Thinkpad W520 No Video Output

Dear Thinkpad Community,

I have used my w520 with a Dell U2410 monitor using display port fine for 2 months. I recently went on a trip to California with my computer. Returning, I plugged in my display port cable and there is no response from the monitor (other than "entering power saving mode" which is irrelevant). I plugged in a VGA cable which also fails to work. Both the monitor and the VGA cable (since I have no other computer with a display port) work with another computer. I am now clueless what to do. Could this be a motherboard problem? or just the two video out ports?

I am positive no physical damage was done to this computer (that I know of).

Thank you for your time.

 

Press Fn + F7 and make sure it isn't set to the first option, "Computer only".

 

Thank you kirayamato26 for the quick response

However, this isn't the issue. I have switched the display settings to the other 3 and they all result in the screen going black and then reappearing (nothing happens to the external monitor).

Also, I find it ironic that you answered first since I just finished reading another thread with you helping out first.

 

Ok, that was my first guess (and simplest solution), seems like it didn't work.

Let's try a couple of things then:

1. Try going into the NVIDIA control panel and see if the other monitors are detected. Sometimes weird things happen and they are detected but not enabled by the driver (personal experience from using NVIDIA cards).

2. I believe the W520's external display out ports are all connected to the dGPU, so if your display setting in BIOS is set to Integrated Only, some weird things may happen (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

3. If none of that work, try using a Linux live CD/USB and check if anything happens. If the external monitors work, then we know for sure that the ports are good.

Honestly though, I'm not great with troubleshooting things. So if you can't find a solution with others on the forum then I suggest you call in for tech support.

 

Did you try unplugging the power to the U2410? I know that sounds odd, but try it.

We've had to do it a few times with the U2711 in the lab.

 

Thank you again for the solutions, but the problem has been solved.

For some odd reason, the Nvidia GPU was disabled.... A simple right click and enabling it solved the problem. I was able to use the dGPU to use photoshop and some video editing. The only reason why I even checked the device manager was because I couldn't access the Nvidia control panel (thanks kira! ).

The only other weird thing was I was able to detect another monitor (VGA and a weird resolution) using the built in windows screen controller while there was nothing connected to the laptop (prior to re-enabling the Nvidia GPU)....

 

Glad I could help.