Laptop and two monitors

Seanieke

Hey all, currently got a HP Pavilion DV6 2111sa with an external monitor connected via HDMI. Got my hands on a second monitor today, and am trying to connect it to the laptop via VGA, giving me a third screen.

Problem is when I connect the VGA cable, that monitor goes to sleep. disconnect the VGA, monitor lights up. Plug in the VGA cable Windows makes the connected device noise, disconnect the VGA cable Windows makes the disconnected device noise....

Display settings recognizes the screen but wont let me do anything with it...

Any suggestions, tips?

Thanks

mordeith

I think it depends on capabilities of the GPU

ScottStorm

What os are you running? Have you tried looking at display settings?

Seanieke

ScottStorm wrote: »

What os are you running? Have you tried looking at display settings?

Windows7. I've attached 2 screenshots of my display settings in the OP

Seanieke

mordeith wrote: »

I think it depends on capabilities of the GPU

Attached a screenshot of the graphics card details in the OP, their website says the card supports multiple monitors.

mordeith

Seanieke wrote: »

Attached a screenshot of the graphics card details in the OP, their website says the card supports multiple monitors.

Does cycling through the monitor output options via your laptop function keys make any difference. Maybe the laptop monitor needs to be off?

LeakingLava

Seanieke wrote: »

Hey all, currently got a HP Pavilion DV6 2111sa with an external monitor connected via HDMI. Got my hands on a second monitor today, and am trying to connect it to the laptop via VGA, giving me a third screen.

Problem is when I connect the VGA cable, that monitor goes to sleep. disconnect the VGA, monitor lights up. Plug in the VGA cable Windows makes the connected device noise, disconnect the VGA cable Windows makes the disconnected device noise....

Display settings recognizes the screen but wont let me do anything with it...

Any suggestions, tips?

Thanks

Erm, forgive me if I'm wrong but, on one of the options on your third monitor tab in one of your screenshots, it says 'Disconnect this display'. Isn't that the reason why the monitor goes to sleep when connected? Because it knows it's connected but there is no signal going to it?

Doesn't it have to be one of the other two options; duplicate or extend? It won't let you change any of the first settings as the third setting tells it to disconnect it but the 'disconnect' option is changeable in that screenshot. Once that is changed, it will also non-grey the other options. I think. :P

Cuddlesworth

Seanieke wrote: »

Attached a screenshot of the graphics card details in the OP, their website says the card supports multiple monitors.

Multiple monitors can mean 2 displays total. I doubt that low end card could power 3 screens at once.

Seanieke

OK so what I've tried is to use the 2 additional monitors as the 2 monitors and knock off the laptop monitor.

Unfortunately plugging in the VGA cable into the laptop still puts the 2nd additional monitor to sleep...

Is there a setting somewhere to activate / disable the vag output of a laptop?

edit: had a search, apparently you have to enable the VGA from the Bios... Had a look, can't see any Advanced settings in my Bios...

mordeith

Seanieke wrote: »

OK so what I've tried is to use the 2 additional monitors as the 2 monitors and knock off the laptop monitor.

Unfortunately plugging in the VGA cable into the laptop still puts the 2nd additional monitor to sleep...

Is there a setting somewhere to activate / disable the vag output of a laptop?

edit: had a search, apparently you have to enable the VGA from the Bios... Had a look, can't see any Advanced settings in my Bios...

Have you ticked the box 'Make this my main display' for either monitor?

Seanieke

I've the screens set as 1 - Laptop, 2 - Acer1, 3 - Acer2

I've disabled Screen 1, tried both Screen 2 & 3 as primary, but always only the one with the HDMI cable works (and i've swapped cables to each screen)

It seems to be a problem with the laptops VGA, it can tell me what monitor is connected to it, but not power it

mordeith

Seanieke wrote: »

I've the screens set as 1 - Laptop, 2 - Acer1, 3 - Acer2

I've disabled Screen 1, tried both Screen 2 & 3 as primary, but always only the one with the HDMI cable works (and i've swapped cables to each screen)

It seems to be a problem with the laptops VGA, it can tell me what monitor is connected to it, but not power it

Just to clarify things, if you try the VGA port on its own with no HDMI plugged in, do you get a working display?

Seanieke

mordeith wrote: »

Just to clarify things, if you try the VGA port on its own with no HDMI plugged in, do you get a working display?

No, nothing on the VGA, to either external monitor. The laptop will tell me the model number of each screen when plugged into VGA, but the external monitor goes straight to sleep when the VGA cable is plugged in.

(Drivers of the GPU is up to date, and monitors turned to VGA before plugging in cable, though both autodetect)

ED E

Reboot
Plug in just the VGA
Hit WinKey+P and go to extended.

See if that does anything.

ScottStorm

Have you looked into a usb 3.0 video card?