XPS 13 dual monitors

Question

I have an XPS 13 and an DA300 adapter which I use for connecting my U2311HM monitor via its DisplayPort.

I am looking into purchasing an additional monitor (probably another Dell but not sure at the moment) - as far as I know I can only use one video port from the DA300 at a time (DP, HDMI and VGA).

What would be my option for connecting an additional display? Shall I have both displays working if I go for something like this?

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-adapter-usb-c-to-hdmi/apd/470-abmz/pc-accessories

Or this?

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/accessories/apd/470-acfc

jphughan · Accepted Answer

You're correct that the DA300 only supports one display at a time, in fact the plastic adhesive that you remove when you first get it shows a "1x" logo between a graphic line that spans all of the display outputs.

For the rest, the XPS 13 has had several generations, three of which had have USB-C ports that would allow use of the DA300 adapter. Fyi it's always good to specify the specific model/generation you have, but since I see your username mentions the 9370, I'll assume that's what you have. In that case, yes you could use the DA300 on one port and one of the adapters you linked on another in order to achieve dual displays -- although those are extremely expensive for what they're offering. You can find entire USB-C to HDMI or DisplayPort cables for about half that on Amazon or elsewhere. I use this one from Cable Matters. There's also a USB-C to Mini-DisplayPort cable if that's what your display requires. The HDMI cables will tend to cost more because they need to have a DisplayPort to HDMI converter chip built in, and if you go that route, for futureproofing purposes you may as well get a USB-C to HDMI 2.0 cable so that it can support up to 4K at 60 Hz. Not all USB-C to HDMI cables support HDMI 2.0 to allow that, but any USB-C to DisplayPort cable will.

Or if you want a single cable solution instead, there are a variety of options depending on your portability needs, budget, and the displays you'll be using:

- If both of the displays you'll be using support DisplayPort and at least one of them supports DisplayPort daisy-chaining by offering a DisplayPort output, then you can use a USB-C to DisplayPort (or Mini-DisplayPort) cable to connect your XPS to Display #1, then a regular DisplayPort cable to connect Display #1 to Display #2. I do this with a pair of Dell U2717D displays.

- You could buy a Thunderbolt 3 to Dual DisplayPort adapter like this one.

- You could buy a full-on dock, such as the WD15 or TB16. This has the added advantage of giving you all of the extra ports you see on the dock, plus the ability to charge your system, all from a single cable connection to your system -- but obviously it's the most expensive and least portable option. The major difference between those two dock models are that the WD15 supports dual displays only up to 1920x1200, whereas the TB16 supports dual displays up to 4K.

xps_13_9370 · Answer

Thanks very much for the detailed reply! I would go for the daisy chain option but I am going to use 23'' monitors and none of them seems to support it. I will probably go for the cheapest option (cable) and sacrifice one more thunderbolt port, I don't have many peripherals either way.

MiloTho · Answer

Hello - I have a XPS 2 in 1 running Win 10 and have it attached to the WD15. I have the 1 Dell E2417H connected to the WD15 through the Mini Video port and a 2nd E2417H connected through the HDMI port on the WD15. I have checked the monitors and all on auto select input source. I cannot get the 2nd monitor to be identified in my display settings.

I have updated my WD15 drivers

any suggestions?

jphughan · Answer

@MiloTho wrote:

Hello - I have a XPS 2 in 1 running Win 10 and have it attached to the WD15. I have the 1 Dell E2417H connected to the WD15 through the Mini Video port and a 2nd E2417H connected through the HDMI port on the WD15. I have checked the monitors and all on auto select input source. I cannot get the 2nd monitor to be identified in my display settings.

I have updated my WD15 drivers

any suggestions?

According to the E2417H product page, it only has DisplayPort and VGA inputs. If you are trying to use a DisplayPort to HDMI cable to connect the second E2417H to the WD15's HDMI output, that isn't going to work. Those cables are intended to connect a DisplayPort source to an HDMI display. They cannot be used in the other direction. You'll need to connect the second display using VGA, even though the image quality won't be quite as good. If you don't want to do that, the only way to both displays via their DisplayPort inputs would be to purchase a DisplayPort MST hub that would connect to the Mini-DisplayPort output of the WD15 and give you multiple DisplayPort outputs for displays, but those are relatively expensive. This product is one example.

MiloTho · Answer

thank you for all the help - just what I needed Milo

marty95 · Answer

I have a Dell XPS 15 9570. And I had the exact same question. Your answer is really helpful, but after reading your answer I was wondering if I could use a Dell DA300 and then use the DisplayPort of this DA300 to daisy chain to two Dell U2518D monitors?

jphughan · Answer

@marty95  in addition to my post above, you wouldn't have been able to use two U2518D displays in extend mode through a DA300 anyway because the DA300 would already have cut your available display bandwidth in half, leaving you only enough for dual 1920x1200 displays or a single 2560x1440 display.  If you had a system that provided DisplayPort 1.3 output over USB-C, then you would've had enough bandwidth even after the DA300 cut it in half, but no Intel GPUs currently on the market support anything higher than DisplayPort 1.2, though that will change when Intel's Ice Lake platform launches later this year.  I wrote a detailed post about the various operating modes of USB-C and their bandwidth and practical use impacts here if you're curious.

DELL-Chris M · Answer

The DA300 USB Type-C Mobile adapter does not support a monitor DP daisy chain.

jphughan · Answer

@marty95 wrote:Aha okay. And are you sure that you have MST enabled on those Dell monitors? Because by default this is disabled and then windows indeed only sees one monitor and both monitor show the same display content. @marty95  yes I'm sure because my wife uses this daisy-chained setup every day in her home office through a WD15. :)

marty95 · Answer

Aha okay. And are you sure that you have MST enabled on those Dell monitors? Because by default this is disabled and then windows indeed only sees one monitor and both monitor show the same display content.

jphughan · Answer

@marty95 wrote:

I have a Dell XPS 15 9570. And I had the exact same question. Your answer is really helpful, but after reading your answer I was wondering if I could use a Dell DA300 and then use the DisplayPort of this DA300 to daisy chain to two Dell U2518D monitors?

@marty95I wasn't optimistic about this, but I tested it with my DA300 and daisy-chained dual Dell U2415 displays. Both displays in the chain are treated as a single display, and it's not because I had my settings in mirror mode. When I set up extend mode, my built-in panel was treated separately, but Windows only showed a single external display. That external display content was actually shown on both physical displays, but that's likely not what you want. I also got some weird display artifacts, like static flashing on and off, although I didn't spend any time debugging that. Anyhow, it appears that the DA300 doesn't support even passing an MST signal through. It definitely doesn't act as an MST hub because despite having multiple video output ports, you can only use one output at a time.

marty95 · Answer

Does the ' Dell Adapter- USB-C to DisplayPort ' support DP daisy chain?

jphughan · Answer

@marty95 wrote: Does the ' Dell Adapter- USB-C to DisplayPort ' support DP daisy chain? @marty95  if you're talking about this, then yes it would because it's a passive adapter, although that's pretty steep for an adapter.  There are less expensive third-party options that would work just as well.  I personally just have a USB-C to DisplayPort cable, specifically this one.

AmyC2 · Answer

Hi!

I have a 9370 xps 13 that i have been trying to hook up to 2 monitors, both using on hdmi. I have two hdmi to usbc adaptors but the could not get the monitors to extend the displays successfully. I always get the

1|2 3

when the monitors are attached. I know both the adaptors work on another machine. I have also tried various adaptors - hubs, brands, etc with no luck. I haven't tried a 2 hdmi hub though. The monitors are LGs, running on default settings. There is a vga option on the monitors as well.

Any ideas to get the extended displays to work?

Thank you-

Amy

jphughan · Answer

@AmyC2 wrote:

Hi!

I have a 9370 xps 13 that i have been trying to hook up to 2 monitors, both using on hdmi. I have two hdmi to usbc adaptors but the could not get the monitors to extend the displays successfully. I always get the

1|2 3

when the monitors are attached. I know both the adaptors work on another machine. I have also tried various adaptors - hubs, brands, etc with no luck. I haven't tried a 2 hdmi hub though. The monitors are LGs, running on default settings. There is a vga option on the monitors as well.

Any ideas to get the extended displays to work?

Thank you-

Amy

@AmyC2 sorry if this sounds simplistic, but have you manually forced the displays into Extend Mode? Windows when installed on laptops defaults to using displays in mirror mode (on desktop PCs, it defaults to Extend mode), and in that case you need to select the display that shows up as "1 | 2" and then scroll down the Display Settings area to select "Extend" rather than "Duplicate". Another possible shortcut you can use is holding down the Windows key and pressing "P" (for Project), which will pop up an overlay allowing you to cycle between Extend, Duplicate, etc.

A dual HDMI hub definitely won't work because HDMI outputs don't support driving multiple independent displays from a single output. Only DisplayPort can do that, so if you use a hub that has dual HDMI outputs with only a single input, you'll definitely only have mirroring available. But having two separate USB-C to HDMI adapters plugged into separate USB-C ports on your system should absolutely work. I'd recommend avoiding VGA as well. Not only will it not solve the issue, it will look worse because VGA is an analog signal, whereas all other display connector types these days are digital.

XPS

XPS 13 dual monitors

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