Helix - Two external displays + laptop display

I would like to extend my desktop to two external displays (1080p) in addition to the Helix screen. Of course, we only have one mini-displayport on the Helix. I don't have displayport-enabled monitors which can daisy-chain. Which of these options would you guys recommend?
1. Using the Lenovo or Startech Displayport Splitter, which will make the two external displays look like one giant display to the computer.
2. Using wi-di for one monitor while using the physical mini-displayport for the other. Will this work? If so, any recommendations for a a wi-di adapter for a monitor?
I don't want to use a USB dock / monitor extension, since I don't want to be using CPU power to drive the displays. Are there any other options I am missing? If it matters, the internal display of the Helix uses a displayport-type adapter.
Thanks!

Trying to figure out how many displays that the Thinkpad Helix can drive via the GPU (independent extended mode, meaning each display is NOT a mirror/clone of another)
Tried to look at the manual/search, can't find it.
I'm sure you can do at least 2 connected displays, like any laptop sold within the past 10 years
1) internal display (1080p)
2) via Minidisplayport (1440p-1660p?)
How about 3 displays
3) via WiDi?
4) via Displayport chaining?
How about max resolutions? (all my displays are below 1080/1200p for now, but for future reference)
(not looking for the USB driven monitors, because
1) a lot of them tend to be cpu-intensive instead of being driven by the GPU
2) I want to be able to "dock" the helix with my existing large displays
Moderator Note; subject edited; post merged in.

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Radeon HD 7520g Blank Laptop Display

Hey all,
I'm no expert on linux graphics (or graphics at all for that matter), so please be patient if I don't include everything necessary.
Here's my issue. I've got a laptop with an AMD Trinity APU, a6-4400m. The graphics "card" is a Radeon HD 7520g (as mentioned in the subject). The laptop itself has two outputs, a VGA and an HDMI. I use xrandr to run two monitors, the laptop display and the external. Here's where the fun begins.
When I run for instance,
xrandr --output LVDS --auto --output HDMI --auto
Everything works fine and my hdmi display is showing in all of its 720p majesty (my TV is cheap ).
When I run
xrandr --output LVDS --auto --output VGA-0 --auto
My laptop display (LVDS) goes completely blank, and VGA-0 becomes the only active display. By blank I mean completely off. No backlight and no image (I shined a flashlight on it to verify there was no image). What's really weird is when I run xrandr -q, I see that both LVDS and VGA-0 are connected, screen 0 is expanded to encompass both displays, but LVDS is completely off. The virtual display is there though because my mouse can certainly leave the screen on that side. Also, I've tried this with all kinds of variations of --left-of, --right-of, --same-as, etc.
I have checked my logs and nothing shows up (journalctl -f and Xorg.0.log) that's out of the ordinary. As far as the logs show, X is operating as expected.
One last thing to note, once I've extended my display to VGA-0, LVDS won't come back on when I turn VGA off, unless I recycle both VGA-0 and LVDS and then bring just LVDS back (system management without a screen - try doing that Windows!). There's one other method I discovered today. If I change the LVDS crtc to a different value other than what it presently is. Making that change will cause it to alternate between VGA-0 as the activated and LVDS as the activated.
I would think that LVDS IS the VGA-0 and that all I'm doing by enabling VGA-0 is simply redirecting the output, except extending to VGA-0 works on Windows. Anyone have any thoughts as to what might be going on? I feel like I'm missing something that's staring me in the face.
Versions:
xorg-server 1.14.3-1
xf86-video-ati 1:7.2.0-1
ati-dri 9.2.0-2
lspci | grep -i "vga\|hdmi"
00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Trinity [Radeon HD 7520G]
00:01.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Trinity HDMI Audio Controller

A little more [hopefully] useful information here.
I just discovered that Xorg.1.log is not just the roll destination for Xorg.0.log... all this time I thought...
Anyways, nothing gets written to Xorg.1.log when I run any xrandr commands, but I did notice this little piece at the bottom of it (written at startup I presume).
Here's a large portion of the end of Xorg.1.log (most of the rest is just loading in drivers and talking about each one's capabilities, especially the ati/radeon driver)
[ 1604.319] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for neomagic
[ 1604.319] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for dummy
[ 1604.319] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for voodoo
[ 1604.319] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for ark
[ 1604.319] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for glint
[ 1604.319] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for sis
[ 1604.319] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for trident
[ 1604.319] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for v4l
[ 1604.481] (II) v4l: 0 video adapters with overlay support detected
[ 1604.481] (II) FBDEV: driver for framebuffer: fbdev
[ 1604.481] (II) VESA: driver for VESA chipsets: vesa
[ 1604.482] (++) Using config file: "/root/xorg.conf.new"
[ 1604.482] (==) Using config directory: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d"
[ 1604.482] (==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
[ 1604.483] (==) ServerLayout "X.org Configured"
[ 1604.483] (**) |-->Screen "Screen0" (0)
[ 1604.483] (**) | |-->Monitor "Monitor0"
[ 1604.483] (**) | |-->Device "Card0"
[ 1604.483] (**) |-->Screen "Screen1" (1)
[ 1604.483] (**) | |-->Monitor "Monitor1"
[ 1604.483] (**) | |-->Device "Card1"
[ 1604.483] (**) |-->Screen "Screen2" (2)
[ 1604.483] (**) | |-->Monitor "Monitor2"
[ 1604.483] (**) | |-->Device "Card2"
[ 1604.483] (**) |-->Screen "Screen3" (3)
[ 1604.483] (**) | |-->Monitor "Monitor3"
[ 1604.484] (**) | |-->Device "Card3"
[ 1604.484] (**) |-->Input Device "Mouse0"
[ 1604.484] (**) |-->Input Device "Keyboard0"
[ 1604.484] (==) Automatically adding devices
[ 1604.484] (==) Automatically enabling devices
[ 1604.484] (==) Automatically adding GPU devices
[ 1604.484] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/OTF/" does not exist.
[ 1604.484] Entry deleted from font path.
[ 1604.484] (WW) `fonts.dir' not found (or not valid) in "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/".
[ 1604.484] Entry deleted from font path.
[ 1604.484] (Run 'mkfontdir' on "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/").
[ 1604.484] (WW) `fonts.dir' not found (or not valid) in "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/".
[ 1604.484] Entry deleted from font path.
[ 1604.484] (Run 'mkfontdir' on "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/").
[ 1604.484] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/OTF/" does not exist.
[ 1604.484] Entry deleted from font path.
[ 1604.484] (WW) `fonts.dir' not found (or not valid) in "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/".
[ 1604.484] Entry deleted from font path.
[ 1604.484] (Run 'mkfontdir' on "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/").
[ 1604.484] (WW) `fonts.dir' not found (or not valid) in "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/".
[ 1604.484] Entry deleted from font path.
[ 1604.484] (Run 'mkfontdir' on "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/").
[ 1604.484] (**) FontPath set to:
/usr/share/fonts/misc/,
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/,
/usr/share/fonts/Type1/,
/usr/share/fonts/misc/,
/usr/share/fonts/TTF/,
/usr/share/fonts/Type1/
[ 1604.484] (**) ModulePath set to "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
[ 1604.484] (WW) Hotplugging is on, devices using drivers 'kbd', 'mouse' or 'vmmouse' will be disabled.
[ 1604.484] (WW) Disabling Mouse0
[ 1604.484] (WW) Disabling Keyboard0
[ 1604.484] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for modesetting
[ 1604.484] (II) modesetting(1): using default device
[ 1604.484] (II) [KMS] Kernel modesetting enabled.
[ 1604.485] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for fbdev
[ 1604.485] (II) Loading sub module "fbdevhw"
[ 1604.485] (II) LoadModule: "fbdevhw"
[ 1604.485] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libfbdevhw.so
[ 1604.485] (II) Module fbdevhw: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[ 1604.485] compiled for 1.14.2, module version = 0.0.2
[ 1604.485] ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 14.1
[ 1604.485] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for vesa
[ 1604.485] Number of created screens does not match number of detected devices.
Configuration failed.
I noticed that line at the bottom there "Number of created screens does not match number of detected devices". I assume that's talking about xrandr "screen 0" and how earlier in the log it created screens 0-3. I'll do more research into that bit of xrandr. That's about where my knowledge stops.

Possible to Connect Two External Displays?

At work I have two 1600x1200 LCD displays connected to my G4 MDD and I've become quite attached to them and truly feel the extra real estate increases my productivity.
I'm due to get a new system and would like to get a laptop rather than a desktop system since I occassionally work from home and would like to just have one machine for everything.
The only thing holding me back is the unavailabilty of using dual displays. Here are the only solutions that I know of, but not that I am interested in:
o use the laptop display with an external display (problem: I would want my two displays to be the same size, and the laptop display would be too small for my taste)
o use one of those matrox dual display external boxes (problem: uses vga but my LCDs are DVI and I'm not interested in sacrificing quality)
o get a huge display to take the place of two, like the 30" ACD (problem: too expensive, and already have two nice 21" displays)
So ... just hoping someone has some other suggestions. If nothing like this is available now, does anyone know if this sort of capability would or could ever be supported? Thanks.

Thanks for the quick reply, but see my second bullet, that what I meant by the "matrox thing". If it were DVI based I'd give it a try, but my understanding is it is VGA.

Can I run two external displays off a MacBook?

Hi there.
I would like to run two external 20" Acer (VGA) displays off of my MacBook. I already use one 20" in addition to my MacBook screen but would like to have two full sized screens to work off and would not need the 13" from the MacBook.
The MacBook literature says that only a second monitor is supported but I was hoping there is a way to override the MacBook screen in a two monitor setup and port the display to the third monitor.
Any ideas ??

You can have two independent external displays on the workstation macs such as G4, G5 and Mac Pros but not on apple laptops to the best of my knowledge. If you look on that page it shows the Mac Pro then underneath it is the image of two montiors side by side with the shark image going across it. Lower down is a Macbook Pro with one additional monitor next to it.
This is the text which accompanies the image:
"With an all PCI Express architecture, Mac Pro supports a lineup of state-of-the-art graphics cards to ensure a spectacular visual experience. Every Mac Pro supports two displays — including one 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display — and can be expanded to drive an array of up to eight displays."
Im assuming the up to eight displays refers to the fact that you can add extra graphics cards to the Mac Pro.

Two external displays on L430 (HD4000)

Hi,
I have L430 laptop (HD4000 gpu) and I wanted to connect two external monitors on it and to run with internal display as well. Originally HD4000 should support 3 independend displays, but maybe thinkpad construction does not allow for this. So first question is, is this even possible with L430?
Initially I've tried with one display connected on VGA, the other one on the mini display port, however, only two ouf of three displays can work at the single time. I'm using Linux but I've checked with windows 7 and it has the same problem. Can this particular configuration work with some driver tweaking or something, or I need to connect them somehow differently using some other cables?
Some of the users suggested that only T430u is capable of having 2 external displays, while some others succeedeed with docking stations where both external dispalys go on display ports, some suggested that using some specific cables might help.
So, is there are cables that can then put two displays on the same miniDP (two displays with different resolutions)?

You can use one of the DisplayLink USB adapters such as this one. It says you can add up to 6 monitors, but of course you'll need a USB port for each, and I'll bet a USB hub will not be ideal. Performance of the USB solutions is not as good as straight DisplayPort.
DisplayPort supports daisy-chaining, so theoretically, in the future you may find laptops driving multiple monitors off of the single built-in port. But first somebody needs to start selling DisplayPort monitors with daisy-chainable video ports on them. Dell is also pushing DisplayPort, so maybe they'll come out with one.

Two external display with internal diplay on E531

Hi,
I have a ThinkPad E531 laptop, and that includes are VGA and HDMI plug. The video card is Intel HD. Can I use 2 external monitor (over VGA and HDMI) with the internal display? (So I want to use 3 displays).
Thanks!
Regards,
Tamás

Hello dljfield,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
If you'd like to use multiple external displays with a MacBook Pro with Retina display, then please take a look at the information outlined below. A 15" MacBook Pro mid-2014 can support up to two external displays using different outputs.
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014) - Technical Specifications
OS X Yosemite: Connect multiple displays to your Mac
Take care,
Alex H.

How to revert back from external display mode to laptop display mode?

Hi, I'm new to this community. I'm not sure if this is where I should be posting my questions. Anyway, I accidentally pressed fn + f2, which switched my laptop into external display mode (I'm pretty sure), and the screen is now very narrow and small. I can't figure out how to switch it back to the laptop display mode. I tried fn + f3, which didn't do anything. I also tried the windows button + p, which wasn't the solution either (I was able to extend my desktop screen, but when I play my Steam games the screen is still very narrow and small). I'm very frustrated because I can't find any answers online. So any information would likely be helpful. Thanks in advance.
OS: Windows 8

Hi BorderingOnChaos,
Fn + F2 is a toggle. You press it again to switch back. If it doesn't work, then something is wrong with your notebook's SCM (system control manager) software or EC (embedded controller) firmware.
In the future, please do two things:
1 - Identify your notebook because the answer may vary depending on model.
2 - This question does not relate to the SteelSeries Engine. The correct place to ask it would be the general "Gaming Notebooks" forum if your MSI notebook is a gaming model. This "SteelSeries Engine" forum is a sub-forum under the "Gaming Notebooks" forum for the purpose of dealing with questions about it---but almost everybody new misses that. The SteelSeries Engine is used to configure keyboard macros and backlighting in MSI gaming notebooks that contain a SteelSeries keyboard as well as accessory devices from SteelSeries like gaming mice and USB headsets.
Kind regards, David

Two External Displays and Internal Display Over Different Connections

Hi there.
I'm going to be purchasing a rMBP in the very, very near future. However, I am unclear about how external displays work with this. My current display setup at work is two basic 1080p monitors that can be run over DVI, VGA or HDMI. I'd like to keep using these when I start using the rMBP but also gain the advantage of a third screen by using the internal display at the same time (so much space for activities!).
One of the thunderbolt ports will need to be used for an Ethernet connection (there is no wireless here), so this leaves the setup needing to be one monitor run via Thunderbolt -> DVI and the other monitor run via HDMI.
The internet in general isn't being entirely helpful with this. I'm looking for a clear answer of whether the rMBP will run the internal display and the two external displays using this setup under OS X. Some seem to believe that it won't work using different connection types, for example.
Thanks for any help.

Hello dljfield,
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
If you'd like to use multiple external displays with a MacBook Pro with Retina display, then please take a look at the information outlined below. A 15" MacBook Pro mid-2014 can support up to two external displays using different outputs.
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014) - Technical Specifications
OS X Yosemite: Connect multiple displays to your Mac
Take care,
Alex H.

HT5019 MacPro laptop display and 2 external monitors (three displays). Can I have more than one application displayed at a time?

I would like to have my MacPro laptop display and 2 external monitors (three displays). Question, how can I have more than one application displayed at a time? IE: I would like email on one monitor, Finder on my laptop, and iTunes on the other. Possible?
With extended desktop, it appears that I can only have one application presenting at a time. Sort of defeats the purpose of having multiple displays.
I am using the HDMI and the mini HDMI connectors.

I would like to have my MacPro laptop display and 2 external monitors (three displays). Question, how can I have more than one application displayed at a time? IE: I would like email on one monitor, Finder on my laptop, and iTunes on the other. Possible?
With extended desktop, it appears that I can only have one application presenting at a time. Sort of defeats the purpose of having multiple displays.
I am using the HDMI and the mini HDMI connectors.

Upgraded to Yosemite and Windows 8.1 Pro in Bootcamp, can no longer drive retina display and two external monitors simultaneously?

Greetings
I just upgraded from Mountain Lion and Windows 7 Ultimate (Bootcamp) to Yosemite and Windows 8.1 Pro on a late 2012 MBP 13" Retina. Prior to the upgrades, I was able to drive the retina panel and two external monitors simultaneously when operating directly in Bootcamp. Now, I can only drive 2 of the 3 simultaneously though all three are recognized under Graphic Properties. I simply cannot find any option or profile under Graphics Properties or Options or Personalization to run all three screens.
My hardware hasn't changed and this worked prior to the updates. I have no issue on the Mac OSX can run all three. I also have no issue doing it in Windows under Parallels Desktop 10. It is just when I boot directly into Bootcamp that this happens. What am I missing?
Thanks,
G.

Great point, Loner T. It was late when I was working and I thought about this afterwards also.
The issue was that in Windows=>Control Panel=>Display, under "Change Display Settings", the three screens showed but "Extend Display" was not selected for one of the screens. It was simply off. I can't believe I danced around this w/o picking it up sooner. In fact, it has happened in the past that for some reason a display loses this setting.
As an aside, thanks again for all of your help and terrific input to upgrade both the Mac and Windows operating systems. As I was going from Windows 7 Ultimate to Windows 8.1 Pro, one thing I did come across that made life much easier was to upgrade first to Windows 8 so I could keep my apps. The jump from 7 to 8.1 would otherwise migrate my personal files, but not programs and require a lot of time to reinstall all. This was completely avoided by going to Windows 8 first.
Thanks, again, and very much appreciate the work that you do here.
Best,
G.

Using two external displays that are NOT mirrored

i have a MBP early 2008, meaning the external display port is a dual DVI-I port. I have have two external displays, both samsung syncmaster xl2370 with native resolution 1920x1080. i have a dual dvi-i to vga splitter. when i connect both displays, they mirror one another, which is not what i want. rather, i want to have my MBP display, and two external displays that are not mirror images of one another. according to apple, if i buy a dual dvi-i to dvi splitter, i get the same effect. i've read on various forums about hardware alternatives, like buying a usb to dvi or usb to vga adapter, with some reasonable results (except a bit of sluggishness). the best one seems to be the diamond: http://www.diamondmm.com/BVU195.php
it mostly gets good reviews, but is sluggish. does any know of any better options?
many thanks, jovo

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
USB is slow partly because it is processor and driver dependent. Best to go with a straight video solution, such as Matroxes products like this one: http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/dh2go/

How tow connect two external displays that are not mirrored and turn of the retina display

Hello,
I have two questions:
1. Is it possible to use two external displays either mirrored or not and turn off the retina display, and if so how it is done?
2. Is it possible to close the MBP and use an external keyboard while using two external displays?
I am using a music production DAW Persons Studio One-2 Pro and it would be great to be able to have this type of a setup.
Thank You,
Breezinabout
Macbook Pro 15" Retina display I7 2,3mz 500gb SSD late 2013 OSX Yosemite 10.10.1

Hi Breezinabout,
The MacBook Pro Late 2013 retina display model will support two external displays. See this specifications page for reference -
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) - Technical Specifications
Specifically -
Dual display and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on up to two external displays, both at millions of colors
And -
Thunderbolt digital video output
Native Mini DisplayPort output
DVI output using Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter (sold separately)
VGA output using Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter (sold separately)
Dual-link DVI output using Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (sold separately)
HDMI video output
Support for 1080p resolution at up to 60Hz
Support for 3840-by-2160 resolution at 30Hz
Support for 4096-by-2160 resolution at 24Hz
You would, if you wish, turn off the internal display by closing the MacBook Pro, which is called "closed-clamshell" mode. It requires you to have an external keyboard and mouse. See this article for further information -
How to use your Mac notebook computer in closed-clamshell (display closed) mode with an external display - Apple Support
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Best,
Brett L

Two external displays - macbook pro

I Have a macbook pro 13" 2013 It has i firewire and one mini display port. How can I (or what do I need) to connect two external monitors, to function as independent screens thanks

bigdrummerboy,
I don’t have a Mac with a Thunderbolt port, so I can’t definitively answer that question. My guess would be that they would not be two mirror copies, but rather treated as two halves of a double-width single desktop, as opposed to two independent desktops. Perhaps someone who currently has a similar desktop could chime in? Or perhaps someone at your nearest Apple store could answer the question with certainty?

Two External Displays for iMac

Is it possible to run two external displays off of an iMac? I have a small display running and just was giving an old second display so I was wondering if I could run both at the same time?

It's a real low-down shame that the HD5750-equipped 27-inch iMac cannot support triple displays.
All of the HD5750 video cards available for Windows PCs support triple displays (two DVI and one DisplayPort) with the Eyefinity technology that was built into the HD5750's GPU.
Having one iMac 27-inch flanked by two additional 2560x1440 monitors would be so SWEET.

27 inch iMac (April 2011) - Two external displays - how?

I've just got a new 27" iMac and have connected two external displays via the mini display port. I can only get one to work, what am I doing wrong?

Sorry that was a dumb typo on my behalf. Here is the setup:
Apple 27inch iMac only bought today, so it's the newest version with the two Thunderbolt ports.
Two seperate external monitors each connected to a seperate port via a DVI cable and Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter.
So that's:
iMac x 1.
Thunderbolt port x 2.
External Monitor x 2.
Mini DisplayPort Adapter x 2.
3 displays in total. But when I turn on both displays only one will show up.

Helix - Two external displays + laptop display

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