External monitor only kicking in after login?

[quesarahsarah]

I'm running a laptop (recently replaced) with an external monitor in the VGA port. In previous installations this worked flawlessly - monitor came on as soon as the machine booted. When I initially installed (LM18) on this new laptop it was also working fine, it was using the xorg-server video driver. Then after running into some video playback issues I realized since this machine has an nvidia graphic card, I should use the nvidia driver, so I changed that from Driver Manager. It is now using the recommended driver. Everything works fine, except that the external monitor only comes on after I've logged in. Kinda need the monitor on, to login. How do I get the monitor to always come on from boot-up again?

[tovian]

Kinda need the monitor on, to login.

I doubt I can help - but - I've had similar situations with laptops running Windows for years. Drives me nuts... until I remember that if I leave the computer alone long enough the external monitor will eventually light up...BEFORE i LOG IN USING THE INTEGRATED SCREEN/MOUSE/KEYBOARD. I have no idea why this happens unless some piece of software is "delayed starting" (which doesn't make much sense). It's especially frustrating when "it used to work" and "now it doesn't".

I will continue to monitor this thread to see if someone else has the real answer.