use this display. I know that I need to change the power settings so it does nothing, and I know to completely stop the laptop display from doing anything. I just want to know if there will be a significant drop in FPS. If it does, please, please, please give me a solution on how to make it not lag while I am gaming.
Thank you all for the solutions I am hoping to be getting pretty soon.
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Ugh, yeah that's a really low-end GPU. I believe even the latest Intel integrated graphics is faster. As others have stated, running at the native resolution is best. If you run the game at a resolution which doesn't match the monitor's resolution, it will scale the image. The better monitor scalers do a fairly good job, but it will result in the image appearing blurrier especially along lines and sharp edges. You probably won't mind in photo-realistic games like CSGO. But games which use sprites or 3D pseudo-sprites like LoL will look blurry due to the scaling. [Minecraft is already horribly blocky so you likely won't even notice.] As PhysX_HW suggests., try running the games on your current display at a lower resolution to see what scaling does to their appearance. You can decide if you can live with that.
Another alternative is to get a 1440p monitor. That's 2560x1440 resolution, so will scale a 1280x720 image at exactly 2:1, thus avoiding the blurriness. Unfortunately, I don't think you they come any smaller than 25". So you'd be spending extra money on a monitor when you really should be spending it on a better computer.
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Well, calculating more pixels needs more power, and as you'd have twice as many of them, you would get 50-65% of the original performance, depending on the game, when comparing 1366x768 and 1920x1080 at the same settings. You can play in 1366x768 in the new monitor, which I don't recommend as the scaling would make the image look blurry, so you could just lower the settings, details etc. if your FPS dips below 60. There is no other, magical solution for this. You simply need more power to drive more pixels.
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We'll need to know the laptop's specifications to estimate performance.
You don't necessary have to have the laptop lid closed, you can tell it to only display on the one monitor. I know a few Lenovo models that have better cooling with the lid open.
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I have an AMD A8-7410 processor and Radeon R5 graphics. I only play games like Minecraft, League of Legends, Skyrim, CS:GO.
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the laptop will be closed inside my desk.
You mean on your desk, not in your desk, right? The laptop needs access to room air to keep cool. If you put it inside your desk in a drawer, it will gradually heat up the air inside the drawer until it overheats. Especially a gaming laptop.1366x768 = 1 megapixels 1920x1080 = 1.98 megapixels So you should expect the framerate to be about cut in half going from 720p to 1080p.
My main worry is that I will lose a lot of FPS while playing games. I do not want to not be able to play games just because of the display and I really need to use this display.
You should also:
I know that I need to change the power settings so it does nothing, and I know to completely stop the laptop display from doing anything.
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■ Check your laptop's air vents. Some laptops vent hot air up in front of the screen. If you close the lid, it blocks this air vent, and the laptop will overheat.
■ Monitor the laptop's temperatures the first few times you game with the lid closed. Some laptops are designed to also vent heat via normal air circulation over the keyboard. Close the lid and it can no longer shed heat that way, and could overheat.
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What if I put the monitor down to 1366x768
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What if I put the monitor down to 1366x768
It would have to upscale the image. It would look like 1024*576 or 800*480 on your current display. You can go ahead and see what those look like right now, but I'd rather lower the settings and keep the native resolution.
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See the problem is that I don't have the best PC. Do you think with AMD A8-7410 and radon R5 graphics I could still play games like Minecraft League of Legends and like CSGO
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Ugh, yeah that's a really low-end GPU. I believe even the latest Intel integrated graphics is faster. As others have stated, running at the native resolution is best. If you run the game at a resolution which doesn't match the monitor's resolution, it will scale the image. The better monitor scalers do a fairly good job, but it will result in the image appearing blurrier especially along lines and sharp edges. You probably won't mind in photo-realistic games like CSGO. But games which use sprites or 3D pseudo-sprites like LoL will look blurry due to the scaling. [Minecraft is already horribly blocky so you likely won't even notice.] As PhysX_HW suggests., try running the games on your current display at a lower resolution to see what scaling does to their appearance. You can decide if you can live with that.
Another alternative is to get a 1440p monitor. That's 2560x1440 resolution, so will scale a 1280x720 image at exactly 2:1, thus avoiding the blurriness. Unfortunately, I don't think you they come any smaller than 25". So you'd be spending extra money on a monitor when you really should be spending it on a better computer.
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I'm going to be building a new system in the near future with the goal of 4k gaming among other things, and I've been reading about g-sync, which wasn't really around much when I built my last system. I'm looking at two monitors at the moment: Acer 32" Display Monitor 4K UHD 6ms B326HK Acer 32" Display Monitor 4K UHD 4ms XB321HK [predator w/g-sync] Both of these are 60hz monitors. From what I understand, g-sync will be nice to have if I'm not getting 60hz from my GPU's because I can dip below 60hz and my display will dynamically change the framerate while staying in sync with my gpu's and thus not be forced to 30hz [vsync] or tearing [seems to happen if you don't have g/v/free-sync].
Now if I have a rig with 2 1080's in sli, or I wait for a 2080 [supposed to come out in June?], or really I just run any set of GPU's that can keep up with 60hz in 4k with good settings, can't I just use v-sync and keep it pegged at 60hz because my gpu's should be able to keep up? I'm not trying to go over 60btw, I don't think I can tell much of a difference.
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Hello everyone,
I'm currently looking to replace my crappy E-machines 133x768 VGA Monitor with something a little better for gaming. My card is a Gigabyte Radeon R7 250x and was wondering if this monitor:
//www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824112027
The most demanding game I play is Fallout 4 and it looks horrible with a low resolution.
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It's between 720p and 1080p, so a definite improvement, and 5ms isn't terrible. Not bad for the price.
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I currently have a Dell S2440L Monitor connected to my DVI port on my PC [HP Envy 700-214] Graphics card. I would now like to hook up a 2nd monitor, using my Vizio D24-D1 TV's HDMI port to my VGA port on my Graphics Card. Researching this, I have found VGA to HDMI converters, with a VGA connector at one end and an HDMI connector on the other. Also, the VGA side has a 3.5mm audio wire coming from it to be connected to the sound output port on the PC to provide sound to this TV. Since the sound output now has the PC speakers connected, I assume that I will need a splitter, one for the speakers and one for the new TV monitor?
Can someone confirm that this would work or not, or if there might be an easier and better way?
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no problem at all. only reason to run the sound is if you want it to come through the tv. if your pc speakers are fine for all the uses, then no reason to worry about it.
the cable i linked has the audio included but you don't have to connect it to anything if you don't want to. just offered the splitter as it answered the first question you asked.
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did you check to see if your TV does have a VGA port? i have found the majority of TV's still come with them
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[strike]don't think there is an easier way. you will have to split the sound like you noticed so it goes to the tv and your speakers. that or just use your pc speakers for sound for it all. those cables work fine and will easily give your tv a 1080p signal it can use. won't be doing any gaming on the tv like that but movies and such will work fine. the cable should be cheap so not a big deal really. i bought such a cable years ago that was dvd-i to hdmi and i think i paid $12 for a 20 ft one. the splitter should be pretty cheap as well. since it is a normal headphone jack, a simple $2 headphone splitter is all you'd need. nothing digital or anything pricey going on there. get those couple cheap items and you'll be good to go [/strike]
edit: your tv does have a vga port on it. so all you'd need is the audio splitter for sound and a long vga cable. even easier
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did you check to see if your TV does have a VGA port? i have found the majority of TV's still come with them
My TV does have a VGA port, but in my research most advise that a straight port to port cable generally will not work unless there is a converter in between. Possibly they mean when the ports are different types that a conversion is needed? If VGA to VGA works, then sound needs to be output from PC to sound input on TV using 3.5mm cable, right?
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did you check to see if your TV does have a VGA port? i have found the majority of TV's still come with them
My TV does have a VGA port, but in my research most advise that a straight port to port cable generally will not work unless there is a converter in between. Possibly they mean when the ports are different types that a conversion is needed? If VGA to VGA works, then sound needs to be output from PC to sound input on TV using 3.5mm cable, right?
there would be an RCA type output for audio for the VGA port. at this point i would go to the vizio website and download a copy of your tv's manual
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I am just rethinking the sound cable, that all of the PC sound now goes to the speakers via the output port. As my first monitor does not have sound to it, why the second monitor would need sound cabled to it either? Wouldn't it be ok just connecting just the VGA cable to the TV for the video, letting the speakers provide the sound?
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no problem at all. only reason to run the sound is if you want it to come through the tv. if your pc speakers are fine for all the uses, then no reason to worry about it.
the cable i linked has the audio included but you don't have to connect it to anything if you don't want to. just offered the splitter as it answered the first question you asked.