The extra screen I used to have isn't showing up in my computer anymore.
The extra screen I used to have isn't showing up in my computer anymore.
First, this looks like something wrong with Windows 11 or my graphics card drivers. I was confused about whether to post here on Graphics and Displays or just on Windows 11. Anyway, it started about four hours ago today. My second monitor stopped working completely. I am pretty good at computers, and neither me nor my buddy—who has worked in IT for the last two years—could figure out why. For days now, I have been trying to use my laptop as a desktop by connecting an HDMI to VGA adapter (which has EDID info), along with the monitor itself. Since this is college time, I bring my laptop to class every day. Today, when I plugged in the second monitor, it did not show any video or even turn on. In Display Settings, I tried turning it on and it just didn't appear. When I unplugged it and put it back in, nothing happened. I pressed the "detect display" button but still saw no screen. At this point, I think the adapter cable died. So I plugged my Xbox 360 into the laptop, which is the only other device with an HDMI output. The monitor immediately turned on when the Xbox turned on and worked fine. Then I looked at the HDMI port on the laptop and checked the adapter to see if there were any bent pins. Both looked okay. When I plugged my laptop directly into a TV's HDMI port, it recognized the TV instantly and worked perfectly. So now the monitor is testing good, the cable is testing good, and the laptop's HDMI port is testing good. That means hardware isn't the problem at all. I restarted my computer hoping for a temporary driver glitch. Nothing happened again. I restarted it one more time and entered UEFI settings there to make sure video output would go to the HDMI port first. When I did that, the second monitor powered on and showed the startup splash screen before Windows came up. But as soon as the login screen appeared, the second monitor went dark while the main screen stayed on with my login screen. After logging in and checking settings again, it still wasn't detected. Now I'm pretty sure my drivers are messed up. I spent an hour or more uninstalling everything, reinstalling them, trying different versions of Intel Graphics panels, restarting Settings all the time, and even relaunching it many times without success. Later, I talked to my friend who came over to help. He plugged the monitor into his computer using the same adapter, but this was a different Lenovo with Windows 10 instead of Windows 11. The monitor immediately worked right away after he plugged it in. When he left, I fiddled around trying more things, and every online suggestion pointed at solutions I had already tried. Even in Safe Mode, the monitor wouldn't work, but not even on normal Windows with basic drivers. I tried bootlogging to figure out what was happening, but my computer is too fast to tell me anything useful. To summarize: All the hardware seems fine. This problem started today. It feels like a driver or software issue, but it's definitely not because of Intel graphics drivers since it keeps happening even without them. I know I could easily get another monitor for sure, but this one was free and the only money I spent on the adapter was $7. It is an old CRT that still works at 80 Hz at my resolution. Also, since this feels like a software glitch, I am worried it might happen to any other monitor later just like it did with this one. Finally, I forgot to mention: The second monitor does not even show up in Device Manager. It is nowhere to be found as either a working device or a broken one.
Check your Reliability History and Event Viewer for any error codes, warnings, or event messages that happened right before or at the time the monitor went down. Also, what's with that $7 adapter? Can you try running some other tests without using it if possible?
Thanks so much! I'm going to do that today. My adaptor worked well on a friend's computer and my old Xbox 360. Maybe I'll swap it out next time. To get a video signal right now, I just need my laptop and the Xbox; both only have HDMI ports, not something else like DisplayPort or Thunderbolt.