13'' with external monitor and closed lid

Hi to all.
I have a new MacBook Pro 13'' (with Leopard, I still do not upgrade to Snow Leopard).

I bought a Samsung T220 Monitor to use as external monitor for the Mac. I'm having trouble using it as what I want is to have the Mac with the lid closed and use the monitor as my primary one. This is the list of what i tried and the results:

1. Plug the monitor with the Mac up and running (open lid). It works, but only as secondary monitor. If I set "Duplicate monitor" I can only have the resolution of the 13'' that is way lower than the one I could have on the Samsung.

2. Plug the monitor and then close the lid. This sets the Mac to sleep and I cannot wake it up by plugging and external apple usb keyboard, or mouse, or using the remote control, not clicking any key after having plugged the devices. I have tried both send the machine to sleep with the keyboard / mouse attached and plugging them later.

3. I have tried the said combination powering on the Mac with or without the monitor plugged in.

4. As suggested by a Youtube video, i can plug the monitor, power on the Mac and immediately close the lid (while in the booth process). This works (the Samsung has a high resolution and is my main (and only) monitor. Besides the fact that I don't like the idea of having to reboot the Mac every time I want to use the external monitor, this solution doesn't work once I have sent the Mac to Stop, as (like before) I'm not able to wake it up again.

Did anybody experience the same kind of problems and was able to have the whole thing working? Thanks.

PS: All the previous tries have been done with the Mac _not_ plugged to the powers supply. Is this relevant?
Moreover, do you know if Snow Leopard introduces any improvement to this? Thanks.

The laptop has to be plugged in to the power supply if running the external monitor with the laptop closed. It will only work unplugged if the laptop is open.

Thank you very much, this solved the problem (I'm writing from the big monitor right now )

pistacchio said:

Thank you very much, this solved the problem (I'm writing from the big monitor right now )

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Cool!

I've also learned that you can hook up the monitor and have the power supply plugged in, and you just restart the computer and close the lid as it's restarting, and once it boots on your external monitor, you can open the laptop and use the keyboard and trackpad without the built in monitor turning back on.

I do this on my 42" TV when I want to watch a movie, so all I do is bring my power cord and plug in the TV and restart the computer with the lid closed, and I can navigate to my movie without having to bring a keyboard and mouse as well. It's pretty neat!

You want to use your laptop closed with a different screen and different keyboard? Isn't that a Mac Mini? Haha jk. Sounds cool but slightly defeats the purpose IMO.

ImageX said:

You want to use your laptop closed with a different screen and different keyboard? Isn't that a Mac Mini? Haha jk. Sounds cool but slightly defeats the purpose IMO.

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Nope. Doesn't defeat the purpose at all.... A Mac Mini is just that. Can't drag a Mac Mini to class or to Starbucks can you? With a MacBook you can have the best of both - portability and use as a desktop.

Regards.