How to I connect 2 external monitors to a Dell Inspiron 7373

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@DAllein wrote:

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@MerrillP wrote:

I am wondering what the best way for connecting these to my laptop is, as it only comes with one HDMI port?

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The Best way - is NOT to do it.

 

But I guess you came here not for such an answer.

So the answer depends on the goal you wish to achieve. Displaying a semi-static Excel screen on a second monitor is one thing, doing some live photo\video editing is another, playing movies and games - is the third…

For the first you might get away with a simple USB->HDMI dongle, for the second you may try buying some active HDMI->DP adapter and then 1) buying additionally something like Matrox DualHead2Go... or 2) You already have DP Monitors which support daisy-chaining… and you will probably need to perform some kind of ritual or even religious sacrifice for some Higher entity to force all of this to work… the third option is out of question entirely.

 

Though if you have unlimited budget - buy another laptop with either a pair of video ports or with a proper docking-station support. 

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There's no such thing as an active HDMI to DP adapter.  There are DP to HDMI adapters because a DisplayPort source signal can be converted to HDMI, either by a source that supports DP++ (Dual Mode DisplayPort) or by an active adapter -- but there are no adapters that can take an HDMI source signal and convert it to DisplayPort.

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@MerrillP wrote:

Hello! I recently purchased a Dell Inspiron 13 inch 7373 2-in-1 laptop for work, and I need to connect two external monitors to it, both of which use HDMI connections. I am wondering what the best way for connecting these to my laptop is, as it only comes with one HDMI port?

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Unfortunately the person who replied first didn't quite know what he was talking about.  Your system has a USB-C port that supports DisplayPort video output, which that person didn't even bother to mention.  So the cheapest solution would be to simply buy a USB-C to HDMI adapter (or cable) for one display and then connect the other display straight to the HDMI port.  Using USB-C to HDMI does not introduce the drawbacks that USB-A ("regular USB") to HDMI adapters do, because USB-C includes a native GPU output, whereas USB-A solutions do not.

check out the plugable docking products. I have a 7378 with a USB-c  port on the side. I bought the USB-C Docking station & with works great with 2 monitors both HDMI. Very Pleased.

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@Biker 2017 wrote:

check out the plugable docking products. I have a 7378 with a USB-c  port on the side. I bought the USB-C Docking station & with works great with 2 monitors both HDMI. Very Pleased.

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What USB-C Docking Station are you using?  I purchased a USB-C Docking station and can not get it to work with my 7378.

I have a Dell 3567 and 2 Dell U2412M monitors. How do I hook them up so that the 2 monitors show different screens. What cables and in what configuration do they need to be hooked up in?

@Stan the Man 2  I forgot to add to my reply above that since your system has an HDMI output but the U2412M doesn't have an HDMI input, the easiest way to deal with that is to get an HDMI to DVI cable, or else an HDMI cable plus a female HDMI to male DVI adapter.  If you pick a DisplayLink adapter that uses an HDMI output per my earlier post, then you can use the same type of cable there as well.

@Stan the Man 2  I'm going to assume you have an Inspiron 3567 since this is the Inspiron section of the forum, but fyi it's always a good idea to include the model line name because Dell sometimes uses the same model numbers in different model lines, and those systems might have very different hardware.

But it appears that the Inspiron 3567 only has a single HDMI output.  HDMI doesn't allow running multiple independent displays from a single output, so the only way to add another external display would be by using an adapter that relied on "indirect display" technology such as DisplayLink.  They plug into a USB port and give you a display output (e.g. VGA, DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort).  If you go to their Product page here and select "DisplayLink USB adapters", you'll see a few options, each with links for where to buy them depending on what country you're in.  Be aware however that a) DisplayLink adapters require DisplayLink software to be installed in order to function, which you can get from DisplayLink.com, and b) the way DisplayLink works introduces some drawbacks that might affect your use case.  I wrote about those in detail in the post marked as the answer in this thread.  If they don't affect you, then you should be happy with this solution.  If they might, then you might still decide that having another external display is better than not having one, but you'll at least know what might happen.

Follow up. i have an an older inspiron 7010 in which i added one monitor via HDMI  and just bought a converter cable to use the VGA oulet for a second monitor which will be a total of 3 including the labtop.  When in the display screen with windows it shows all 3 screens but will not detect the newly installed monitor. I was able to test the convertable cable and confirmed the new monitor is working. How do i get all 3 screens running with a use case of displaying unique content? 

thanks

RD

@conciergeconnect  If each external display works on its own but you can't use both of them at the same time, the it's possible that the HDMI and VGA outputs on that system share a common internal GPU output, which would prevent them from being used together.  You could try updating your BIOS and GPU drivers just in case this is some sort of glitch, but it's possible that it's a hardware limitation.  But I don't know for sure since I don't have any personal experience with that system.