Troubleshooting Laptop Problems and Using Laptops

Windows NT version 4.0 provides a new feature that is especially useful for laptops, hardware profiles. You can have one hardware profile for running your laptop when it is in the docking station, and another one for the undocked situation. When you have more than one hardware profile defined, you select the one that you want to use during startup, from the Hardware Profile/Configuration Recovery menu.

The easiest way to set up the hardware profiles is to install Windows NT Workstation when your laptop is docked. Windows NT Setup installs the network software that you need to use your docking station, and creates a hardware profile called Original Configuration (Current). You can copy this hardware profile, and customize the new hardware profile.

To create a hardware profile for an undocked configuration

1. Double-click the System option on Control Panel.

2. Click the Hardware Profiles tab.

3. If you do not already have a hardware profile for your undocked laptop, copy the Original Configuration (Original). Click Original Configuration (Current). Click Copy, and enter a name for the undocked configuration.

4. On the Hardware Profiles tab, click the profile for undocked, and click Properties.

5. On the General tab, check This is a portable computer, and click the Radio button for The computer is undocked.

6. Click the Network tab. Check Network-disabled hardware profile. Click OK.

You can also use the undocked hardware profile to set a different video resolution for your laptop, For example, your Original Configuration can have the video resolution set to 1024x768 to run on your monitor. And you can change your undocked configuration to use a resolution of 640x480, or 800x600, or whatever size is appropriate.

The next procedure assumes that you have already created a hardware profile for the undocked configuration, as described earlier in this section.

To change the video resolution

1. Start your computer, and select the undocked hardware profile on the Hardware Profile/Configuration Recovery menu.

2. Double-click the Display option on Control Panel.

3. Click the Settings tab.

4. In the Desktop Area group box, move the slider bar until you see the resolution that you want to use.

5. Click OK. You can test the new size by clicking the Test button.

6. Click OK to exit the Display Properties dialog box.

Windows NT does not yet support the following on laptops:

• Power management. On most laptops, you can configure power management in the CMOS.

• Hot-swappable PC cards (formerly called PCMCIA). There is a PC Card option on Control Panel, but you cannot insert or remove cards while the laptop is running.