Inspiron 5548 logs out every time I add/remove a second monitor

I just received my dell inspiron 5548 with the exact same specs as yours. I too am having this issue and dell technical support has in no way helped me. Anytime i plug or unplug the external monitor the computer freezes or logs out, and when i log back in all of my programs have been closed and the data has been lost. 

I have uninstalled and re-installed all video drivers, reset my computer multiple times, tried 3 different hdmi cables and monitors with no luck. Dell tech support has looked over my computer several times and are now suggesting i send it in for a new one.

I have found that if i perform a system reset that the issue will go away for a short time, but will immediately return after a couple of hours. Pretty disappointing for a computer that costs near 1000$

Im at a loss as to what to do next, i doubt this is a hardware issue and I dont want to waste my time waiting another 3 weeks for them to send me another laptop that wont work.

I've had similar experiences with tech support.  I've also updated the BIOS and reinstalled both the Intel integrated and AMD video drivers with no luck.  I'm inclined to think it's a problem with one of the graphics cards and its drivers, or at worse a hardware incompatibility.

One of my colleagues has the same model laptop ordered at the same time with the same issue, so I wonder why this issue seems to be fairly common with no solution.

I have done those things as well. Dell is telling my that they want to send me a new system but, I highly doubt that will fix the issue. Its almost worth me living with the inconvenience than to send it back.

It seems that what is happening is that windows explorer.exe crashes when a monitor is plugged in or unplugged. I can get mine to work if I plug the screen in before i log on or before i open up to desktop from the windows 8 start screen. But once windows explore has started if I try to make a change the computer will log off after it crashes. 

Its also weird that when I reset the system that the monitor functionality works for a short while. That makes me think that its not a hardware issue. 

Has anyone else had issues with anything like this??? Still having to sign out before i can plug or unplug my monitor.

I have a brand new Inspiron 7548 with Intel HD5500 and this problem is happening to me as well.  When I unplug the HDMI cable to my brand new external Dell S2415H monitor all my open programs are closed and I am logged off.  Same result when I plug in the monitor.  Extremely annoying.  Has to be a driver issue.  Dell, please acknowledge it so we aren't all guessing.

Dell Tech Support put me in contact with one of their "Technical Specialists" after weeks of talking to regular customer support. All they had me do was disable VPN Connectivity in the BIOS Settings and change my screen resolution a couple of times. Still no real results and I haven't heard back from them in several days. 

I agree. This has to be a driver issue. Especially if it is happening across multiple platforms and not just the 5000 series. Unless the Intel HD5500 graphics cards are faulty. I have noticed that if I change settings in my Intel Graphics Control Panel that it will sometimes freeze then as well. So it probably has something to do with the driver for that. Plus the Intel graphics is what is running the desktop and other non intensive apps and I don't think the amd graphics card is to blame.

Thanks for the response Kevin. Dell had me go through these exact steps as you have described above multiple times with no luck. Every time they would uninstall the drivers the computer would crash. Once I would restart the computer the drivers would be gone, but when we tried to re install them the computer would crash as well. I had to re install windows 4 times since I got this computer because they kept repeating that step and it was the only way to get my drivers back on the computer.

I would also be worried about it all of a sudden working. This also happened to me a couple of times after I would re install windows, but after a little bit of time it would go right back to the same old problems. If you have the opportunity to exchange the laptop without waiting weeks for a new one to be shipped I would try that out. Although most likely this is a software issue so a new device wont fix the problem. 

I sure hope dell is working on a solution to this problem. These computer aren't cheap compared to some and you think in this price range there wouldn't be such a big issue like this one...

I purchased the laptop 2 weeks ago and was having the issue as well. I talked to a great Tech Support guy 2 days ago named Landerbert who deleted my Intel drivers and was trying to reinstall them. Every time he tried to delete or reinstall them, it was crash my windows. By the end of the call, he wanted to reinstall my Windows but this is my work computer so I didnt have the time to do that. Because I am able to return the laptop within 30 days, we agreed I will just buy another one and see if the issue occurs on the new machine. So the next day, I came to work expecting to buy one on my lunch break. I turn on my laptop, plug in the monitor and BOOM, it works. No windows crash. I was amazed, because the night before the issue was still happening. I tried two monitors, also restarted my computer just to ensure the issue was gone. To this minute I still have not see the issue occur and am praying it doesn't come back. Good luck to all, I hope you're able to fix it on yours.

I think that the problem is the Intel 5500 graphics. Dell needs to look into their drivers for the Intel chipset. Especially since this is not working across multiple series of laptops.

I put in an email support ticket with a link to this posting this morning.  I'm still within the 30day purchase window with about 2 weeks to go.  I hope I don't have to go the exchange route, what a hassle.  More so because I swapped out the 1TB drive for an SSD and got everything transferred and loaded and set up.  My 7000 series only has the Intel HD5500 chipset, I don't have the AMD/Radeon graphics card.

Check this out from Intel's release notes for the latest HD5500 driver (below):

communities.intel.com/.../59216

I've found that most of the time my computer will go to a black screen rather than the windows start screen. If I leave it sit on the black screen for about 10-15 minutes it will eventually appear on the log off screen. Other times it goes immediately to the log off screen. But once it returns to the log off screen all of my application that were open are gone.

Just so you are all aware, I am having the same issue as well on an Inspiron 15. Glad to know that I am not alone. Like many of you, this is my work laptop and I cannot afford to send this laptop back or reinstall Windows. I agree that this is likely an issue the Intel HD Graphics card. Interesting side note - this does not happen when I use an HDMI to DVI converter. Please let me know if anyone comes up with a solution.

It seems, as of right now, that I may have fixed the problem for my laptop, which appears to be an issue with the Intel integrated graphics driver.

I uninstalled the Intel video driver that was already present on the laptop (dated Nov 2014), which led to the screen spazzing out as usual and logging out before I could restart it. After a couple delays I logged back in to find it had apparently updated the driver to a newer version 10.18.14.4156 (dated 3/3/15) which appeared to fix the display problem.  So far I've restarted it a couple times and the issue hasn't come up again.

The un/re-installation process I did was kindof weird, but I tried it a different way with my co-worker's laptop (same model, same issue).  I just uninstalled the Intel driver and restarted the PC before it logged out.  At this point, the driver was completely uninstalled and I just told it to update the driver, which reinstalled the newer version.

Hope that helps some of y'all!