@Fireman101 Dell has made quite a few XPS laptops over the years, and they don’t all have the same set of ports, so when asking questions like this it helps to specify the exact laptop model, like XPS 15 9500 or whatever, not just “XPS”. But if you have any somewhat recent XPS system, you’ll probably have at least one USB-C port, in which case the easiest way to connect the system to the display is with a USB-C to DisplayPort cable (or a USB-C to DisplayPort adapter dongle plus the DisplayPort cable that came with the display). That will get you a video signal to the display.
If you also want to use the USB ports built into the display, then you will also need to connect a separate USB cable between the display and the system. The USB 3.0 cable that comes with the display will only work if you have an XPS model that has a USB-A “regular USB” port. If your XPS only has USB-C ports, then you will need to get either a female USB-A to male USB-C adapter — make sure it supports USB 3.x, since some only support USB 2.0 — or else get a USB-B to USB-C cable, and again make sure it supports USB 3.x.
If you want video and USB data and have an XPS model that only has two USB-C ports total, then you’re going to have a problem because that will not leave any port open for charging. In that case you might want to get a USB-C to DisplayPort adapter that also has a USB-C power passthrough port, like this one. That way you’ll be able to get video, power, and USB data all running even though you only have two ports.
And just fyi, if you have an XPS system with a USB-C port, it might have been better to get a display with a USB-C input, like the P2419HC. That would have allowed you to get video, USB data, and power to charge your system all running over a single cable, and you wouldn’t have even needed to keep using your XPS power adapter in that case because the display would be providing the power (unless you have an XPS 15, in which case the P2419HC wouldn’t have supplied enough power to run it properly, but you could still have gotten video and USB on a single cable.)
Hopefully this covers whatever you’ll need, but next time it would be a lot easier if you just specified your exact laptop model.
jphughan
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14K Posts
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May 26th, 2021 20:00
@Fireman101 Dell has made quite a few XPS laptops over the years, and they don’t all have the same set of ports, so when asking questions like this it helps to specify the exact laptop model, like XPS 15 9500 or whatever, not just “XPS”. But if you have any somewhat recent XPS system, you’ll probably have at least one USB-C port, in which case the easiest way to connect the system to the display is with a USB-C to DisplayPort cable (or a USB-C to DisplayPort adapter dongle plus the DisplayPort cable that came with the display). That will get you a video signal to the display.
If you also want to use the USB ports built into the display, then you will also need to connect a separate USB cable between the display and the system. The USB 3.0 cable that comes with the display will only work if you have an XPS model that has a USB-A “regular USB” port. If your XPS only has USB-C ports, then you will need to get either a female USB-A to male USB-C adapter — make sure it supports USB 3.x, since some only support USB 2.0 — or else get a USB-B to USB-C cable, and again make sure it supports USB 3.x.
If you want video and USB data and have an XPS model that only has two USB-C ports total, then you’re going to have a problem because that will not leave any port open for charging. In that case you might want to get a USB-C to DisplayPort adapter that also has a USB-C power passthrough port, like this one. That way you’ll be able to get video, power, and USB data all running even though you only have two ports.
And just fyi, if you have an XPS system with a USB-C port, it might have been better to get a display with a USB-C input, like the P2419HC. That would have allowed you to get video, USB data, and power to charge your system all running over a single cable, and you wouldn’t have even needed to keep using your XPS power adapter in that case because the display would be providing the power (unless you have an XPS 15, in which case the P2419HC wouldn’t have supplied enough power to run it properly, but you could still have gotten video and USB on a single cable.)
Hopefully this covers whatever you’ll need, but next time it would be a lot easier if you just specified your exact laptop model.