You may experience the following symptom when connecting to an external display:
- The computer may not automatically detect the external monitor.
If you own an Alienware x15 R1, or Alienware x17 R1 laptop, and have set this configuration:
- The laptop screen supports the Nvidia Dynamic Display Switch (DDS) feature.
- You have entered the BIOS and enabled the Discrete Graphics Processing Unit (dGPU) mode.
- The external Monitor is connected using the Thunderbolt port on the computer.
Enabling dGPU mode puts the integrated Intel graphics into power-saving mode. When the BIOS is set to use the discrete Nvidia graphics, monitor auto detection is disabled.
Note: The Intel Graphics are working as designed. Intel confirms this is a known hardware limitation when you hard set dedicated graphics only.
If you are looking to resolve this:
- You may be able to enable detection, by pressing either Win + P, or Fn + F8 to select a video output display mode manually.
- You can disable the dGPU mode in the computers BIOS. Check you User Manual of your computer to navigate the BIOS and change the dGPU mode.
- You can use a different cable and another port such as HDMI or DisplayPort on the computer that supports external graphics.
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