Need help getting picture from laptop to plasma tv

[Guest]

My dell laptop's docking station has two dvi outputs and unfortunately the only inputs on my panasonic plasma tv are hdmi, s-video and component. I purchased a dvi-d to hdmi cable and hooked the two together. I adjusted all the settings to the best of my abilities. Now what happens is when I choose the hdmi input i have chosen to use with the tv remote the monitor on the laptop goes black telling me that there is at least some communication between the two devices. I just can't get a picture the tv remains black screened ... any advice at all ?

 

[warpete]

I'm a little puzzled. I also have a Dell Laptop. Mine is an XPS-M1710, but I have no docking station. My Laptop also has a DVI output. My HDTV has the same inputs as your's. I use a DVI to HDMI adapter (mounted to the DVI output on the Laptop) and I run an HDMI cable to the TV. The HDMI will take care of both the Video AND Audio. I'm not sure what you mean when you say that you "adjusted all the settings" other than quality settings and when you say "I chose the HDMI input" I assume that you are switching the TV to that particular input. It would help to know what Dell Laptop you have and what graphics are in the Laptop. Is it onboard graphics (on the Motherboard) or a dedicated graphics card---and is it Nvidia or ATI. Are your drivers up to date? At this point with the info you have given, it sounds like it could be either a driver problem or a bad cable. I would run through all the TV's inputs (with your remote) and the Laptop hooked up to make sure they are labled correctly. Try to give us a little more info on the Laptop if you can and then we can take it from there! My Laptop sends the Audio and Video to my TV (LCD-TV) perfectly and I can watch HD from my hard drive on the TV. I don't think that Plasma is any different.