Latitude E6400 DisplayPort and multiple monitors

hi there, this is what i'm trying to do as well. i see you didn't get any responses to help you, have you managed to find a solution?

hi there, this is what i'm trying to do as well. i see you didn't get any responses to help you, have you managed to find a solution?

No didn't get any response but another forum discussion hinted that the chip set in the E6400  would be unable to cope with what i wanted to do. I ended up buying a USB display adapter to acheive what I wanted. It works really well. cost round US$52. The one I purchased has a dvi connection but could also be adapted to HDMI and VGI.You should be able to google it up.

Using the adapter I run two external 19" monitors one in portrait mode the other in landscape with the laptop screen to the left of the portrait monitor and below the landscape monitor. This is dictated by my deskspace a better configuration may be to have them side by side then you can use something like multimon or ultramon to flip windows from screen to screen. Multimon doesn't like my monitor arrangement but perhaps the commercial version of ultramon may be ok but I am reluctant to spend the money only to discover it will not.

Cheers

M

hi

I just got two external monitors to work. My spec LatitudeE6400 with Nvidia 160m Quadro graphics with Win XP Pro 32bit.

Monitor one: digital output via display port

Monitor two: VGA output via VGA port on the laptop. No docking unit is required.

What was required is to have the latest NVIDIA settings manager (download thru Dell). It does not work through Display Settings on Win XP Pro. Don;t know about Win7.

Very convenient: thru the Nvidia settings you can toggle between any two display (out of the three). The third is of course the laptop LCD. Each monitor can be rotated /adjusted independently thru the same manager. I don;t see a way for 3 monitors to work at the same time without an external display adapter via say USB2.0

Cheers,

slimjimlim

I posted essentially the same question over a week ago, and the last time I checked I had received no answers. I've got a port replicator with two DVI connectors, but the second one is non-functional after POST.

As I understand it, the computer should operate in a monitor+built-in configuration when the case is open, and a dual monitor configuration when the case is closed. In my experience, though, it doesn't. So far my attempts to find out why (or to figure it out myself) have hit a wall.

I am quite sure that the machine will not support three monitors; the second monitor and the laptop's LCD are mutually exclusive.

What kind of performance do you get from the USB adapter? I've never used one, but I'd expect the data transfer rate to be much slower than DVI. The maximum data rate of DVI is about three times that of USB 2.0 (1.65 Gb/sec versus 480 Mb/sec). Also, video channels are designed for maximum-speed transfer to a single device, and USB is not.

Using NVIDIA Desktop Manager (taskbar utility), I can toggle between any 2 of the 3 monitors with the case open. Didn;t even know about the case closed setting.

I've not tried the USB adapter, so can't comment further.

The VGA performance is adequate, i just keep the more grpahic intensive work on the dvi monitor.

Hm... interesting. The NVIDIA Control Panel let me set up the dual-monitor display as I wanted it. Thank you for directing my attention in that direction.

The toggling thing is not working well. I defined three profiles, one for dual monitors, one for monitor+laptop, and one for laptop alone. Loading a profile does not produce the expected results, though. When I load the dual monitor profile over the laptop-only profile the desktop is displayed on one monitor and the laptop. I have to go back to the NVIDIA Control Panel and re-select dual monitors to make it right.

Also, with the display on the two monitors (and the laptop LCD unused) the computer blanks both monitors and locks Windows when I close the laptop. When I open it again the display returns to the monitors, but I have to re-enter my password.

By control panel, you must mean the one you get through Display Settings -> Advanced ?

The toggle that I get is through the NVidia program installed task bar icon (in the tray). I have that following a clean install of the Nvidia utility. I can send you a screen shot if you'd like.

It's truly convenient. Point to tray icon, select one of the monitor display, - nView Display Settings -- DualView --- and the desired configuration.

By control panel, I mean the NVIDIA Control Panel. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I ever wrote "control panel" without qualifying it?

I wasn't aware that the N.C.P. could be placed in the system tray. I tried that, but the results weren't very good.

The program is, sadly, rather flaky. For example: my displays were set at different resolutions, and since I never want two monitors to have different resolutions, I thought the smart way to fix it would be to change the display mode from "Configured independently from each other" to "The same on both displays." I was surprised to get the display cloned, not the configuration. Apparently where the program says "configured independently" it means what I would mean if I said "displayed independently."

Then I tried to set the display mode back to "Configured independently," and was surprised when I clicked the Apply button and the program changed the display mode without the usual "revert in 15 seconds" dialog. I was even more surprised when it reverted to "clone" mode after 15 seconds without ever giving me a chance to stop it. I eventually figured out that it was displaying the dialog, but was displaying it under the main window, and I had to click an item in the task list to put the dialog on top.

Given all this, the idea of using the program every time I dock or undock the computer is unattractive. Fortunately I don't have to. I found that the computer does the right thing when I dock or undock it, whether it's running at the time or not.

The only remaining problem is the bizarre behavior when I close the case, but that's a bit of weirdness that I can live with.

you could also change what happens when the lid is closed in settings so that when you are not using you laptops internal display you don't have to sign in again