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Thread: Three screen setup?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    Swindon, England
    Beans
    140
    Distro
    Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus

    Three screen setup?

    I've been running a dual screen setup happily for some time, but have recently acquired a Sony Bravia TV, which I thought might make a useful third screen.

    I'm running Ubuntu 20.04 (newly upgraded from 18.04). My desktop has onboard Intel HD530 graphics, with 3 output sockets - 1 HDMI, 1 DVI and 1 VGA. 1 screen accepts HDMI/VGA, the second DVI/VGA and the TV HDMI/VGA. With the 2 monitors connected via HDMI and DVI respectively, the system recognizes bothscreens and everything works nicely.

    When I connect the TV via VGA, the TV shows an "out of range" error and the HDMI goes to a black screen. Neither the TV nor the HDMI monitor appear in the Screen Display Settings, and my display collapses to a single screen system on the DVI monitor. A similar thing happens if I connect the monitor via VGA and the TV via HDMi. If I remove the VGA cable, the system works perfectly with an HDMI connection to either the HDMI screen or the TV.

    From my browsing on the net, I'm not sure if it's actually possible to use all 3 onboard graphics connections simultaneously, so I realise that I might be trying to do the impossible. That said, any advice of suggestions would be appreciated.

    TIA,
    mediax

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Pennsylvania
    Beans
    3,981
    Distro
    Xubuntu

    Re: Three screen setup?

    You may be trying the impossible. But, before giving up, try another VGA cable. Cables are known to fail and cheaper VGA cables do not have the extra wire that is needed to report the monitor's size to the PC. (I believe that that wire is on pin 15, but I may be wrong about that.)

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2006
    Location
    Swindon, England
    Beans
    140
    Distro
    Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus

    Re: Three screen setup?

    Thanks for the suggestion dave - good idea, but sadly not a winner. I've tried a different VGA cable with the same results.

    Sorry to be so long responding, but life has got in the way of my tinkering!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Pennsylvania
    Beans
    3,981
    Distro
    Xubuntu

    Re: Three screen setup?

    Still not sure if I will be any help or not, but one more thing. How old are these VGA cables? Early ones did not have the ability to go a lot higher than 640 x 480. If your TV is 4K, you will certainly have a problem with VGA especially an older cable.

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