How to Fix Second Monitor Not Detected – Windows 10

Having a second screen as an extension can really boost your angle coverage especially in specific fields like surveillance and Forex trading. Sometimes configuring these screens can be problematic with error messages like, “Didn’t detect another display” or “Windows 10 cannot detect the second monitor.

This guide will take you through three techniques that attempt to fix this problem.

Before we embark on these techniques, you should be certain that your Windows 10 has all the latest updates and that your second monitor hardware is in a good state. Finally, ensure that you have set up the two monitors properly.

Option #1 Updating the driver software

This technique is usually employed when the video card (display adapters and monitors) drivers are not up to date. To determine whether your drivers are up to date, launch the ‘Device Manager’ environment by hitting on your windows key, then key in the term ‘Device Manager’.

Click on it when it is displayed.

Once the ‘Device Manager’ pops up, scroll through, watching out for yellow exclamation marks. This mark indicates that the drivers are not up to date.

Right-clicking on any driver in the list brings up a dialogue box that lets you update the drivers online.

In our case, however, we’ll focus on updating the ‘display adapters’ and ‘monitors’ drivers.

Option #2 Manually Detecting Monitor Settings

Hold the windows + R key to bring up the Run search box.

Key in the terms, “desk.cpl” in the search box and hit enter / Return key.

If the second monitor fails to get detected automatically, you can opt for a more manual approach as follows:

Launch the setting’s environment by hitting on your windows button and searching the term ‘settings

Navigate to ‘System’ and in the display tab, under the ‘multiple displays’ column, click on ‘Detect.’

If your operating system cannot detect the other monitor, right-click on Start, Select Run, and type “desk.cpl” in the Run box and hit Enter to open the Display Settings.

Usually, the second monitor should be detected automatically, but if not, you can try detecting it manually.

This is where you have the option to connect your monitor wirelessly, more so in recent models.

Ensure that the bar below is configured to “Extend these displays

Option #3 Hardware Troubleshooting

Here is where you tweak around the physical connections such as HDMI cable, try switching them to rule out their failure as part of the problem.

Attempt testing out your second monitor in a different system.

Conclusion

Now you know how to fix the problem on the second monitor not detected on Windows 10. Which technique worked best? Let us know in the comment section below.

Abdelrahman Reda

Abdelrahman Reda is a Motivated Support Engineer with 6+ years of corporate and consumer support experience. His experience related to administration of Network, NOC support, computers and anti-virus server, data entry, networking sites, remote support.

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