1080P Laptop connecting to 1440P monitor black screen

Ernie · 28 Sep 2023 at 10:50

Hello,

My daughter has started working from home. She has a standard 1080P windows Laptop and wanted to use my 1440P monitor as a 2nd screen, however, the monitor shows a black screen - although the laptop does detect the monitor. I gather this is because the Laptop GFX can't cope with the high res?

Is there any way around this or 'dumbing' down the monitor, or getting a 1080P monitor is only solution?

Thanks,

mickyflinn · 28 Sep 2023 at 11:17

Ss long as the port supports 1440p it should work, have you gone into the display settings on the laptop.

Also checked the laptop manual.

sg0 · 28 Sep 2023 at 12:45

Also check the monitor OSD (if it has one)

use a different port or cable

does the laptop connect ok to your tv?

Werewolf · 28 Sep 2023 at 15:03

Even if the laptop doesn't support 1440 it should IIRC display something as the monitor should normally take 1080 and scale it up
Mismatches between monitor inputs and card outputs have been something that's been dealt with for ~30 years since early VGA if not before.

As said try a different cable, make sure the external monitor output on the laptop is turned on (IIRC some need it to be enabled), try a different port on the monitor and make sure the monitor is set to scale up the input if it's below 1440.

I hooked up an ancient videocard to a 4k tv without an issue, so a laptop to a gaming monitor should be fine.

skyripper · 28 Sep 2023 at 19:35

I assume you're using Windows+P and enabling the other monitor... ?

We had big issues with my wife's PC and her new monitor until I binned the included cable for an Amazon special

Ernie · 28 Sep 2023 at 21:37

Thanks for responses.

Yes, windows + P then selected extended - advanced settings tells me exactly what the monitor is. So detection is working fine, it's just not displaying properly. I also set the monitor menu manually to input HDMI.

Based on above, that it should work, I'll try a couple more cables tomorrow.