DisplayPort not working - help!

Mr Snrub

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I've got a 5 year old Lenovo Thinkpad T410 with DisplayPort and VGA outputs. I've recently bought a new Dell monitor that takes HDMI, DisplayPort or mini-DisplayPort inputs. I've plugged the laptop into it using Displayport to Disaplyport, and Displayport to mini-DisplayPort (both cables brand new and came with the monitor) but there's no sign of life. The monitor just tells me there's no signal from my device on either input. Strangely if I remove the cable from the laptop then plug it back in, the monitor gets some sort of kick as it then displays the 'no connection' message again immediately.

I've never used the DisplayPort output on the laptop before so it could just be knackered, is there any way of telling? I've checked the onboard graphics drivers are up to date, and I'm told by Windows and the Lenovo website that they are, and I've been through all the settings in the Intel(R) Graphics software too but can't find anything that refers to DisplayPort.

Any ideas? Or is it time for a new laptop?
 
So is the display being detected in windows or the intel control panel?

p.s. Are you sure the Mini-DisplayPort is an input? It may be an output for daisy-chaining.
 
No Windows doesn't recognise it at all, neither does the Intel HD Graphics utility. The monitor has a message on screen saying no input detected, which disappears after a while. If I remove the DP cable from the DP port on the laptop then put it back in, the message pops back up on the monitor again saying no input detected. It suggests there's something reaching the monitor from the laptop maybe?

You might be right about the Mini DP cable, I just tried it as it was in the box hoping for the best.
 
I've tried Windows+P, Fn+F7 (ThinkPad hotkey for external display) but no joy.

Could it be that the DP output on the laptop is too early a version to work with the new Dell monitor? It's a U2717D.
 
Make sure your monitor is outputting through the displayport cable. There's probably a button that switches sources near the power button.
 
There could be something in the bios that needs tweaking perhaps, maybe a display output priority.

Intel display drivers are sometimes locked to the laptop so you have to get updates from Lenovo or Dell etc, if your feeling brave and have backups you could try forcing a more recent Intel driver via device manager for the GPU.

Use GPU-Z to get model number then look on Intel download site for corresponding driver, the Intel auto driver utility is useless. Extract driver to folder, to to driver properties and update driver, select have disk, point at folder, show all devices then select the correct Intel GPU from list.

If it comes to the worst you can get USB graphics adapters that are for exactly this powering an external display (2D only no 3D support), cheaper than replacing laptop.
 
Have you left it all plugged in and rebooted? Might force detection. Make sure the dell is on selected input and not auto.

Look in the bios - iirc thinkpads around that time had internal / external display selection.

Try a DP to HDMI cable (about £6 on amazon). As some of the DP handoff will be in the cable.

Had some real fun with DP over the years, especially using devices from around that time - had a desktop that with one cable would not turn on with the cable plugged in, and where with no power into the PC had an LED on the motherboard lit when plugged in. Worked fine if you plugged in afer startup. A new cable fixed it.

Mini DP is a shitty connector - I swap cables out at work on 2-3 screens a month (out of 30) due to then connectors wearing. Roll on USB C (possibly...).

Finally - run Lenovo System Update to check for BIOS/firmware updates. There may well be a fix in there.
 
Have you left it all plugged in and rebooted? Might force detection. Make sure the dell is on selected input and not auto.

Look in the bios - iirc thinkpads around that time had internal / external display selection.

Try a DP to HDMI cable (about £6 on amazon). As some of the DP handoff will be in the cable.

Had some real fun with DP over the years, especially using devices from around that time - had a desktop that with one cable would not turn on with the cable plugged in, and where with no power into the PC had an LED on the motherboard lit when plugged in. Worked fine if you plugged in afer startup. A new cable fixed it.

Mini DP is a sh*tty connector - I swap cables out at work on 2-3 screens a month (out of 30) due to then connectors wearing. Roll on USB C (possibly...).

Finally - run Lenovo System Update to check for BIOS/firmware updates. There may well be a fix in there.

BTW, the HDMI cable will limit you to 1920x1080 but at least you'll know the port is working on the laptop. DP has been able to do 2560 for an age so should be okay once it sorts itself out.

Oh, and check the screen refresh setting, get some weird stuff where the laptop tries to do 29.97Hz and the display says no...
 
If I remove the DP cable from the DP port on the laptop then put it back in, the message pops back up on the monitor again saying no input detected. It suggests there's something reaching the monitor from the laptop maybe?

There's an easy way to verify that, do it without the computer end connected.

I suspect it's just detecting the connector being plugged in, especially if it's not even showing up in device manager.

You might be right about the Mini DP cable, I just tried it as it was in the box hoping for the best.

Yeah, it's for daisy chaining to another DisplayPort monitor so you can drive both off a single DisplayPort socket.

Could it be that the DP output on the laptop is too early a version to work with the new Dell monitor? It's a U2717D.

No, video outputs are forwards compatible. If it wouldn't run at higher resolutions or use some other newer feature that may be an issue but it won't prevent it displaying some sort of picture.


Some of the T410 apparently had two GPUs so if yours has the additional nVidia one then it might be worth playing around with the settings for that. I do remember some older laptops needed it active for some of the outputs to work.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

I've had a poke around in BIOS and could only find one display setting for primary boot disaply - I've not tried changing that to DP so will give that a go later. I thought perhaps that might knock out the laptop screen itself though which is why I haven't done it yet.

I've checked the Lenovo site for driver/BIOS updates but the T410 seems to have fallen off their radar. The site doesn't recognise my serial number, their auto-detect function won't find my laptop and they only list from the T420 onwards when searching for models. ThinkVantage System Update also tells me there are no new drivers/updates available.

It's definitely just one GPU (Intel HD Graphics) but again I'm on the latest driver apparently.
 
You can find a bios on bootable CD for the T410 here was released in 2015. Use Imgburn to burn to CD.


Also looking at the specs of your laptop I think you can rule out using an external USB graphics adapter as well unless your willing to live with a very much reduced resolution which wont look so good on your high res Dell.
 
Thanks I'll take a look at that BIOS update. It doesn't mention Windows 10 though, is that a problem?

I've managed to make some minor progress... there's a setting in BIOS for Primary Boot Display as I mentioned earlier. I've set this to DisaplyPort, closed the laptop lid and started the laptop and it shows the initial ThinkPad post screen followed by the Windows 10 logo with egg-timer (spinning circle of dots) on the monitor as Windows boots up, but as soon as it gets to the Windows login screen the monitor goes blank and says no signal then it drops back to the laptop screen. After that, no amount of Windows+P or Fn+F7 or any settings in the Intel software will get it back on the monitor. Device Manager and Intel don't recognise there's a second monitor either still.

So at least I know the port works now, I just have no idea how to get it stay on the monitor for more than a few seconds :thumbsdow.
 
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I've now updated the BIOS which was successful, but it hasn't made a difference sadly. I can't see any different options under Display and it's behaving in the same way. I can now view BIOS on the Dell screen, it's just when it gets to Windows that the monitor conks out and returns to the laptop :-(
 
Have a check again in the bios under "Advanced > System Agent Configuration > Graphics Config > CPU Graphics Multi-Monitor" if such a setting exists set it to enabled.


Also doing some digging it appears that Win10 is not supported on the T410 according to the Lenovo forums, in addition the Intel Core i5 520M CPU stopped receiving driver updates and Intel's own download page has only Vista/Seven drivers.

That last bios update mentioned Windows 8 support and on the Lenovo forums someone suggests installing a Win8 driver for T410 to get certain functionality back in win10.

So Google searching Lenovo T410 Windows 8 drivers brings up this link with a new driver but this only lists the 420 as the minimum, it might work or may not I would have backups of anything before trying. If you google T410 Win10 drivers this GPU driver is near the top of the list but thats even further removed from the 410 series with the 440.

You may also want to ask on the Lenovo forums they might have a better idea of what needs to done and if a certain driver is needed.

Is Win10 running on the stock built in driver or did you install the Lenovo Win7 driver, if you did you might want to roll back to the stock driver.
 
Thanks for the info. I couldn't see an Advanced section under BIOS, I've been through all the options as far as I know.

I'm finding that the GPU/CPU and other drivers have indeed long since stopped being updated, I'm on the latest of everything I believe. I downloaded the Intel updater program and that did find a chipset update, but it keeps failing with an unknown error. Presumably as you say, as the T410 doesn't support Win10.

I've installed a few different Intel drivers for Turboboost etc but none have made any difference. I have a feeling I'm fighting a losing battle. I posted on the Lonovo forum at the same time as posting here but so far no one has responded.

If I do end up looking at a new laptop, what output do I need to get the max resolution from the monitor? (2560x1440). Most seem to have HDMI outputs but that will only give 1920x1080 won't it? I find the whole thing very confusing if I'm honest!
 
If I do end up looking at a new laptop, what output do I need to get the max resolution from the monitor? (2560x1440). Most seem to have HDMI outputs but that will only give 1920x1080 won't it? I find the whole thing very confusing if I'm honest!

The early version were limited to that but HDMI has supported 2560x1600 since version 1.3 which was launched around ten years ago now.
 
I see. So any of the current Lenovo range of laptops with HDMI outputs should be able to nail the standard resolution on the monitor without any problems?
 

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