My laptop can't connect to external monitors

herbie15

Reputable
Jun 29, 2014
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Okay, so two weeks ago I installed windows 8.1 to try it out and it's when all my problems started. After installation I couldn't connect any monitor to the laptop, but that did not bother me as I didn't like the new windows and went back to 7 instead. The problem is that after the re-installation (I formatted C) the problem persists. And it's like that with Ubuntu 14.04 too. I didn't have any problems before installing windows 8.1 so my thoughts are there are some files that are probably located on one of the other partitions (D or E) as they were not formatted, but I couldn't find any. I'm using a hp probook 4540s with intel hd 4000 graphics and ati radeon hd 7600m series, tried on few different monitors (Lenovo and LG) and it's the same problem. The interesting part is when I boot the pc, the monitor works for 2-3 seconds during welcome screen, but after that when desktop shows it goes to safe mode automatically. I'd appreciate some help as I've been struggling with that for 2 days now. Thanks.
 
When you into display properties, do you see the second monitor? If it's greyed out select it and press 'Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitor'. Also do you have intel hd graphics software running? The little blue control panel? Sometimes it overrides the fn+f5.
 
No, windows sees the second monitor quite normal. And yes I'm using the intel hd graphics software, I'm attaching screenshots from both if it will give you a better understanding of the situation
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No, its not from the cable/monitor. This happens regardless of what monitor I try to use. I was wondering if this could be a hardware problem, but everything seems to be working fine. Is it possible for windows to keep some of his files on other partitions too or just the main one? Because maybe some part of the drivers stayed, or I don't know
 
If i try to do that Windows doesn't detect the monitor at all which makes me think there's something wrong with the drivers, right? But I've reinstalled them and all seems to be working fine, so could it be another problem?