How to Connect Two Monitors to a Laptop via HDMI
Most people find one display to be enough because their work isn’t complicated.
However, when you advance to more complex work such as content creation and video editing, you realize that having one display is a bit restrictive.
Fortunately, connecting a laptop to two displays or even four isn’t that hard.
The benefits of connecting your laptop to external displays can be immense, allowing you to organize your tasks and workflow in ways you couldn’t manage with one display.
You can connect your PC to external displays in a couple of ways, such as extending the display, using the VGA port and using the HDMI port.
For this review, we will focus on connecting a laptop to two monitors via the HDMI port.
If you have one of the newer sleek laptops, you might find that your laptop doesn’t have an HDMI port.
But no need to panic; we will also look at how to use HDMI adapters on laptops without native HDMI ports and get your dual display setup up and running.
The Steps for Connecting Two Displays to A Laptop Via HDMI Are as Follows
Check The Ports Available On Your Laptop
Before shoving HDMI cables into ports in the back or side of your laptop, pause and closely look at those ports and see if one of them is an HDMI port.
Most laptops nowadays have HDMI ports, while a few others don’t.
You might mistake a DisplayPort for HDMI because they resemble each other. Other ports found on laptops without an HDMI port include DVI, Thunderbolt, and VGA.
So ensure that your laptop has an HDMI; otherwise, you’ll need an adapter to convert your ports to HDMI.
Confirm Your Laptop’s Graphics Card Supports Dual Displays
You need to ascertain that your laptop’s graphics card supports dual displays. All you need to do is get the name of your graphics card and do an online search.
1. To do this, right-click on the Windows Start button
2. Then click on the ‘Device Manager’ tab
How to Connect Two Monitors to a Laptop HDMI
3. Next, expand the ‘Display Adapters’ option
4. At this point, you’ll see the name of your graphics card
How to Connect Two Monitors to a Laptop HDMI
5. For our case, you can see its Intel UHD graphics which support a dual display setup. But, if you’re not sure, note down the name of your graphics card and enter the name into a browser search bar followed by ‘multi-monitor’ or ‘multi-display.’
How to connect two monitors to a laptop with one HDMI port?
Now that you’ve confirmed your laptop supports dual displays, you can connect two displays using an HDMI splitter.
Most laptops come as standard with one HDMI port. So if your laptop came with one HDMI then you’ll need an HDMI splitter to connect two displays.
To do this, connect the splitter to the HDMI port on your laptop, then connect two HDMI cables to the splitter and then connect the same HDMI cables to both your displays.
Windows 10
When you connect external displays to your laptop, Windows will automatically detect both monitors. Once you connect the screens, they will go black and might flicker a bit.
1. Once the displays stop flickering, right-click on an empty part on your laptop’s home screen, and a drop-down menu will appear.
2. Next, click on ‘Display Settings’
How to Connect Two Monitors to a Laptop HDMI
3. Then scroll down to the ‘Multiple Displays’ tab
How to Connect Two Monitors to a Laptop
4. Click on the drop-down menu and choose the ‘Extend these displays’ option
5. Finally, click on ‘Keep changes’ to save the changes you’ve made.
How to Connect Two Monitors to a Laptop HDMI
Windows 7 and 8
When you connect external displays to your laptop, Windows will automatically detect both monitors. Once you connect the screens, they will go black and might flicker a bit.
1. Once the displays stop flickering, right-click on an empty part on your laptop’s home screen, and a drop-down menu will appear
2. Next, click on ‘Screen resolution.’
How to Connect Two Monitors to a Laptop HDMI
3. Click on ‘Display Mode.’ You will see three displays labeled 1, 2, and 3. display 1 is your laptop’s screen, and displays 2 and 3 are the external displays.
4. To add these displays on your laptop, click on display 2 and then click the drop-down menu under ‘Multiple Displays’ and select the ‘Extend desktop to this display option. Repeat this process to configure display 3.
5. Finally, click on ‘Apply’ to complete the process. Now you can use both external monitors as well as the display on your laptop.
How to Connect Two Monitors to a Laptop HDMI
Final Thought
To sum it all up, now you know how to bring a dual display setup to life using the native HDMI port on your laptop.
However, ensure that your laptop supports a dual display setup and your displays have HDMI ports, or your setup will involve too many cables and splitters.