W520 external screens / projector problem

Hi,

I just got my new W520, a business laptop / workstation, hooked up as I always did with my T61p the VGA projector for a presentation, just to find out that that I cannot duplicate or extend my screen. A really basic function of a business laptop. That made me really upset.

Only the "projector only" worked, during "duplicate" projector flickered a little and the W520 screen showed the desktop with fast color changing fine lines, the "extended" only showed the desktop on the projector screen.

I am guessing it has something to do with the Intel HD card, since I was on battery the entire time.

To me, this function is very basic and needs to work flawlessly. I don't understand, how something like this is not being tested and seems not to work out of the box.

Does anybody have similar problems and if, is there a solution for it?

Thanks, MCheiron

 

Hey MCeiron,

When the w520 is hooked onto an external screen, the dedicated GPU is used automatically, regardless on battery or not. This may have been caused by you turning off the dGPU in BIOS (or possibly disabled the dGPU in device manager) or your dGPU is faulty.

Sorry to hear about your presentation D:

 

Thanks ComputerNewb for your answer. The dGPU is not disabled, maybe it is a faulty dGPU. I am not yet sure about it and have to run a couple of tests. I found this:

Lenovo Forum

Other users seem to have the same problem. Are you or anybody else able to replicate my problem, or do you not have any problems with external monitors/projectors at all?

Thanks, MCheiron

 

The only thing Optimus is good for is saving battery life. Unless you are traveling it's best to set the BIOS to discrete and count on the NVIDIA GPU working full-time.