Why can’t the laptop recognize three monitors at once

hdmilaptopmultiple-monitorsvga

  1. I have Dell laptop computer?
  2. I have 3 monitors connected to it.
  3. two monitors are connected to it by VGA through "TripleHead2go" port.
  4. One is connected by HDMI.
  5. One of the monitors connected through VGA is a Dell monitor, the second is a Samsung monitor.
  6. The monitor connected through HDMI is actually a Sansui brand TV that can convert to a computer monitor.
  7. The TV has a port for VGA, but when i connect to it the laptop doesn't detect it. When I connect the HDMI the laptop detects it, but i cannot extend the desktop to it.
  8. When i go to the Device Manager it recognizes all three monitors and all three monitors are working properly.
  9. If i disconnect the two the monitors connected through VGA the laptop will then extend to the monitor connected through HDMI. But I cannot extend to all three at once.
  10. I use Windows 7 Home Premium and Dell Inspirion 1764 laptop, and Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU (if any of that helps).

My question is how can i get the laptop to extend to all three monitors? at the same time? I have the same set up at work, except all three monitors are Dells, and I use a DELL laptop there also and everything runs perfectly. What am I doing wrong here?

Screenshots of Control Panel and Device Manager;

Control Panel
Device Manager

Best Answer

Short answer is: it's impossible to do what you want with equipment you have:

  1. This laptop has 1st gen Core i5, which has Intel HD integrated into it, which will not support more than two displays.

  2. Using TripleHead2Go from Matrox will not allow you to skip on this limitation, as it's using computer's GPU to deliver multi-display desktop, and additionally this one has its own limitation, which is the COMBINED resolution of ALL monitors connected to it. WHich is greater than max output of the graphics card of the laptop.

Your laptop is too old to do what you want using setup you described. I recommend switching to USB2DP converter like this (just example, I have different one):

https://www.amazon.co.uk/StarTech-Display-External-Monitor-Adapter/dp/B008CXFM64

If it won't work with your laptop you need to invest in powered usb hub.

But this solution would work - I've successfully used 2x2k displays connected to any machine that could deliver enough power to USB for the USB2DP device to work, and one of the computers was even older than yours.

EDIT: Additionally, this adapter let's you work around the hardware limitation of HDMI socket on most laptops with either dual GPU setup or just Intel integrated graphics (except most modern ones). Found out painfully that 1920x1080 is max on my other laptop (Dell Inspiron 15R Limited edition), which could not display more on external HDMI-connected 2k display, despite having Radeon 7730 with 2GB of RAM on-board. However, said USB2DP adapter worked like a charm.

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