Connecting 2 External Monitors to my w500

[dangolden]

Simple question.... how do I go about connecting 2 external monitors to my w500 laptop?

One of them has the VGA plug and the other is a DVI plug

Ideally, I'd like to still share these monitors with a home desktop and be able to switch between the 2. Currently using the below but that only gets me to one monitor.

TRENDnet TK-209K 2-Port USB KVM Switch Kit with Audio (Includes 2x KVM Cables)

Thanks!

[ChrisShep]

Get the lenovo dock that has 1 VGA and 1 DVI.  They can be used simultaneously.  I use two monitors for work with one turned vertical for coding.  The ATI Control Center allows you to play with the relative monitor positions and rotations.  It works pretty well.

[dangolden]

Thanks for the reply! So you can use your laptop screen.... PLUS the 2 monitors so 3 separate monitors in total?  Any way to do it while still being able to share monitors with a home desktop when the laptop isn't plugged in?

Which one allows multiple monitors......?

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:item.detail?... says only VGA

and this one doesn't say if it has multiple ports..... it does say it has DVI so do you use the DVI from this and then the VGA from the laptop.

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:item.detail?...

good golly.... I hate the lenovo website and their customer service is useless. so difficult to find any useful help or information. thank god for users and forums.

[fmyhr]

Hi dangolden,

Your W500 can drive your DVI monitor from its built-in DisplayPort, using cable 45J7915 or equivalent. It can simultaneously drive your VGA monitor from its built-in VGA port. Unless you add another video card (via the 2503 Advanced Dock or a USB video adapter) your W500 can run at most 2 screens at a time, so to run your 2 external monitors the W500's screen will have to be switched off (use Fn-F7 or equivalent).

So you don't need a dock, although having a dock is often convenient. You are correct that the 2505 Essential Port Replicator does not include a DVI passthrough port, which is one reason to prefer the 2504 Advanced Mini Dock, which does.

Best regards,

Frank

[lead_org Microsoft MVP Contributor]

you can drive more external monitors by using the Lenovo usb2dvi solution.