Connecting two screens through docking station

casper04

10/30/23, 9:43 AM

I have two Quad HD screens (a Philips PHL272S4L and a Dell U2722D) and a Dell WD19S 180W docking station. I want to connect those screens to my work laptop through the docking station. My work laptop is a Dell Precision 3551 running Ubuntu 22.04.

I've tried different setups, s.a. daisy chaining the screens, and connecting them both to the docking station on different and the same video ports (HDMI and DP), but nothing works. When I connect the docking station, one of the screens stays black. When I then restart the laptop, both screens show up, but with the resolution completely wrong (looks like 200% scaling) and half of the screen falling off. However, when I take an HDMI cable and connect the Philips screen directly to my laptop, while connecting the Dell screen through the docking station, the screens do work.

That suggests that the docking station is the problem. However, it should be able to handle it, AND, I also have a laptop for private use (a Lenovo P1 Gen 3) running Windows, on which the setup with the 2 screens connected to the docking station does work. So Ubuntu (or the Dell laptop, but that seems unlikely to me) seems to be the problem, but I'm not sure how to fix it. I tried installing Nvidia drivers but that didn't help. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

0 + 7

multiple-monitors

dell

screen

docking

22.04

David

10/30/23, 9:45 AM

Sounds like the laptop that can not use both screens may just not have the signal strength.

casper04

11/1/23, 6:19 PM

What do you mean with signal strength?

David

11/2/23, 6:09 AM

Not enough power from the GPU running up the cables. Not all GPU can handle 2 screens at once and it would also depend on the type of screens.

casper04

11/3/23, 7:24 AM

But the second screen does work if I connect it directly to the laptop (while the first screen is connected through the docking station), so I don't think the laptop is the problem. Also since it's a relatively high-end laptop.

David

11/3/23, 7:27 AM

So still 2 screens one direct one docking station. What have you changed?

casper04

11/5/23, 9:46 AM

What do you mean?

David

11/5/23, 9:57 AM

The signal is still coming off the the laptop GPU and powering 2 screens.

Elon Musk

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EN: Connecting two screens through docking station

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