text: Just because the laptop has an external video connection does not mean it supports a seperate display.\nLet me clarify:  Most laptops are fully capable of what is called "mirroring."  This is what you're seeing.  Certain laptop video cards in recent years do allow you to split your desktop so that you can see different views on each available screen.\nFrom looking at the general specs on IBM's website (see sources) it mentions a 16MB ATI Radeon 7500 video card.  The second link in Sources is the direct link to the *standard graphics card's specifications.\nIf it was capable of allowing you to split the video signal to both the Laptop's built in screen and the external monitor, it would state something like "dual channel supported."