VGA Output on Acer Aspire One ZG5

[gkb]

Hello all.

I have been running AROS on a Acer Aspire One ZG5.
I bought this model specifically, as I knew that AROS supported all the hardware.

I would like to utilise the VGA output to connect the laptop to a monitor to get a bigger screen to work on, and I have bought a VGA to HDMI adaptor for this reason.

The laptop is set up as a dual boot between Windows 7 and AROS.
The VGA output works fine with Windows 7, but I don’t get a picture with AROS.

I have tried all the function keys on the keyboard, and I have looked through all the settings in AROS, but I can’t get the VGA output to work.

Is there a way to get it working?

[nikos]

Hello all.

I have been running AROS on a Acer Aspire One ZG5.
I bought this model specifically, as I knew that AROS supported all the hardware.

I would like to utilise the VGA output to connect the laptop to a monitor to get a bigger screen to work on, and I have bought a VGA to HDMI adaptor for this reason.

The laptop is set up as a dual boot between Windows 7 and AROS.
The VGA output works fine with Windows 7, but I don’t get a picture with AROS.

I have tried all the function keys on the keyboard, and I have looked through all the settings in AROS, but I can’t get the VGA output to work.

Is there a way to get it working?

This can be a little tricky but it should work.
Start AROS and in the grub menu hold the "fn" key and press the screen button. Is it f8? I don't remember but you see the screen on the key.

[gkb]

Thanks for the reply.

I have tried getting the VGA output to kick in as advised, but no go I am afraid.

Maybe AROS can support this in the future.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

gkb I did a test with my Acer Aspire One ZG5 and everything works regularly, to see on the external monitor, you have to connect the VGA cable, activate FN key + Set up key, what is important is that you have to turn Off/On and on the Monitor.

Basically, it is the Monitor that has to indivitituate what is connected to the VGA port, and not the other way around

[gkb]

Ok,

So the procedure I should try is:

- Laptop and monitor are both off.
- Connect VGA cable to laptop.
-  Power up laptop, boot AROS.
-  Power up monitor.
- Press FN + Set up key (which key is this?)

[AMIGASYSTEM]

Yes, you have to connect everything, press the two buttons and then turn the Monitor off and on again, after a reboot it should be connected automatically without the need to press anything.

I attach a screenshot of mine where you can see connected my Acer Aspire One ZG5 on the Samsung Monitor PC, from the screenshot you can also see the higher video resolutions available on the Samsung Monitos.

[origami]

- Press FN + Set up key (which key is this?)

That would most probably be the FN + F5 key.


According to the manual that combination has 3 states: output internal display panel, output external display, and output both (internal and external display).

You really should try and get a manual (and read it  ).

I was unable to locate the official manual on the acer site on such quick notice but you can get by with a link like this: https://www.manualslib.com/products/Acer-One-Zg5-5903999.html

The idea behind the sequence as posted is to convince the laptop to use/setup the external display once and once you have that setup that from then on it will boot using the external display as output.

Setting it to display on both internal and external might get you into troubles because the input and output resolutions of the display panels might not match (but since I do not own the hardware myself anymore I can't verify that and I do not remember how it used to work with vga)

[AMIGASYSTEM]

@origami

There are no Video resolution problems, after using the function keys, it is all simple just turn off and on the PC after connecting everything.

This also happens with other laptops, besides my "Acer Aspire One ZG5" also my little "Dell Inspiron Mini 910" worked fine the same way.

[gkb]

Hello all.

Couple of points:

- Many thanks for directing me to a website where I can get the manual – when I first bought the laptop I could not find a manual anywhere on the Acer website.

- I had already tried to use Fn + F5 key to change the display as I had deduced from the keyboard symbol that it was the display output changer.

- I have tried all the procedures recommended to me – still no go. I am wondering if there is some kind of issue with AROS when I try to use a VGA to HDMI adaptor – all my monitors are newer, so they only have HDMI input. I noticed from the screenshot that a VGA cable is being used.

- The adaptor works fine when I boot into Windows 7 – it works from power on without the need for any keys on keyboard to be pressed.

- This is not the end of the world -  I can play my Windows based games on the big screen, and I can do all my Amiga stuff on the smaller laptop screen.

- And last – thanks for all the replies!

[AMIGASYSTEM]

I don't have a VGA to HDMI adapter to test, but if it works with Windows, it seems strange that it doesn't work with AROS !

[ntromans]

VGA to HDMI adapters can work; the one I referenced here https://ae.amigalife.org/index.php?topic=996.16 works for me on my Samsung n130 both at home and at work.

Re. using the keyboard function buttons, I think (and please do correct me if I'm wrong) this depends on if ACPI is enabled at boot. If not, I think the BIOS manages these aspects of he hardware and may respond to the function keys (my Dell laptop worked like this). If ACPI is enabled I think it's up to AROS to handle the hardware, and of course it will not be set up for  specific laptop and the buttons will do nothng.

I have ACPI enabled for my Samsung (otherwise it will not boot with an external mnitor connected) and it mostly picks up an external monitor automatially with no button resing required (and indeed pressing the screen function button has no effect). It will ocasionally not pick up the monitor, though; it was doing this today so as suggested above I put the monitor into standby, reset AROS and the monitor was recognised just fine. A bit odd it should work better with the monitor off, but the important thing is it works.

Cheers,
Nigel.

[AMIGASYSTEM]

My "Acer Aspire One ZG5" and "Dell Inspiron Mini 910", I use them without battery (they don't work anymore) and despite everything, as mentioned above they work fine with the external monitor.

Since they no longer have the Battery my "Acer Aspire One ZG5" and "Dell Inspiron Mini 910" have the Bios set from default, so external monitors work without setting anything.

[gkb]

Back again.

I took a look in the BIOS,  but there are no options to control ACPI settings.
I was wondering if I need to update the firmware, as the version I have is v 0.3308, Rev. 3.5 .
Does anyone know if there are higher versions available?

[AMIGASYSTEM]

It is not a problem with the Acer Aspire One ZG5 BIOS, otherwise it would not work with Windows either, as demonstrated in my Video the connection VGA to External Monitor works fine with Acer Aspire One ZG5.

Instead, I suppose there is an incompatibility with "HDMI," probably not supported by the AROS x86 Drivers

[ntromans]

Back again.

I took a look in the BIOS,  but there are no options to control ACPI settings.
I was wondering if I need to update the firmware, as the version I have is v 0.3308, Rev. 3.5 .
Does anyone know if there are higher versions available?

To turn off acpi use 'noacpi' as one of the Grub boot options.

Cheers,
Nigel.