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    External Monitor Question

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by bigtrip, Nov 2, 2006.

  1. bigtrip

    bigtrip Notebook Enthusiast

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    I just bought a Lenovo R60 with the ATI X1300 GPU card. I want to add an external 22inch LCD monitor. I would like to know if I can output with a digital signal somehow... my R60 only has a VGA output. I believe this is the analog form for outputting the signal to the monitor. I have seen some monitors that have a USB input along with the VGA and DVI inputs and would like to know first if I can use the USB as a signal input and if it will be better quality than the VGA.

    I have looked around and can't seem to find a newbie guide for this, so any help is much appreciated.
     
  2. matt.modica

    matt.modica Notebook Consultant

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    Hi,
    If you only have a VGA output, then unfortunatley you cannot output with a digital signal without spending some extra money.

    You could get a USB to DVI (digital video interface) adapter, but these will take up usually four USB ports and will only allow one resolution (usually 1024 x 768) since it is not actually using your graphics card. You could also get an external ADC (analog to digital converter) that will convert your VGA to digital DVI, but these are usually very expensive.

    It is probably not worth it, I would just use the VGA.