Multiple monitors on a laptop

Psycrow

Jan 22, 2018 18:29

I want to know how to rig my my 3 monitor setup so that two of the monitors can be switched to my laptop, I've only found ways to do this with one monitor and not sure if what I want to do is possible

Cheers, wasn't sure of the etiquette

FML Cat

And how secure that SIM card factor is depends on whether you protect your SIM card with a PIN, and whether your phone is protected with a PIN when the SIM is unlocked

And how generous your network is at handing out PIN unblock codes or replacement SIMs

allquixotic

@Psycrow so you have three monitors connected to a desktop, and you want to be able to toggle 2 out of the 3 to your laptop?

Psycrow

Yup, I use 2 monitors at work and when I work from home I'd like to be able to keep the same screen config

allquixotic

@Psycrow depending on your hardware this may not be possible, or you may have to purchase an additional box, but the best technology for doing this is DisplayPort. HDMI might be possible, DVI might be possible, and VGA is going to be ugh and will probably require purchase of an expensive converter box

That Brazilian Guy

@Psycrow Not sure if what you want is similar to this: howtogeek.com/306237/…

allquixotic

Jan 22, 2018 18:33

you'd have to tell me exactly which ports you have on your laptop, and what outputs your monitors have

in the simplest case, you have two monitor ports of some kind on your laptop (for example, DisplayPort and DVI, or VGA and HDMI, or two DisplayPort, or a ThunderBolt 3 (supports DisplayPort) and another DisplayPort or TB3 port...

if your monitors and your laptop both support DisplayPort 1.2 daisy chaining you can connect the monitors to each other like this and plug a single cable to your laptop - quite nice

Psycrow

Only one output, but I'm planning on getting a universal laptop dock which supports VGA and DVI I think

allquixotic

what outputs do your monitors support, and are they all the same?

and what screen resolution are they, and what graphics card or IGP does your laptop have?

or if you can just give me an exact model number of the monitors and the laptop I could do the research

Psycrow

That's very kind of you, unfortunately I have the laptop at work right now but I could pop back into chat tomorrow

allquixotic

also, if you get a laptop dock, I'd recommend that you get one that has DisplayPort 1.2 support, if such a thing is supported by your laptop

really the ideal configuration is that you'd have:
-- Monitor 1 daisy chained into Monitor 2 via DisplayPort
-- Monitor 3 permanently plugged into your desktop PC via whatever
-- Two "output" DisplayPort cables coming out of Monitor 1: one permanently plugged into a DisplayPort port on your desktop, and the other that just hangs loose unless your laptop is there, then you plug it in when you want those monitors on your laptop, and use the "Input" switch on the monitor button panel to swap back and forth

that's about the "cleanest" setup I can think of

or I suppose if your monitors are all VGA or DVI or HDMI only (no DisplayPort), you could buy a laptop dock that has at least two ports of a compatible port, and just plug the monitors into the dock separately - but then you wouldn't be able to use your laptop with the monitors outside of the dock

but DisplayPort daisy chaining + a USB hub mostly makes traditional laptop docks obsolete and unnecessary

with ultra-modern stuff you could do a single Thunderbolt 3 cable from a monitor into your laptop that would provide (1) power to the laptop (and charging), (2) a USB hub attached to the monitor, and (3) DisplayPort 1.2 with MST (daisy chaining) for your external monitors... all in one cable to your laptop

that's the future though, and you'd be pretty lucky to have that sort of support on your monitors and your laptop without having planned it that way

Psycrow

Yeah that sounds ideal, but my work laptop is probably 3 years old now and the monitors not high end enough for that kind of tech

Monitors are all Acer K24HL

allquixotic

Jan 22, 2018 18:43

a 3 year old laptop probably has DisplayPort 1.2 with MST support though. I also have a 3 year old laptop for work, and it has it.

Psycrow

Laptop is a Lenovo Thinkpad but I don't know the exact model

allquixotic

I was worried it was like 5+ years old, in which case it might not have it

@Psycrow ah, yeah, pretty much independently of what model it is, a Thinkpad released in ~2014 would definitely support DisplayPort 1.2 with MST, almost certainly

(though, probably not ThunderBolt 3, so you'd still need to use your power brick)

Psycrow

Well, who knows if it was new when they gave them too us, might have been in a warehouse for a while knowing my employer 😛

allquixotic

ah, true

Psycrow

But yeah, the monitors only support DVI and VGA unfortunately, not the newest but I did get all 3 for £150 so I get what I paid for I suppose

allquixotic

Jan 22, 2018 18:46

well that throws DisplayPort out the window... you're going to need a laptop dock then, make sure you get one that's compatible, and you can just plug your monitors straight into the dock

the way you'd switch back and forth is, say, if your monitors are plugged into your desktop PC via DVI, you'd have them also connected via VGA to your laptop dock at the same time

then fiddle with the buttons on the bottom of the monitor to swap input when you want to change it

not too bad, all in all, except for the desk space the dock takes up when your laptop isn't home

Psycrow

Yeah that seems like the route I'll have to take

allquixotic

if the dock annoys you too much, consider buying monitors that support DisplayPort daisy chaining, depending on the size and quality of monitor you can find them around the $100 USD price point, probably less in GBP

Psycrow

My current alternative is to have one monitor permanently connected to the pc, one on a kvm switch to the laptop dock, and one connected permanently to the dock

So at most have 2 monitors connected, but never be able to have 3 in use at once

allquixotic

or get a KVM switch that supports 2 monitors; those exist

not sure about VGA but I'd go with DVI if possible

Psycrow

Yeah that might be an idea for the future, just bought my first house so excess spending money is a but thin on the ground

That Brazilian Guy

Jan 22, 2018 18:50

@Psycrow Congrats!

allquixotic

startech.com/Server-Management/KVM-Switches/…

Psycrow

Oh really? I've only seen 1monitor switches, I'll have another lool

@ThatBrazilianGuy thanks!

allquixotic

hmm, if your monitors only have 1 x DVI and 1 x VGA output, you'd have to get VGA to DVI converters or adapters for that

Psycrow

@allquixotic that actually looks perfect, if only it wasn't $420, something to save for though!

allquixotic

see, this sort of thing is exactly the kind of headache that DisplayPort 1.2 daisy chaining and (even better) Thunderbolt 3 are trying to address

that's probably over 3-4 kilograms of hardware and cabling (very thick cables) for a job that Thunderbolt 3 could do with one single cable

or even one DisplayPort cable, but those are bigger

Psycrow

Jan 22, 2018 18:53

Maybe I'll wait a bit longer and upgrade to better monitors then

3 DisplayPort monitors would do the trick?

allquixotic

I'd bet $10 (or 10 GBP, whatever) that your Thinkpad supports DisplayPort with MST

and yeah, you could even daisy chain all three monitors together and use them all simultaneously with your laptop, if you wanted to (or not)

either way you're going to have to buy things to solve this project, and I'm not actually sure that the cabling and switching and stuff you'd need for the old protocols would be cheaper at all than buying new DisplayPort monitors

and if you're super frugal you could resell your existing monitors on eBay or something

Psycrow

Yeah that's always an option

allquixotic

it depends on exactly what ports your ThinkPad has.... For example, I have a 2014 model HP laptop that has 1 x Mini-DisplayPort, 1 x HDMI, and 1 x VGA

Psycrow

I already have a single monitor kvm kicking around and was hoping I could add something to that to do the job, but this is probably better off in the long run

allquixotic

in your shoes, I could go: Monitor 1 DVI -> Mini-DP with a $5 passive converter; and Monitor 2 VGA -> VGA direct

Psycrow

Jan 22, 2018 18:57

I'll check when I'm in tomorrow, hopefully!

allquixotic

if you want to use your desktop peripherals (keyboard and mouse) with your work laptop, you could just buy a USB "KM" switch with no display support

much cheaper, simpler, smaller, lighter, and eliminates the unneeded video part which you wouldn't need if your laptop has enough output ports already

or use your existing single-monitor KVM switch (if it has USB) for free, as a "KM" switch

and don't plug any display cables into it

Psycrow

So, just to get a goal clear in my head, three DisplayPort monitors daisy chained together connected a laptop dock, and also connected to the pc (I assume they'd each need, for example, a hdmi connection or similar to the pc), and then switching can be done manually on the monitors themself

I wonder if it's possible to daisy chain the monitors together, then have a switch to change the input between the laptop and the pc

allquixotic

@Psycrow once you have them daisy chained, you'd only have to select the output on the "last" monitor -- the one monitor whose plug goes into your laptop or desktop

Psycrow

Ah I see, that makes things simpler

allquixotic

that's assuming it has two outputs... make sure you buy a model that does. It'll need a minimum of at least 3 DisplayPort ports on each monitor, or at the very least, the "last" monitor

Psycrow

Jan 22, 2018 19:08

And makes sense, wasn't thinking about how daisy chaining actually works

allquixotic

Port 1: receives video data from Monitors 2 and 3 via the daisy chain
Port 2: connected to your desktop PC (permanently)
Port 3: connected to your laptop

Psycrow

Gotcha, thanks

allquixotic

and you wouldn't need a dock in that case either

there are DisplayPort KVM switches though, and most of the newer ones support 1.2 with MST, so you would be able to flip a switch or press a button to go from desktop PC to laptop and back

not strictly necessary if your monitors have 3 DP ports

Psycrow

Well the dock let's me plug the Ethernet and peripherals in without having the cables all loose on the desk, just me trying to keep the desk a little tidy

allquixotic

and if you didn't want all three monitors on your laptop (to use your desktop at the same time, for instance), you could just not daisy chain the third monitor and leave it plugged into the PC all the time

Psycrow

Jan 22, 2018 19:10

Hmm, worth bearing in mind if I can't find 3DP monitors at a reasonable price

FML Cat

@allquixotic Do all monitors with multiple ports support daisy-chaining? I'm yet to actually use one myself with more than one DP

allquixotic

@FMLCat no; it's possible that they might have multiple displayport outputs for convenience (so you can switch them using the buttons without moving any cables), but not support MST

DP 1.2 w/ MST is roughly a 2013-2014 phenomenon in terms of when it really started to hit the market, though it seems graphics cards got it before the feature was very common on monitors themselves, and the first monitors were hella expensive

Psycrow

Unfortunately I need to head off, but thanks for all for the advice, I'm sure I'll be back soon to steal more of your computery wisdom though

Canadian Luke

Morning all

allquixotic

an example of a current model of very nice work monitor (one I have myself) with MST support is the Dell U2417H, but it looks like they sell close to 200 GBP each... you can find cheaper though

Root Access

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