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Documentation: Smart Panel Tutorial (for PC users)

Video | Sound | Troubleshooting and FAQs

VIDEO

You’ll need:

  • A VGA cable
  • Your laptop
  • A classroom or lecture hall with a smart panel!

1) Turn on the smart panel.

This may mean pressing the power button firmly. Give the smart panel 15-45 seconds to warm up before you can expect any picture.
VGA Cable and Port
The female VGA port on the back of your PC laptop and the male end of a VGA cable.

2) Attach a VGA cable from your computer to the smart panel.

Your PC laptop should have a VGA port on it. Its outline should be that of a trapezoid and should have holes for several rows of pins.

For maximum ease, and if you have the time, your computer should be off or hibernating. (But you can always make it work if your computer is already on.)

Note that the smart panel may have several VGA ports, so be sure to take note which port you are plugging into.

3) Once the projector is fully warmed up, ensure that the smart panel source matches up with the port into which you plugged your laptop.

If you don’t think the smart panel is set to the right source, push the button for the correct source (often "laptop" or "computer"). Just like with the power button, you may have to push the button quite forcefully.

4) Toggle video modes on your laptop, if necessary.

If you had your computer off or hibernating before you attached the VGA cable, chances are everything is working now. If it was already on when you connected the VGA cable, though, Windows is not always good about automatically detecting the attachment of an external video source.

Fn-F8If the video is not working, look at your keyboard, in particular at the “F-“ keys. One of these keys, usually F7 or F8 on most PCs, should have either text (“CRT/LCD”) or an image of a couple video screens that indicate that this is the video mode toggle. Notice how the icon is blue? You’ll also have to press the blue “Fn” button on your laptop to actually perform the toggle. There are three modes in this toggle:

  1. Video image only on the laptop (obviously the default mode whenever your laptop is turned on)
  2. Video image on the laptop AND an external source (where you see an image on both sources)
  3. Video image ONLY on the external source (your laptop screen will go black).

Assuming that the correct key is F8, then, press Fn-F8 once. Give the computer a few moments to send the signal out. Provided you’ve selected the right sources, picture should appear!

 

SOUND

You’ll need:

  • Your laptop (or any other audio source you want to play in the classroom’s speakers)
  • A miniplug-to-miniplug audio cable (headphone jack-sized plugs)
  • A mini-to-RCA adapter (if necessary)

1) Ensure that the smart panel is on, warmed up, and set to the correct source (i.e. the source into which you’ll be plugging your audio cable, such as "Laptop 1" or "computer").

Chances are that you’ve connected your laptop to project an image already. (Note that you do NOT have to have the VGA cable connected in order to play audio.)

2) Attach the audio cable from your computer’s headphone port to the smart panel’s audio port.  

You should have been provided a mini-to-mini audio cable for the duration of your teaching. This cable’s male termination is the same size as something you’d plug into the headphone jack of a laptop or an iPod.

Mini-to-RCA Cable
A miniplug (1/8") to RCA cable.

RCA Cable. It’s possible that your classroom’s smart panel doesn’t have a miniplug input, but instead has dual-port “RCA” input. RCA is two-pronged, often with one red and one white. (This cable can output stereo sound, so you can remember that right = red, though admittedly this is more relevant for setting up your home stereo system.) If your smart panel requires an RCA input, you should also have been given a mini-to-RCA adapter. One end of this adapter has a miniplug female port and the other end has RCA male. (Note that the picture to left depicts a miniplug male to RCA male connection.) Attach your miniplug cable to one end, and plug the RCA male end into the smart panel.

3) Adjust the volume levels of the smart panel, the master volume of your laptop, and the volume of the application playing your sound file (if necessary).

It’s important to remember that there are three different places where volume can be adjusted (smart panel, computer master volume, and the volume of the application on the computer). I’d recommend having the volume relatively high on your laptop (both its master volume as well as the volume of your sound application) so you won’t have to turn the smart panel’s volume up very much. (Otherwise you might get a lot of hiss.)

Troubleshooting and FAQs

Q. I don’t see anything on the screen.

There are numerous possible reasons for this.

  1. The smart panel is not set to the correct source, or you’ve plugged the VGA cable into the wrong port on the smart panel.
  2. The VGA cable has become loose. Most VGA cables have little hand-turnable screws that you can turn to secure them.
  3. You need to toggle the video mode on your laptop. Many PCs simply don’t detect the fact that an external video source has been attached to the VGA port. Press Fn-F7 (or whatever F-key is the video toggle on your laptop).
  4. You have a bad VGA cable. This is very unlikely. Look at the pins on either end of the VGA cable. Are any bent? If so, it may be too broken to use.
  5. Lastly, there is a VERY SMALL possibility that the projector is broken in some way. If you think this is the case, you should call the Registrar’s classroom technology team at (650) 723.7280. I would like to stress that I consider this to be a very distant possibility. If you see anything at all on the screen (e.g. a solid blue background), then the projector is probably working.

Q. The image on the projector screen is “cut off” compared to what I see on my laptop.

This is often caused by a disparity in what’s called the "refresh rate" between the laptop and the projector. Please note that the directions below may vary depending on your video card.

Q. I don’t hear any audio even though I am connected to the smart panel and playing a sound file on my computer.

There are many possible explanations.

  1. Volume on your computer is muted. Test this by unplugging the audio cable from the smart panel. Do you hear any sound on your laptop’s speakers? If not, then something not right on your laptop – unmute it!
  2. Volume is too low on either the smart panel, the computer, or the software. Remember that when connecting to external speakers in a smart panel, there are now three places where volume can be controlled – the smart panel, your computer’s master volume, and whatever software program is playing the sound file on your computer (e.g. Windows Media Player). Note that programs like PowerPoint do not have volume controls of their own.
  3. Your audio cable is plugged into the wrong source on the smart panel.
  4. You have a bad audio cable (unlikely).
  5. If you are in a non-Registrar scheduled room such as Sweet 303, Sweet 403, and Meyer 144, it’s possible that someone has turned off the speakers. In Sweet 303 and 403, look UNDER the smart panel. There’s a small switch there that needs to be flicked. When it’s on, you should actually hear a light hiss on the speakers (this is often why people turn them off). In Meyer 144, someone may have turned off the amp (also to rid the room of this hissing noise). Contact the IHUM ATS if this has happened.

Q. I’m playing a video file on my laptop and all that shows up on the projector screen is a black box, even though I can see the video on my laptop and hear the sound on the speakers.

You need to put all video on the projector screen. Do the Fn-F7 toggle (or whichever F-key is assigned to switch video modes) until you only see a picture on your projector screen. The reason this happens is because your laptop’s video card is not powerful enough to draw the movie in two places at once. You may have to stop and restart your film clip.

Q. I’m seeing an image on the screen that looks like my laptop background, but all my icons are missing.

Somehow your laptop is treating the projector as an extended desktop. (If you scroll your mouse to the left or to the right of the screen, you should be able to move your mouse into the projector screen.) This feature can actually be useful, if you want to have your laptop be a private space that your audience can’t see. You can drag windows to the projector screen that you do want your audience to see. But here's how to fix it: