Are you wondering if you can work with multiple devices while having a laptop? Good news, now you can! You can connect monitors, audio devices, keyboards, mouse, printers, etc. to your laptop and use all of them at one go! On the other hand, you can connect a set of monitors to your laptop as well. In that case, you need to prepare a docking station.
What is a Docking Station?
A docking station allows you to connect multiple devices to one laptop and work with them simultaneously on different things. It requires one connection cable to either connect or disconnect the laptop from the docking station. /you can access it through your laptop.
The best part about having a docking station is, it works like a desktop computer but it functions with a simple laptop. It does not require much equipment for the heavy set up. You can set up a docking station anywhere as the laptop won’t take much space.
If you are required to or if you are planning on working with a setup that contains multiple monitors then you should definitely set up a docking station with your laptop!
How to set it All Up
In order to connect monitors to your laptop, you need to get a few cables first. They are – VGA, DVI, and HDMI. Make sure your laptop has ports for all of these including a display port.
Combine all these USB cables with the display port outputs. This process will let you easily connect three monitors to your laptop. We are giving a generalized solution here considering the most used and trending laptop configurations. So, if yours differ then the process may vary in your case.
Step 01
We selected a Lenovo laptop for the docking station to connect the monitors. Make sure you check the specs of your laptop’s video card to check whether it is capable of supporting three monitors at the same time.
If you get a green signal then, in that case, connect the three monitors to your docking station with the display port HDMI, VGA, or DVI ports. Connect your Lenovo laptop to the docking station.
If you are currently using Windows 10 then check out how to configure the monitors next!
Step 02
Now that you set up three of the monitors, docking station, and the laptop connection, you need to check on your laptop whether it detected all the monitors.
Skip this part if your laptop automatically detected the new monitors. Otherwise,
- Go to the Display Settings
- Rearrange your displays
- Click on Detect a new monitor
In terms of splitting screens from the laptop and the additional monitors follow these easy steps:
- Right-click on your desktop
- Click on the Display settings
- Go to multiple displays
- Click on the number of monitors to be displayed (it must be 3)
- Click on extend these displays from the drop-down list
Step 03
If you want to organize the serial of the monitor list then check out these easy steps-
- Right-click on the desktop
- Click on the Display settings
- Select the rearrange your displays
- Left-click on your preferred display to rearrange the serial and place them as per your preference.
Configuring the Graphics
Now, let’s have a look at the ways how you will configure the graphics of these three monitors to your laptop. Follow these steps carefully then your docking station will be prepared for a heavy-duty service without any additional or external hassle. Have a look at these steps-
- For starters, select the place where you want to set all your monitors. Then place the port replicator exactly there.
- After placing it, you need to plug in the power cable and connect it to keep it going further. After that, connect an end of the display port cable to the replicator. On the other hand, connect another end to the display port monitor display.
- Moving forward, now you need to plug in and connect the LCD displays power cable. After connecting that, turn on your monitor’s display and place it wherever you prefer the best.
- Later on, in terms of the display port monitor, you need to repeat these steps (steps number 2 and 3) for further connectivity.
- Having the portable system entirely turned off, you need to dock the system on the replicator right away.
- After doing that, you have to turn on the system immediately. As your Windows operating system will start, you will be seeing all of the screens have the display graphics.
- Now, right-click on your desktop. Then click on the graphics properties. Then adjust the resolution along with the position of the external properties. In addition to that, change the default display to any of the screened as per your preference.
- Then take an end of the VGA cable and connect that to the replicator. On the other hand, connect the other end of the cable to the analog VGA monitor display.
- After that, connect the VGA monitor display power cable and plug that in. Moving forward, turn on the monitor and place it as per your desire.
- If you want to connect an external keyboard and mouse then you must connect them to the replicator to the place where three of your monitors are already connected with an analog input. This analog input is building an alternative to your portable display system.
- In addition to that, close the system and turn the power off.
- Don’t worry you are almost there. Press the power button now on the replicator. When Windows will start working, these three monitors will start displaying their graphics.
- In that case, press right-click on the desktop. Then click on the graphic properties. Lastly, fix the adjustment settings and additionally, different positions of the display.
In conclusion, these easy steps will lead you to set up your laptop docking station with three external monitors.