Anyone here flying on a laptop? Using an external monitor?

I travel all the time (truck driver), and usually get a motel/hotel for a day or two on the weekend. Hooked on flightsims.

Presently I have a laptop that runs FSX fairly well (although it is getting a bit long in the tooth), with traffic turned way, way down. And some of the new aircraft (A2A comes to mind) slow it down a bit.

Anyway, my lappy has a 15" screen, and that is where my main gripe lies. It's just not big enough for me to be able to read the instruments well when at .30 zoom.

A 19 or 20 inch screen would be great (my last desktop had a 19" LCD, and I was happy with that, in fact, for the longest time, I carried that desktop with me for the weekends (along with CH stick, throttle, and rudders, Bose speakers, etc.), but it WAS a PIA.) :)

Anyway, I am wondering if anyone else here runs an external monitor, and how they manage it? Mostly, how do you mount it? (If I have to use an external keyboard, then I think I am getting back into "desktop" range.)

System specs:

"G50VT-X1 Specifications
Processor Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26GHz
Windows Vista OS Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with SP1
Hard Drive 320GB (7200RPM)
Screen Size 15.6" HD (1366x768)
RAM 4GB DDR2 667Mhz
Optical Drive DVD SuperMulti with Light Scribe
Graphics Card NVIDIA 9800M GS with 512MB GDDR3 VRAM
Inputs/Outputs 1 x Express Card, 4 x USB 2.0, 1 x IEEE 1394, 1 x VGA, 1 x HDMI"

I used to use an external monitor on my Toshiba laptop for when I was on cruise (not the luxury kind). All of that was a royal pain to set up, but well worth it to at least enjoy some of the comforts of home. The laptop itself and video card (Nvidia M8700GT) managed it all from within the program actually. I didn't have to do to much fidling with it. Just needed an external mouse and keyboard, plug the monitor in, set it up in the display properties window, and go to town with it. It worked really well for the type of setup. I am unsure if you are trying to force your laptop to do it? For mine to work I had to close the laptop shell otherwise it would run it basically as a second monitor and not the primary. Looks like your specs are a lot better than mine were. Maybe there is different options in the Nvidia management tools to manage the screens, but like I said for mine I was using an external keyboard, headphones, Saitek X52, monitor, and all.. basically like you say a desktop. Is why when I got back from that deployment I bought a desktop that could run it. Made life a lot easier, but sucks when you have to travel cause then you are out of luck.

Go to Amazon and get yourself a USB VGA External Dual Or Multi Monitor Video Adapter which cost around $50.00 and you are set for your instruments on any other screen.....

I've run using my HDTV and an inteface cable, works great and would be perfect for travel as you can just plug it into whatever tv is in the room (it's a standard input cable on the tv end).

K, thanks for the replies so far. My main question is, I guess, how/where to put that 2nd monitor (which I would use as the primary, and only one)? I think Nvidia will allow me to "squelch" the laptop display, and run an external monitor as the main/only display. BUT, every LCD I have seen (and, admittedly I have not looked to buy one for years) has a single, central pedestal. I need, I think, some type of mounting that would straddle my laptop, allowing the laptop screen to be behind the external, and the laptop keyboard to be in front of it.

Am I making any sense here?

What you are referring to Tracy is a laptop docking station. Which your laptop would need to be specifically built for. Here is a photo of one http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=...ed=0CEIQ9QEwBA . You will need to search for one for your specific laptop though. We use them at work. They are ok. I imagine though if that is your only solution that it would be a good one though.

I "travel" a lot and do a lot of flying and development work on an i7 Asus G51J. Runs FSX very well and the display is just fine resolution wise. Also use it for a lot of high end photo work, which is why I keep filling up the 500 gig HD....

Cheers: T

You might want to add external keyboard and mouse. Then you can close the laptop and run the external monitor. The laptop can be positioned to the side, so there isn't a need to straddle it with the monitor.

I "travel" a lot just like fliger747 does (on slightly older aircraft) and do all my flying repainting etc... on my laptop