Question:
Hi Tony,
I read your article on Microsoft addressing dual monitors. I still have a question.
Is it possible to have 2 external monitors connected to a laptop? I use one 19″ LCD, but would like to use another at the same time. I do not use my laptop’s screen, since it is small and not real good quality.
Is there some type of adapter or hardware that can be installed in my laptop for this purpose?
Answer:
Yes, you can (as evidenced by the picture of my desk above). First, check the back of your computer. You might have multiple monitor ports, such as one VGA and one DVI port. If so, just plug one monitor into each port. This graphics card obviously isn’t for a laptop, but it does demonstrate both types of ports. The VGA is the blue one on the left, the DVI is the white one on the right, plus an S-Video port in the middle, which is for a TV:
If you don’t have more than one video port on your laptop, look into getting a docking station. I have Dell Latitudes, and the docking stations have one VGA and one DVI.
If you don’t have multiple video ports and you can’t get a docking station for your computer (not all computers have them), your last resort is a USB video adapter like this:
All of these models are limited in their resolutions though. This model goes up to 1280×1024. If that’s the resolution of your 19-inch monitor, then it’s a good choice for you. If your monitor is 1600×1200, it won’t look good.
Other than that, you’d need to get a new computer. I like the Dell Latitude’s with the docking stations. Have fun with it.
This is a general question which I hope that someone may ne able to answer. My wife has an Advent MP10 digiatl camera. We have loaded the software which has been recognised. When we attach the camera or even my camera via the USB port it says “USB error” and we cannot proceed. Any thoughts please.
regards
David
dear sir,
i am safi i like to know how to connect the multipal moniter in the one desktop computer.
Give me soloution .
I have docking station for my new Dell Latitude and I plugged in one monitor via VGA and the other DVI. However, the VGA monitor remains blank, and I don’t see a third monitor in display settings. Do I need to do something on my PC to make this additional monitor work?
Thanks!
I still dont get this, I have 2 Samsung 22″ syncmaster, but its impossible to connect both monitors to the PC at the same time. Mostly because my PC refuses to disable my laptops internal monitor. Can you please explain it in more detail? I have a Toshiba P100 with a GeForce 7900 (1xDVI + 1xVGA) The monitors support both DVI and VGA
Is it possible to use dual monitors with a docking station and still use the laptop screen for a ‘triple’ monitor setup?
Is it possible to use the laptop screen and one external monitor to provide a dual monitor setup?
Why would you want to use vga on one monitor and dvi on the other, when one looks like shit and the other is crisp. Maybe if your cross eyed and half blind it won’t matter.
quick question…i hooked up two monitors via VGA and DVI to my docking station. I’d like to use them as my primary monitors. However my dell XPS laptop identifies both monitors as one big one and so the picture on both is the same. Not sure how to adjust the setting for that. When i hit identify monitor the nubmer 3 pops up on both monitors. My question is how do i turn off monitor 1(laptop) and make monitor 2 my main one and also extend to monitor 3 (which is the second external monitor)?
thanks a lot.
Dan