I recently bought a second monitor for a dual-display setup. My PC has only one HDMI port, so I connected the primary monitor with HDMI-to-HDMI and used an HDMI-to-DisplayPort cable for the second one, with HDMI plugged into the monitor and DisplayPort plugged into the PC. Windows detects both monitors, but the second display stays inactive and never turns on. I tried extending and duplicating the displays, checking NVIDIA's settings, and switching between the PC's DisplayPort connections, but nothing helped. The monitor eventually started working on its own, although I'm still not sure why.
1 Answer
Check whether the monitor supports DisplayPort directly and confirm what kind of cable or adapter you bought. HDMI-to-DisplayPort connections can be directional, and a simple passive cable may not work when sending a signal from an HDMI output to a DisplayPort input. In that situation, you usually need an active HDMI-to-DisplayPort adapter, or you can use a direct DisplayPort cable if both devices support it.
The monitor does have DisplayPort, but I’m new to this setup and bought an HDMI-to-DisplayPort cable. It eventually turned on, though I’m still not sure what fixed it.