Switch (for monitor) not working with new laptop?

DD265

Struggling to find the answer on google for my specific issue. I've got two monitors at home, and one of them is plugged into a switch. One input is my PC, and the other cable gets plugged into my work laptop.

I got a new work laptop, and can't get any picture on the second monitor. The laptop does detect it and will happily allow the cursor to disappear off to the side or move windows across when it's connected. The monitor itself has a solid red light indicating that power is on and it has input, but the screen remains black.

If I plug the HDMI cable for the monitor directly into the laptop (i.e. bypassing the switch) then it works fine. If I plug the monitor into the switch and turn on my PC, my PC has no issues getting a picture on both monitors. Here's where it gets weirder - if my PC and laptop are both on, and both connected to the switch, but the switch is set to input from the laptop, I get a display on the external monitor. If I shut the PC down, the external monitor screen goes black again. I still have my old work laptop, and this works fine.

The monitor is an LG Flatron W2043S and the laptop is a Lenovo Thinkpad T480s running an up to date version of Windows 10. The intention would be to use both the laptop display and the external monitor.

I was thinking I'd disconnect and reconnect all the cables, and see if there's an update for the laptop display driver, any other ideas?

emptybox

Perhaps you could say which HDMI switch you have.

If it's one that requires power through HDMI, it may be that your new laptop isn't supplying enough.

I have one of these sort of switches on my TV - www.amazon.co.uk/GANA-Switcher-Splitter
And it works fine with my set top boxes, but not with my Amazon Fire TV stick, presumably because of the power issue.

DD265

D'oh sorry!

It's a Tecknet one: http://www.tecknet.co.uk/hdmi03.html

Apparently (and I had obviously forgotten this) it can take power via DC 5V, so if I find a cable and plug it in then I might be sorted. Cheers!

emptybox

DD265 wrote: »

D'oh sorry!

It's a Tecknet one: http://www.tecknet.co.uk/hdmi03.html

Apparently (and I had obviously forgotten this) it can take power via DC 5V, so if I find a cable and plug it in then I might be sorted. Cheers!

Yeah, see if you can find an old mobile phone charger or similar, with the correct plug, to save you buying anything. Just in case it's an HDMI handshaking issue rather than power.