With an HP laptop, an entrepreneur can work virtually anywhere. However, the same Hewlett-Packard laptop may seem restrictive or unproductive in the office because of the relatively small screen. Of course, you can always connect an external monitor to your laptop and use two screens simultaneously to for additional screen space. If you like to open many applications or browser windows at once, though, even two screens may not be enough to avoid minimizing and maximizing programs. To obtain even more viewing real estate for your HP laptop, you can connect additional external monitors to the notebook using special video adapters.
Connect First External Monitor
Log out of Windows and power off the HP laptop if you have not already done so.
Connect the first external monitor to the white DVI or blue VGA port on the rear of the HP laptop. Some HP laptops have only one of the connector types, while high-end models may have both. If the video connector on the monitor cable does not match the Video Out connector on the rear of the laptop, connect a DVI-to-VGA adapter or VGA-to-DVI adapter to the laptop first, then connect the monitor cable to the port on the adapter.
Power on the external monitor first, then the HP laptop. Wait for the laptop to boot and log in to Windows with your username and password if prompted. After you log in to Windows, a duplicate of the desktop should appear on the external monitor. If the external monitor displays a blank screen, press Fn-F4 or Fn-F1 [depending on the model] at the same time to toggle the display the Windows desktop on both the laptop and external monitor screens.
Press Win-P on the keyboard after the Windows desktop loads. The Multi-Monitor configurator pop-up appears. Click the Extend option. Windows displays a new empty desktop screen on the external monitor.
Use the mouse to drag and drop icons or windows from the laptop display to the external monitor as needed.
Connect Second External Monitor
Open the CD/DVD drive on the HP laptop and insert the installation disc for the USB video adapter. After the installation wizard screen appears, click Setup or Install Driver. Follow the on-screen prompts to install the USB video adapter on the HP laptop and restart the computer if prompted. After restarting the laptop, the display appears on the notebook screen only. However, as soon as Windows loads, the display appears on both the laptop screen and the first external monitor
Plug the USB video adapter into an empty USB port on the HP laptop. Wait a few seconds for Windows to detect and initialize the video adapter using the driver you installed from the disc.
Connect the monitor cable from the second external monitor to the video port on the USB video adapter. If the connectors do not match, use the adapter plug that comes with the video adapter to match the connector on the monitor cable. Power on the second external monitor.
Press Win-P to refresh the display screens and launch the Multi-Monitor configurator pop-up window. Click the Extend option. Windows displays yet another blank desktop screen on the second external monitor. Drag and drop windows or icons between the laptop display and two external monitors as needed.
References
Tips
- By installing multiple USB video adapters, you can connect additional external monitors to your HP laptop. Depending on the speed of the laptop and the number of available USB ports, you can usually connect four to six external monitors before decreased performance becomes an issue.
Warnings
- USB video adapters allow you to connect additional monitors to a desktop or laptop computer quickly and easily. However, monitors connected to some USB video adapter may not display images at maximum resolution. While some high-end USB video adapter support resolutions up 1920 x 1080 pixels, less-expensive models often support a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels.
Writer Bio
Jeff Grundy has been writing computer-related articles and tutorials since 1995. Since that time, Grundy has written many guides to using various applications that are published on numerous how-to and tutorial sites. Born and raised in South Georgia, Grundy holds a Master of Science degree in mathematics from the Georgia Institute of Technology.