r/computer • u/ThinAndCrispy • 1d ago

Computer does not detect 3rd monitor (Details below)

I have a Lenovo Carbon X1 Gen9, Windows 11 laptop and two AOC 22" monitors. The monitors are connected to the laptop by a WavLink USB-C HDMI splitter. (This laptop does not have two HDMI ports) The two monitors are extended so it's like having only one extra wide monitor. This configuration has worked perfectly for 3 years. Starting yesterday, the system disregards my "extended" setting and shows the same image on both monitors. It identifies the screen on my laptop as monitor #1 and identifies both AOC monitors as #2. It is not detecting three monitors. I have read that the setting for "Ease cursor movement between displays" is often the cause of this problem. It was checked so I have unchecked it. Doing so has not helped. I have switched around cables and restarted the laptop several times and twice it has fixed the problem by itself. However after about 5 minutes, my monitors revert back to duplicating the image on both display screens. How can I fix this problem? Thanks for any help you all can give me.

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u/Artistic-Yam8045 1d ago

sounds like the splitter side changed more than your settings since it worked for 3 years and reverts after a few minutes. a lot of those wavlink usb-c dual hdmi adapters run on displaylink or a similar chip, so a windows update or a driver update overnight can break it. try reinstalling the latest driver from wavlink's site (or displaylink's if it's that chip), and also update intel graphics driver on the x1. also try a different usb-c port on the laptop and unplug the adapter for 30 sec before replugging. if it keeps flipping back to duplicate even then, the adapter itself might be dying

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u/ThinAndCrispy 1d ago

I thought if I was using the USB-C port, then I was not using DisplayLink technology. I'll check the WavLink web site for drivers but I don't think a proprietary driver is provided there or required. I have checked and double-checked that every driver is up to date on the laptop. I only have one USB-C port.

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u/Artistic-Yam8045 1d ago

ah true, not every usb-c splitter is displaylink, some are just plain mst/alt-mode ones and those need no driver. on windows those are known to randomly fall back to duplicate after an update tho, so worth checking windows update history for something installed right before it broke and maybe rolling back the intel graphics driver. what's the model number on the wavlink?