Q&A for How to Connect a Laptop to a Monitor

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How do I hook up two monitors to my laptop? My laptop will only use one at a time. Both are hooked up, one to VGA and the another connected to HDMI.

Community Answer

Maybe your laptop has hardware restrictions. Check your graphics card to see the maximum monitors it supports.

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Question

My laptop has crashed. It is 10 months old, and now I can't get into the files. Can I use a monitor to get out important files?

Hypercharge2

Community Answer

The monitor just lets you see the image on the screen or add an extra display. You should try the disc recovery tool.

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Question

Can I just plug in?

Community Answer

Pretty much; if you have an old monitor you should plug in a vga cable and the power cable. If you have a newer monitor, you need an hdmi cable with the power cord.

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Question

My laptop screen is broken. Can I use my laptop screen with an external monitor?

Khumbulani

Community Answer

Yes, you can as long as you've got the required cable to connect the two.

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Question

Why does the sound cut out when I use the monitor?

Community Answer

That is probably because your monitor doesn't have any speakers; try plugging in speakers or headphones and see if that works.

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Question

The screen on my Toshiba C350-1LQ keeps going dark. A torch shows it's all happening on the screen, but hard to see. It keeps happening, then the screen was replaced two weeks ago, and now it's happened again. What do I do?

Community Answer

Maybe you could try making the screen brighter. Most laptop computers will come with hotkeys that adjust the screen brightness.

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Question

Why is my DVI not sourcing on my monitor?

Community Answer

Go to Settings, System, Display, and click on Detect to find the monitor. Then you can choose the way you want to expand your display.

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Question

How can I view the data from one laptop on another laptop? The screen is broken.

Community Answer

You would have to select a setting to share your screen from the broken-screened laptop to the working one, but as it is broken, this cannot be done. The only way to get your data back is to recover your hard drive.

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Question

How do I connect my laptop to a monitor if it only has an HDMI port but the monitor is VGA?

Community Answer

Use an HDMI-to-VGA adapter. You will need a VGA cable as well to connect the adapter to the monitor.

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Question

My hp i5 laptop screen is broken. How can I get visuals on an HD television? I'm using a0HDMI cable but it won't work.

Jarod Smith

Community Answer

Some of them require you to use F8 to transfer to the TV. The only other option is to try to replace it.

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Question

How do I split the screen to work on 2 pages at once?

Community Answer

For Windows 10, click on the square with a triangle in the bottom right corner and click "project" in the bottom left of the popup.

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Question

When I connect to larger screen I am only seeing the laptop screen saver image and none of the files on my desktop screen?

Monirul Islam

Community Answer

Connect the monitor VGA cable to the HDMI port of the laptop to connect the monitor with a laptop. After connecting the display of the laptop, turn into black and you will see everything by monitor.

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Question

How can I have my laptop lid closed and have it display to a monitor?

Community Answer

If you are using Windows, then go in to the control panel (not settings) and search for the power options menu. Then, when you are on the power options menu, click on the link on the side that says "Change what closing the lid does". Once you click this set it to "do nothing" when the computer is on battery or when the computer is plugged in. Then you can close the lid of your laptop and still see the laptop displayed on the monitor.

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Question

What should I do if the cable I'm using doesn't show any reaction between the laptop and the monitor?

Community Answer

Make sure if cable is connected, is not damaged and try another cable. If you try another cable and you still get no results, one of your devices of device port is broken.

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Question

What do I do if my monitor isn't connecting to my laptop?

Community Answer

This problem may be caused because your monitor doesn't work or one of ports is broken. Try to connect with another monitor or another cable. If the problem still exists, then the display port on the laptop is broken.

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Question

What can I do if my laptop doesn't have a VGA connector?

Community Answer

Look for a DVI or HDMI connector. Otherwise, look for tutorials on YouTube about how to connect a laptop to a monitor using the USB port on the laptop.

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Question

Do I need a new keyboard if I want to close the lid on my laptop?

Community Answer

Yes, as well as a mouse, but basic USB keyboard/mouse combos are quite inexpensive.

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Question

Can I use my old laptop screen with a new laptop?

Community Answer

You can, as long as your new and old laptop support the same ports. If they don't, you can always consider getting an adapter.

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Question

Can i use a second laptop screen as second monitor to a first laptop?

Arrogance

Top Answerer

Not without disassembling the laptop, connecting the screen to an LCD controller, and connecting it to the other laptop with an HDMI or VGA cable. It's probably not worth the time and money compared to buying a second monitor. You can use applications to mirror your screen onto another computer, such as TeamViewer, TightVNC, or Google Remote Desktop. This will have a significant delay, though, and at best can only mirror the screen or act like another user logged into your computer. It cannot be used to extend your existing desktop session.

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