Help needed: Laptop display problem

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’m in a bit of a pickle, and I need some help. Here’s the situation:

I have a new job. It’s work-from-home so I’ve been given a laptop. To do my job properly I need to have a dozen different programs open at once. The laptop screen is way too small for this, so I hooked the laptop up to a fairly big computer monitor I had lying around.

Unfortunately, it’s now clear to me that even one fairly big monitor isn’t enough. I need to hook the laptop up to two monitors. However, the laptop only has one HDMI output socket. This is the only display output socket on the machine.

What I want to do is connect my laptop to two monitors, using this one HDMI socket. I’m not the most tech savvy person, but I’m aware that there are these things called docking stations which act a bit like extension plugs, but for HDMI cables. You stick one end of one HDMI cable in the laptop, and the other end in one side of the docking station, and on the other side of the docking station are a bunch of HDMI sockets, and you can use HDMI cables to connect a different screen to each of these sockets, thereby displaying the image on the laptop on as many as five different screens simultaneously.

I’m also aware that these things are expensive. The cheapest one I’ve found is like $150 dollars. They also have way more HDMI output sockets than I need. I could buy second hand, but I don’t want to do that in case I get sold a lemon.

I thought I’d found the solution when I came across this little device on Amazon. Unfortunately, I’m an idiot and I didn’t read the product description properly. This device does have the right number of HDMI output sockets for my purposes, but it doesn’t allow you to put what’s on the laptop on both screens simultaneously. All it does is allow you to connect the laptop to two screens and then switch between them. So it’s completely useless for my purposes.

In short, what I’m after is a product which:

(A) Can be connected to a laptop via the laptop’s HDMI output socket.

(B) Has two other HDMI output sockets of its own that I can connect to two separate monitors, thereby spreading the image on the laptop across two screens so I can see all the programs I need to use.

(C) Is cheap.

Basically, I want a docking station with only two outputs that is also affordable. I’ve tried Googling for one but I’m starting to worry that no such product exists. Is there such a thing? Or am I chasing rainbows? Alternatively, is there a better solution that I’m overlooking?

Thanks.

2

Generally speaking HDMI cannot do this.

Do you have USB 3.0 or 3.1 ports? (try this search “USB to HDMI Adapters”)

There are devices that can do USB to HDMI to extend video to an additional screen, not for gaming but should work for office type work.

BTW, can be standard USB or USB-C type ports.

3

Here is a good article that explains your issue and the possible solutions. As What_Exit said, if you have a USB port, you can use an adapter to make it an HDMI port will allow you to extend your display.

4

Have you asked your work for a docking station? My company, when they sent everyone home, gave them docks and a large monitor. You might ask your IT guy if they have any. Here’s a cheap dock on Amazon with dual HDMI

StG

5

You say you “need to have a dozen different programs open at once” … do you really
need to see them all at the same time, or could you toggle between them ?