Old Dell E228WFPc monitor won't work as 2nd monitor

Just hooked up my new plugable 3900 and only the first monitor (new Dell SE2419H) is recognized.
Drivers installed on laptop but haven’t a clue on how to get 2nd older Dell E228WFPc to work with it.
It is pretty ancient but it worked with an older dock.

Hi Josh,

Thank you for posting! I am sorry things are not working fully as expected while using your new UD-3900 dock and I would be happy to help.

That the Dell SE2419H display is working let’s us know that the dock itself is working and to focus on your Dell E228WFPc display.

According to the manual for your E228WFPc display → https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_electronics/esuprt_display/dell-e228wfp_user's%20guide_en-us.pdf the display has a DVI video input and a VGA video input.

Given those specifications, I would presume that you are either using a DVI to DVI video cable (a cable with a DVI connector on both ends) or the included DVI to VGA adapter and a VGA to VGA video cable (a cable with a VGA connector on both ends) to connect the display to the dock’s DVI video output. Please let me know if I am mistaken.

May I ask you to double-check that the source video input setting within the Dell E228WFPc is set correctly given the type of video cable being used to connect it to the dock? For example ‘DVI’ (also known as ‘Digital’) or ‘VGA’ (also known as ‘Analog’). The manual for the display shows how to check and change this setting on page 24 → https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_electronics/esuprt_display/dell-e228wfp_user’s%20guide_en-us.pdf

Apologies in advance if the request appears in any way redundant, however displays with multiple inputs may not always switch to the preferred one automatically so the intent is to rule out an incorrect source setting as the cause.

Thank you for giving us the chance to help!

Bob
Plugable Technologies

Hi Bob
Thanks for your quick reply. I Tried 2 different connections. First I used a VGA to VGA cord to connect from the Dell E228WFPc to dock DVI port with VGA/DVI adaptor. Set monitor to analog but nothing.
Next I connected that VGA to VGA cord to monitor DVI port with a VGA/DVI adapter and other end to another adaptor to dock DVI. Set monitor to digital but nothing. Any ideas? Thanks.

Hi,

Thank you for getting back to us, I will be filling in for Bob while he is unavailable this afternoon.

Thanks for testing with the VGA cable, the DVI to VGA adapters can convert from a DVI-I source like the docking station to a 9-pin VGA cable and port on the monitor. However, these adapters do not convert from VGA to the monitor’s DVI-D input. Using two DVI to VGA adapters, one at either end of a VGA cable is not expected to work in this situation.

Sometime Windows will fail to correctly assign the display, we can try performing the following to see if it helps to get the external display working:

  1. Connect the display to the docking station, either using:
  • one DVI-to-VGA adapter connected to the docking station and a VGA-to-VGA cable from the adapter to the VGA input on the monitor
  • or a DVI-to-DVI cable connected from the docking station’s DVI port to the monitor’s DVI input ( the two DVI-to-VGA graphics adapters with a VGA cable between will not work in this setup )
  1. Next press and hold the Windows flag key in the lower left corner of the keyboard, then tap the ‘P’ key and release the Windows flag key
  2. From the Present menu on the right side of the screen select the Extend option

This will help to reset the displays if Windows has mirrored or disabled the display but the windows Display Settings menu is not correctly showing these settings.

Please let me know if this helps,

Thank you,

Pat
Plugable Technology
support@plugable.com

Hi Pat
That did the trick! Thank you. 2 questions.

  1. If I leave this setup alone, will it automatically come back when I restart or power on my laptop?
  2. The 228 screen matches the laptop screen as desktop with no icons. Newer monitor has all of my open tabs . I was able to drag 1 of those tabs to 228 successfully but picture full is stretched too wide when go full screen.
    Was able to drag a tab to laptop also.
    So I got that going for me…which is nice.
    Thoughts?

Hi,

That’s great! I am glad that helped to get the displays both up and working!

Yes, the displays should maintain their settings after disconnecting the docking station and reconnecting, or shutting down overnight, or both.

I am not exactly sure what is going on here, would it be possible to attach a picture of the displays when this error is happening? For example using a cell phone camera? If you would rather not post a picture publicly, please feel free to attach it as an email to our support team at ‘support@plugable.com’ with the subject line ‘#306791 - Attention Pat’ and I will take a look a the issue as you are seeing it and get back to you with some possibilities for resolving it.

Thank you,

Pat
Plugable Technologies
support@plugable.com

Hello,

We’re closing this thread due to inactivity, but if you have any further questions please feel free to contact support@plugable.com and we’ll be happy to help.

Thanks,

Pat
Plugable Technologies