Extend laptop display to 3 monitors (recommendations)

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kharris

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#265639 2-Feb-2020 14:10

My friend has a Lenovo laptop... I don’t know which model sorry.

She wants to extend the display using windows (not duplicate) to 3 monitors. As far as I know and HDMI splitter will only duplicate displays wont it?

The laptop does NOT have DisplayPort, it only has USB-A and HDMI as shown below.

The monitors are all the same (ASUS I think). They all have HDMI DVI and DisplayPort as shown below (sorry the photo is a bit dark)

Could I have some recommendations please on the easiest most cost effective way to do this please? Links to suggested equipment would be appreciated.

Thanks

Kirk.

Kirk

sqishy

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#2411555 2-Feb-2020 14:14

A Lenovo USB3 Dock would usually do it that goes into the blue USB port. The dock depends on Laptop model.

netspanner

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#2411563 2-Feb-2020 14:59

I do 2 extra monitors off my lenovo. 1 direct to the hdmi. The other through a graphic card dongle to the usb. Works well. Bought the dongle from PBtech for about $70.

This one I think

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/ADPJ5C3355/J5create-JUA355-USB30-to-HDMI-Slim-Display-Adaptor

richms

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#2411571 2-Feb-2020 15:48

If its just for text use, then the USB display link adapters work great. For video or gaming, they are pretty hopeless. Even the mouse feels laggy thru them which some people might be ok with, but I certainly wasnt. I used a couple of displaylink to VGA adapters and really old screens just to part tweetdeck on to inorder to keep an eye on them. Worked great for that because its not interactive and nothing is really moving on it.

Richard rich.ms

kharris

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#2411584 2-Feb-2020 16:42

Thanks everyone for the advice.

It is for home business use not graphics so a bit of lag probably wont matter.

She has 3 screens so could she run one screen off the laptops HDMI and 2 via something like this?

https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/ADPJ5C3365/J5create-USB30-to-Dual-HDMI-Multi-Display-AdaptorR

Would all three screens been identified separately and be usable or would only the 2 via the adapter be usable?

Kirk

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#2411610 2-Feb-2020 17:17

I asked about this at PBtech with my lenovo, and the guy muttered something about the laptop only being able to support 2 extra screens. Something on the motherboard only supports that amount. I just took his word for it.

richms

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#2411629 2-Feb-2020 18:05

If you are wanting to add 3 in addition to the laptops inbuilt then you will be out of luck, but with the inbuilt disabled it should work. It uses GPU resources to compose the images, and then sends it over the USB to get copied into the devices output, so its a GPU limitation. Most will do 3, I think that is a limitation of the intel GPU.

Richard rich.ms

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steve2222

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#2411708 2-Feb-2020 20:33

Something like this (or one of the model variants) may work:

https://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/digital/

I have an old Matrox Dual Head to Go (Analog) for 2 additional screens, plus the laptop. My old laptop is DVI so cant comment on USB or HDMI setups.

But I can confirm my Matrox Dual Head to go does EXACTLY what you require. All 3 screens are independent and can show seperate windows, or you can just replicate the laptop screen on the other 2.

Mine is powered from the USB port and the signal from the DVI output.

I bought mine about 10 years ago (It still works) from the NZ distributor.

Mine is for 2 additional screens but they do a 3 and 4 additional screen variations.

1101

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#2411866 3-Feb-2020 11:35

the USB to HDMI/DVI/vga adaptors are sometimes quite buggy.

Ive had windows updates update the driver & then they stopped working (requiring a drv rollback)
Other times often requiring the adaptor to be disconnected & then reconnected

Another user in a different company had zero issues with hers.

So , allow for some possible intermittent issues . They arnt perfect on every setup.

hio77

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#2411871 3-Feb-2020 12:14

Get a laptop dock for her, most of the first party ones have plenty of display ports. Runs my 3 screens without a problem.

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