IT ISSUE · DEVICES AND PERIPHERALS
Dock not detecting monitors
One cable carrying power, two screens and a network is usually being asked for slightly too much.A dock is doing several jobs at once through one cable: power, video to more than one screen, network and everything plugged into it. When it half-works, it is usually being asked for slightly more than that cable, that laptop or that dock was built to deliver.
What you may notice
- One monitor works and the second doesn't.
- Screens come up but the laptop charges slowly or not at all.
- It works when plugged in one way round and not the other.
- Everything returns after unplugging and replugging.
- It began after a laptop was replaced, not a monitor.
Check what the chain can actually carry
We check the laptop's own capability, the dock's, the cable, how the monitors are connected and the display drivers, which usually explains why two screens work everywhere except here.
Then the uncomfortable part. Docks and laptops are reliable in matched pairs and unreliable outside them. A cheaper third-party dock is often a false economy: the replugging, restarting and walking over to help add up, and nobody ever blames the dock for it. We'd rather tell you to spend the money once than keep billing you to nurse it.