Work at home monitor help

Hardware and technical stuff
1

I need help please. I am working at home with my Dell Latitude, no dock. I have an old 27" Dell monitor I am using with it, but I am having issues. I have never worked with multiple displays and laptops on my home computers, so this is new territory for me.

The Latitude has a VGA, HDMI, and a USB-C display port on it. I have tried hooking up VGA and HDMI to the my monitor. My monitor can do either of those, or DVI.

At work I connect it to a dock that has two crappy 24" Dell monitors (VGA connections I think). The two monitors and laptop all function as separate displays when I plug the laptop in to the dock. At home, the monitor just mirrors the laptops display. I can’t seem to find a way to change this. Windows 10 doesn’t give me an option.

The other problem is resolution. The monitor is 2560x1440, but I can’t get it to run in that mode. HDMI it would only go into 1920x1080. VGA port will go higher, but some weird resolution that is better, but still blurry.

So question is, how do I get this thing to work as a separate display as my laptop and run at its native resolution? What cable do I need?

Thanks for any help.

2

If you’re being locked to 1080p, that sounds like the PC might not have graphics drivers installed and it’s defaulting to the basic windows display drivers. Could that be the issue?

3

It very well could be, the computer is something like 4 years old and gets very limited updates. It’s also extremely locked down, so I can’t do anything. I was hoping a cable would fix it.

4

My guess is, it’s the mirroring causing the problem. I don’t have my Windows 10 work laptop on right now, but I think if you right-click on the desktop, go to Display Settings and scroll down to Multiple Displays. Under there is a checkbox for either Mirror or Extend displays. Make sure extended is checked.

Alternately, if you are using an external keyboard and mouse, try clam shelling the laptop to see what resolution it comes in as.

5

You need to also check the capability of the display chip and it’s RAM. If your combined display resolution exceeds that of the graphics chip and RAM, you will not be able to get the display modes available for an extended display.

It explains the weird VGA resolution you are getting (I am guessing 30hz ). If it’s a graphics chip and ram issue, there’s nothing much you can do except to reduce the resolution of the extended display resolution.

6

There is no option for mirroring. There has to be somewhere, because the monitors at work can do it, but heck if I can find it. I can’t ask IT because it’s my own monitor, and I am not supposed to be using my own stuff.

I was kind of wondering if the laptop wasn’t capable of doing higher resolutions, so you are probably right @cicobuff. This thing is painfully low end.

Thanks for the help guys.

7

WINDOWS+P key , on windows 10.

Let me know if you still need help, I’ve helped dozens of people over the last few days with vpn and wfh issues.

And I’m an engineer not a helpdesk associate! As I tell everyone. :P

8

Thanks, @lordkosc!
All this time, I’d been doing it the long way. I had no idea. Very slick.

9

yep very helpful, thank you.

10

I’m forwarding your contact info to all my relatives and workmates. You have no idea how much this helps me.

;-) I suppose I’d better clarify that I’m joking of course.

11

HDMI 1.0 won’t go above 1920x resolution, seems that HDMI 1.3 supports the higher Rez

You can get a USB c to dvi, that should work. Just make sure it’s the right dvi? Dvi has dual link and all this other stuff

12

That explains the HDMI problem, thanks.

And Windows P worked, thanks @lordkosc!

13

I think the actual HDMI cable matters too.

14

Bill is in the mail. ;)

15

They still make laptops with VGA ports?

16

Apparently, and the US federal government buys them. All my computer equipment is old and shitty though.

17

My college-provided work laptop is some Dell thing that still hooks up to the Dell monitory via a VGA port. Mind boggling.

18

Yes that was my thought as well. Nothing like adding cost to monitor board for extinct technology.

20

Slim pickings on Amazon. I just grabbed the cheapest IPS 24 inch panels I could get shipped within 2 weeks. For work it doesn’t make that much of a difference anyway.

21

I bet VGA ports are so old that they are dirt cheap. Plus, at my last 2 jobs, my cheap Dell monitors used those ports. Even the dock has 2 of them on it. They certainly aren’t extinct.

I am not sure that VGA is the correct name of it, it is capable of 1080p resolutions, but its that same old pin connector that has been around for decades. The port has symbol of a box with a vertical line on each side of it. What is the correct name for it?

Anyway, Amazon finally delivered my USB C to DisplayPort cable and it works perfectly. No more blurry work computer. Nice and sharp 2560x1440.