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I Have a dell vostro 3500 laptop which uses an i5 m450 @2.4GHz CPU and intel HD graphics... How do i connect 2 monitors onto it...? I have a VGA out which works perfectly...If i connect another monitor through a HDMI to VGA adapter...I am able to use just one of the two monitors.

Is this a graphics card limitation? Can i do something to overcome this ?

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Have you confirmed that both the VGA adapter and the main VGA out port work separately? (That is to say, when you say you are only able to use one monitor, is it possible that the problem is simply that the HDMI to VGA adapter doesn't work?) – Jeremy Sturdivant Jan 27 '11 at 10:18
With the two extra monitors..I can get each one of them to work individually while still connected...But I cannot get both of them to work simultaneously..... So.. its not the cable... – Mulki Jan 27 '11 at 10:23
What operating system? – Bobby Jan 27 '11 at 10:24
@Bobby : windows 7 – Mulki Jan 27 '11 at 12:29

3 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

Many graphics adapters will output to a maximum of two devices at the same time. In the case of a laptop, this would include the laptop's internal display. There should be an option to disable the laptop's display, at which point it should be possible to enable both external monitors.

If you need three monitors at once, for example, for a presentation, you might look into USB external graphics cards, which while slow, are quite suitable for displaying slides on a projector, for example, or keeping a document open for reference on a third monitor.

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up vote 2 down vote

Samsung offers USB monitors which are as large as normal monitors. Also look into a USB graphics card.

There has been some ASUS graphics card for the ExpressCard slot and USB2.0 (simultaneously), but I couldn't find anything about it. A measly graphics chip with 32mb of RAM and just a vga/dvi output should be able to run on a ExpressCard, no? Why did no one do this yet...

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hey..this sounds promising..let me try this.. – Mulki Jan 28 '11 at 8:06
up vote 0 down vote

Just right click on the desktop and you should see something that says intel graphics properties. click on that and there should be a tab that says set up multiple monitors, click on that and set up your monitors, in order to make both external displays work at once you will have to disable your laptop screen! the limit is 2 screens on intel hd graphics! HOPE THIS HELPS!

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