External monitors detected but not active, how can I fix this?

Question

I am using a dock to connect my 2 external monitors, I recently updated my windows 11 and now both external monitors are not displaying anything, 'no signal'.
The monitors and cables are fine because they work when I connect directly to my laptop.
The dock aslo works because the keyboard and mouse that attach via it are still functioning.
Within the display settings, the external monitors are detected but active. How can I fix this?
Thanks!

Answer 1

I read some comments here but nothing was helpful. Here's what worked for me:

First of all, the problem was related to the NVidia driver.

Solution:

1. Press Windows key + X.
2. Open Device Manager and expand "System Displays".
3. Uninstall the NVidia driver. Tick the box that says to remove driver completely from the computer
4. Restart your computer.
5. Go to any browser and download the NVidia application: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/software/nvidia-app/
6. Install the application and launch it
7. Go to the drivers tab and click on "update drivers"

Update: A day later I realized that everything works fine when I start my laptop with the HDMI cable already inserted, but if I remove the cable and restart my laptop with the cable removed, when I insert the cable after the laptop is on, the second display shows innactive on the settings and there's no signal in the target display.

After trying several solutions, I came to the conclusion that the problem was related to the graphics display my computer was using.

So you have to change the default graphics display in the settings.

Steps:

1. Type "Graphics Settings" on windows search box
2. Open it and select "Remote Desktop Connection"
3. Choose the NVIDIA display adapter.
4. Restart your machine

Answer 2

Yeah bro. Could you please give the link to the driver that we can download instead of leaving us hanging?

Answer 3

Looks like something changed in a recent update around power management for external display devices.

I am unable to discover the correct powercfg command to enable the device. What is interesting is the external monitors ARE detected but disabled. The solution of installing the intel driver which provides a GUI to enable the low power set external displays will work. But annoying.

Answer 4

The issue I was running into was I was using a Lenovo docking station and I had 2 old, apparently outdated, ViewSonic Monitors. What I ended up having to do was buy a new Lenovo monitor. Then, because I didn't want to throw away my 2 ViewSonic monitors I tried one on my personal home computer and it worked great. So then I took the ViewSonic and plugged it into the HDMI port in my work computer and it works. So, I have my computer and a Lenovo monitor in the docking station and one ViewSonic monitor plugged directly into my computer's HDMI port. It's not ideal but it gives me 3 working screens.

Answer 5

Clarify the "updated win11" statment

Is simply Display settings and not Advanced