Help me with XPS setup

edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian
in Hardware

I have an older Dell XPS, a 16" which reports as an L502X.

As I said older, running WIN7, i7-2720QM CPU and an NVIDIA GT540.

I have two Dell U2412M monitors.

I finally got one working via HDMI out to a displayport in on the monitor.

The XPD also has a compact displayport out, but I can't cant get it to drive anything. The odd thing is that the software can tell me what monitor is connected, but I don't get an image.

Before I start trying random things I am looking for some advice. Can I run two external monitors? Why isn't the DP out behaving?

Please help me.

Comments

  • RyderRyder Kalamazoo, Mi Icrontian

    Is there a service tag on the unit so we can see the exact specs at Dell.com?

  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian

    B23TZP1 is the Tag

    X16-96072 is the model

  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian

    Um, do you use the ethernet port? if not, try an ethernet-->displayport cable.

    I do not have it but here would also look for display device settings. Try right-clicking on desktop (a bare place) and see if it offers you an option called Display or displays and see if you can use two monitors by clicking an option. Otherwise, try looking at the display adapter settings which is a section within device manager.

  • RyderRyder Kalamazoo, Mi Icrontian

    I think the outputs are on 2 different video cards.

    One of them is on the Nvidia and the other is part of the built in Intel graphics.

    Do you have drivers installed for both in device manager?

    Do you see both under display adapters in Device manager?

  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian

    Yes I see both graphics drivers. It looks like both are working properly.

  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited December 2019

    then try this: https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/visiontek-vt1000-universal-dual-display-usb-30-dock/apd/aa099817/pc-accessories

    It will go from USB and has up to 2 monitors support.

  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian

    I would suggest a Lenovo next time, they have much easier ways to use multiple monitors. Thinkpad P series. Lenovo is having a green monday sale right now.

  • TushonTushon I'm scared, Coach Alexandria, VA Icrontian

    I agree with @Ryder that it's likely running off both cards and that is fraught if ever functional. If you have only a single display plugged into the compact DP, you still have nothing out? Anything that shows up in the "displays" view of control panel?

    If you haven't already, always shoot through an update of BIOS, drivers, etc. And you may want to use DDU to do a clean uninstall of the display drivers before reinstalling.

    I did find reports of this issue: https://www.dell.com/community/Laptops-General-Read-Only/XPS-15-Mini-display-port-issue-Windows-8-1/td-p/4191001

    Their solution was downgrading the nVidia driver until they found a working one.

  • RyderRyder Kalamazoo, Mi Icrontian

    I have an L511Z here, which is the previous Dell XPS 15 I believe (mine is 15z),

    It has both HDMI and mini displayport outputs.

    I happen to have cables that will fit everything.

    I will try this out as well and see if I can figure something out over the next couple days.

  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian

    You might also look here: https://www.newegg.com/black-dell-452-bbpg/p/N82E16834981088

    if Ryder cannot solve it. I do not have the hardware, but have run into this problem before, quite a while back.

  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian

    Thanks guys.

    I have a few things to work on at least.

  • RyderRyder Kalamazoo, Mi Icrontian
    edited December 2019

    Hi @edcentric

    I am not sure if I have good or bad news. I plugged in my 2 monitors and everything worked. Desktop on all 3 screens. I have attached screenshot of driver versions that are running on the 2 display adapters. I am running Windows 10 though, so maybe there is something in 7 that is effecting this.

    I am using an HDMI to HDMI cable for the top left and then a mini displayport to displayport cable for the right upper monitor. You said that software shows the monitor, but no signal, what cable are you using? Are you adapting to HDMI or DVI from the mini displayport?

    Ed_XPS_2.jpg
    Ed_XPS_1.png


  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian

    Um, @edcentric , you might try the monitor that is not working on the other port..... If no luck, could be a bad monitor.

  • RyderRyder Kalamazoo, Mi Icrontian

    Oh! The upper right monitor is a U2412M btw. So it was connected via the mini displayport to displayport cable to the displayport in on the monitor.

  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited December 2019

    I think,if I ound I had two monitors and wanted to use them independently showing two different sets of of pictures, I would buy a laptop dock from Dell which supported two or three monitors.

  • edcentricedcentric near Milwaukee, Wisconsin Icrontian

    So I can feed DP to one monitor and it will duplicate the primary, I can't get it to extend.

    I used HDMI to DVI for the other one and I can extend across those two now.

    I am sure that I have an issue with at least one monitor. I may just live with it until I land a new job and replace the whole mess.

    A Surface laptop3 and a pair of 1600 line monitors would do fine ......

    Straight_Man
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian

    Sounds like you got it fixed-- for now.

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