I have a Dell laptop running Windows 7, with a docking station attached to two 24", 1920x1200 monitors (both the same model). The left-hand monitor, connected via DVI, works fine; however, Windows will only allow me to adjust the resolution on the right-hand monitor, which is connected via a VGA cable, up to 1600x1200. This monitor worked fine on my old setup (a desktop, also with one DVI and one VGA connector). The dock unfortunately does not have a second DVI connector.
I have unchecked the option to hide modes that the monitor does not display. In the right-hand monitor’s properties in control panel it only shows up as a Generic Non-PNP monitor, even though this is not the case, and the monitor connected to the DVI connector displays its ID properly.
I normally do this through the video card’s management utility. For ATI that’s Catalyst. Don’t remember what nVidia uses. It’s very easy to do with Catalyst though.
Go to start–>control panel–>device manager
and under display adapter see who the manufacturer is. Then find out what the proper utility is.
On a second reading, I think it may be a limitation of the docking station. I don’t have much familiarity with these but if it’s anything like a KVM (keyboard/video/monitor) switch, these can only handle certain VGA resolutions. It sounds like this is what might be going on. If you have documentation for the docking station, it might tell you in the specifications.
edit: or it could be a limitation of the vga chipset on the laptop too I suppose.
IDK. I have 2 24" Samsung monitors one is connected via DVI one HDMI. The HDMI one reports as generic and I have to configure it separately. No idea why.
edit: although I don’t know if vga has the ability to report that sort of information. HDMI should though (might depend on which version of HDMI - these are old monitors)
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edit: although I don’t know if vga has the ability to report that sort of information. HDMI should though (might depend on which version of HDMI - these are old monitors)
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Any monitor made in the last 10 years should have that capability.
Laptop video cards typically have limitations on the total number of pixels they can pump out. I wouldn’t be surprised if the video hardware in your laptop simply can’t handle quite as many pixels as you want it to.
Hm, I’ve been googling around and I can’t find any official statement on how many pixels that laptop can pump out.
I did find a post from someone claiming to be able to run dual-1920x1200 monitors with that laptop, which is what you’re trying to do. So it ought to be possible, I’m not sure what he did differently from what you’re doing.
That, or go to the device manager and manually change the 2nd monitor’s drivers to match your first. Windows should already have the files for it because your 1st monitor uses them.
I managed to do it using the Displayport and a displayport to DVI adapter, which is the same solution that Blakeyrat’s article pointed to. I had previously tried the “List all modes” button, but it didn’t show any resolutions higher than 1600x1200.
I ask because generally a passive adapter won’t work unless the monitor can understand displayport protocol. At least I think that’s how it works.
I had to get active adapters to use the display port outputs for a third monitor on one of my 7950 graphics cards since the DVI and HDMI were already being used. I was running that to pretty new (<2 years) Sony LCD TV using the HDMI input. Using a passive adapter, the video card wouldn’t even recognize that the monitor was attached.
edit: of course the tv probably wouldn’t be designed to work with displayport, unlike a newer computer monitor (which may or may not)
