Windows 10: external monitor "No Input Signal" in "Extend" mode, though "Duplicate" or "Show only second display" work

Question

I wanted to have a dual screen setup. The 2 monitors in my dual screen setup are as follows:

1. My laptop's screen:

• My laptop's screen only has HDMI port. It is dell inspiron 15 5567 laptop. It has 15.6 '' full hd display.

2. My old computer's monitor:

• My old computer monitor is getting power supply directly through the socket.
• It has a VGA port ONLY.
• It is hpw17e hp monitor.
• Hence, I bought a new HDMI-to-VGA Adapter.

Problem:

https://i.sstatic.net/ySbvW.jpg

The above image are the options that come when you press ⊞+P. I can do the first one and the last one, but not the second and third one. i.e I can watch my screen in my current laptop ONLY. And I can also watch my screen in my old monitor ONLY. But I can't extend or duplicate.

What happens when I click on extend or duplicate:

• When I click in extend, my laptop freezes. The another monitor would show "Input not supported".
• When I click in Duplicate, nothing happens. The another monitor would show "Input not supported".

Here are the conclusions that I have made so far:

1. Since old monitor works when chosen the option "second monitor only", that means the old monitor is fine(*No need to read this if you are in a hurry-:*I have also been using that old monitor since a long time, it is a good monitor. It was working 3 days ago. My old computer got dead so I thought that instead of wasting money on repairing it, I will just reuse the monitor. And hence bought a HDMI-VGA Adapter)

2. Also, the HDMI-to-VGA adapter is also working as it could transmit signal to the another monitor in 1 case.

3. Also my laptop is fine as it is working in 1 of the 4 cases. HDMI port is also fine due to similar reasons.

So, what is really the problem? I am totally overwhelmed by this. I thought setting this up would take me few minutes, but it has already taken me 6 hrs and it is still not settled down.

I also tried by choosing various resolutions in display settings of windows 10, still that didn't work.

I tried some working around. I went to advanced display settings and tested with different modes. i.e 1440*900 at 60 Hz..etc. One of the modes, worked. i.e now I can duplicate the screen. But duplicating the screen is also of not much use. I want to be able to extend the screen. It is still not working.

Answer 1

I found a solution in manually updating my onboard Graphics driver, simple as it sounds. Thus, you need to download the onboard graphics driver as a zip, unzip, and then update your driver by searching for it in that unzipped folder. Please mind: this way is only needed if there is no OEM driver available that was customized by your laptop manufacturer!

In my case, with an older Lenovo IdeaPad Z710 that has an onboard Intel HD Graphics card 4600:

• Starting point is a 2016 version which is the standard version that surprisingly comes with the Windows build in 2020 (on Linux, instead, the external monitor works).

This old driver does not seem to be updated anymore by Intel who are probably just avoiding the Microsoft certification process - or they want to make the people buy only new things ;), see this same explanation for old NVIDIA drivers that are not up to date when using Windows driver update).

I had for some reason six monitors (five appear in the device manager with the 4600 Graphics driver from 2016, of which four are non-PnP, one is PnP), and in the display settings, I could not even put the "screen 1" to the right of "screen 2" as you would expect it, the two most-right displays were grayed out and fixed to their position.

• UPDATED: First, search for an OEM driver of your laptop manufacturer. For example, if you have a Lenovo Z710, search for a display driver for exactly that model on the Lenovo site. If there is a customized driver, use that one!

• Only if you could not find an OEM driver: For the Intel 4600, download the latest "15.40" driver at the Intel Download Center. If your onboard graphics card is not Intel, take that manufacturer.

• The file name should be like "win64_15.40.47.5166.zip".
• Unzip.
• Go to Windows device manager (or Windows+R --> devmgmt.msc).
• Right-click Graphics cards --> Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600
• Choose update driver --> choose the folder of the unzipped driver.

• The external monitor can be used without a restart. Now the display settings finally make sense again, just two monitors, and I can put them at any position:

• You may check the driver version:

All credits go to this helpful answer at the HP user forum.

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Some problems till I found the solution: I thought I could update the driver without manually downloading from Intel. I followed a guide in the Lenovo forum to just unininstall, restart and search for hardware again, but that told me that the latest driver was already installed.

• At first, I have just uninstalled all of the (for no clear reason many non-PnP and one PnP) monitors and not the Intel graphics driver.
• Then I uninstalled the Intel graphics driver and still installed only the one that was already the standard in the Windows installation - an old driver from 2016.