TV as second moniter

[RandeeAnne]

I have a macbook purchased in 2007. I want to use my TV as a second monitor. My TV is a Westinghouse purchased December 2008. I have a VGA to VGA cable (M/M) and a VGA to mini DVI adapter I purchased on eBay from China. I turned my TV to the VGA "channel" and securely hooked the VGA cable to the TV, then the adapter, and the adapter to my macbook. Both TV and computer were on at the time, if that matters. The computer registered another monitor and the options came up to change the resolution on both screens. The trouble is, the TV just remains black and says it can not detect a signal. This should work and be much easier than it has been. What am I doing wrong? 

I also tried the HMDI adapter but it does not connect to a HMDI cable. This is very frustrating. Any help would be great.

-Randee

[Sarabian]

Have you tested it on anything else yet? If you have tried it on another TV or a monitor and know it works there, and if the computer is saying that it sees the TV and correctly identifies it, the error must then be with the TV or the cable. I have not hooked mine up to a TV, so don't have direct experience with this, but I am familiar with the connections. Most Macs of that vintage have Mini-DVI ports. Hooking a Mini-DVI to DVI cable normally is what it takes to attach external video. I have seen TVs with a DVI port. Is this what you have? Does the TV have an actual VGA port? Very seldom have I ever seen a TV with a VGA port on it.

Testing with a known good monitor would be the best step to take next. If it works with the monitor, then I'd check the settings on the TV and see if something else needs done.

[RandeeAnne]

I tried a dell moniter but nothing came up when i pluged it all in. I also tried a different VGA cord with the dell moniter and my tv as a moniter. None of these tries have worked. there has to be an explaination!   

im using mini DVI to VGA cabel then VGA (m) to VGA (m) on the tv.