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April 30th, 2020 01:00

Latitude 5401 and WD19 dock - Screen maximal resolution when lid closed

Hello, I have Latitude 5401, WD19 docking station and 2 external monitors - one with Full HD resolution and second with 2k, both are connected through displayport. When the lid of laptop is open I can change resolution of bigger monitor to maximum (2k), but when the lid is closed, resolution changes to 1920x1080  and I cant choose bigger one. 
How can I get my external monitor to keep its resolution setting to 2k when I close the lap top lid?

Thank you! 

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14K Posts

April 30th, 2020 06:00

@Immortall  I'm not sure why the lid is making a difference here, but fyi if you're able to get QHD (correct term for 2K) and FHD running simultaneously, at least one of them will be running at a refresh rate below the standard 60 Hz.  The Latitude 5401 only supports DisplayPort HBR2 over USB-C, and as you'll see if you check the WD19's manual on support.dell.com, with that type of system you can only run dual displays up to 1080p each (technically 1920x1200, but Dell seems not to acknowledge that such displays exist anymore).  The ability to run dual displays up to QHD through a WD19 requires a system that supports DisplayPort HBR3 over USB-C, which the GPU in that system doesn't support.  So that's probably why your QHD display is running at FHD when the lid closed.

But since the Latitude 5401 comes with Thunderbolt 3, you could fix this by simply getting a WD19TB, which can tap into 4x more display bandwidth than the regular WD19 with your system and therefore can run dual displays up to 4K 60 Hz each or triple displays up to QHD 60 Hz each.

(Side note about "2K resolution": That is a dangerous term to use because so many people use it incorrectly, including you in this case, and sometimes the difference can matter for technical reasons, including in this case. 2K resolution is technically a film resolution of 2048x1080, but when used to refer to "consumer" resolutions, it actually refers to the nearest and slightly lower consumer equivalent, which is 1920x1080, aka Full HD or 1080p -- because 1920 is very close to 2000, i.e. 2K, horizontal pixels. Similarly, 4K is also technically a film resolution of 4096x2160 pixels, but when used in the consumer world refers to the slightly lower resolution of 3840x2160, aka Ultra HD or 2160p. The resolution you have is rightfully called 1440p or QHD -- or I guess you could call it 2.5K, but nobody does -- and using either of those terms would make it much clearer to everyone what you're talking about. The reason it can matter is because the bandwidth difference between 1080p and 1440p displays affects available display configurations in certain setups. For example, you had just said you had "dual 2K displays" and they weren't working properly, then if they're actually FHD that should be possible -- but dual QHD would not be possible.  But if you say "2K" meaning one resolution and someone else assumed you meant the other, you could end up going down the wrong path on troubleshooting for a while.  I only figured you meant QHD here because you differentiated from FHD.  QHD is only one extra character to type compared to 2K, but it adds a lot of disambiguation value.)

6 Posts

April 30th, 2020 04:00

I dont want to pretend I know why is it happening, but there is possible workaround:

In BIOS, there should be setting to disable turning off integrated lcd when the lid is closed. Or, it might not be directly accessible from BIOS, but it deffinitely is accessible from Dell Command Configure application for linux on my 5401.

This does not address the root cause of your issue, but it deffinitely worked for me on linux, when xserver was messing up my screen positions everytime I closed the lid.

 

$ sudo cctk -h --LidSwitch
LidSwitch: Enables or disables the lid switch functions.
Enabled - OS setting determines the display behavior when lid is closed.
Disabled - Display will not be affected when lid is closed.

Arguments: Enabled+ | Disabled+

Note : + Indicates the arguments supported in the current machine.

 

 

 

2 Posts

May 3rd, 2020 23:00

@jphughan Thanks you for the solution, I will discuss it with the boss and we may buy new docking station.

About 2K - Yeah, you are right, sorry about that  

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