I just bought a new Dell XPS17 laptop (Win7) that only has HDMI output. My last 2 laptops had VGA, which I used to connect to my Sony Bravia 32" TV with no issues, but with the HDMI it's been quite a headache.

Drivers for display adapters have been updated to the latest versions:

• Intel(R) HD Graphics Family
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 550M

I went to a store and plugged in to 4 different TVs from different manufacturers. A sales rep and I spent about 30 minutes being baffled by the results (which are the same as my current TV):

• Extreme buggy behavior in the Nvidia and Windows display/resolution control panel
• Can not extend or duplicate displays, can only select one
• Third and fourth output devices "randomly" detected by the Windows control panel
• Could not get the screen to fit the output (edges cut off on all sides by about a half inch)
• Resolution and colors less than perfect. Artifacts around text.
• Display "randomly" cuts out
• Defaults to TV output only when plugged in
• Can not change resolution on either device when connected
• No audio from the TV

Plugged in to 3 monitors from different manufacturers:

• Defaults to duplicated displays when plugged in
• Everything works perfectly

So far, four people have gone through all the settings in the latop with no luck. I had similar, but not exactly matching results with a different laptop.

I'm using the Sony Bravia currently at home, but in order to get it to work I have to turn on the laptop, wait until the display shows up on it, close the lid, then cycle through each output channel on the TV until I come back around to the HDMI port again, but still I have the symptoms described above.

However: Once in a while, it just works. Sometimes, seemingly randomly, the output fits the screen perfectly. Sometimes the audio comes through the speakers too, but not always. Usually my screen saver "Mystify" will come up with a message that it cannot be displayed due to a limitation of the video card, but then sometimes it works fine. These 3 things seem to be independent of each other and don't always happen together.

So, is there any way to get the laptop to output correctly to a TV, or is it just not meant to be?