2022-10-08

Advice given on October 8, 2022.

Screen-less Windows

Hey Jay,

I have recently bought a pair of external monitors I wanted to connect to my laptop. However once I plugged them in, I couldn’t figure out how to get my Windows to show up on the external screens as well as my laptop. I’m hoping you have some advice to offer on how I might resolve my screen problem.

Thanks,

Wannabe-Techie

Techie,

I’m glad you decided to purchase some external monitors; they can really improve the laptop experience. Your message is relatively sparse in terms of details, but I can try to take some guesses as to what the problem(s) might be. The first thing I wonder is whether or not your laptop can support two external monitors. There is a chance the video card in your laptop (which is likely integrated with another component) is not powerful enough to support two external monitors and can only support one. So you might want to try connecting just one external monitor first, before trying two. Once you are just trying to connect one external screen, if you still have trouble, you should try different cables if you have them. There are many different types of connectors often used by monitors ranging from HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI, VGA, and newer ones might even support USB-C. By trying different cables and ports, you will learn whether the problem is with a cable or an individual port, or if it is more serious and related to the laptop or monitor itself. Since you have two monitors, you can try each one with a given cable to help rule out the chance that the monitor itself has a problem. If you have a second laptop or other computer around, you could also try using that, to help isolate the source of the problem.

Good luck,

Jay