Need Help Connecting Monitor to iBook

[maluscanis]

My mother just bought a 900mhz iBook...really nice little laptop. She has a Viewsonic monitor that she has connected to it (DVI to VGA) along with a fullsize Apple keyboard. Unfortunately, you can only use it if the laptop is open...if you close it, the computer will automatically go to sleep...pushing a button on the keyboard will awaken it but it will go back to sleep after a few seconds.


Is there anyway to have the laptop screen closed and only the Viewsonic on?

Any advice would be welcome.

Thanks,
Simon

[baud]

Nope. Unfortunately iBooks may not be operated with the lid closed ("clamshell mode") because the design relies on heat being dissapated through the keyboard. You're stuck with having to run it almost shut, but not quite. Once the little latch gets magnetically flipped out, the sleep kicks in.

Powerbooks aren't restricted by this. I guess that's because they have fans and things... and a heavier price tag. Apple could probably make it work with the iBook, but they create incentives to buy the more expensive models.

[vniow]

I believe it was only the older clamshell models which relied on the keyboard as a heat dissapator, the new ones may be similar but not so much, there is a firmware hack which enables extended desktop and clamshell mode but be warned, if you don't do it right you can fry your logic board even if you have a supported model.