How to Fix Second Monitor Not Detected on Windows 11

Windows 11 allows you to connect secondary monitors to your system to expand the desktop. The expansion enables you to use the increased real estate to multitask efficiently. Though the process of connecting a second monitor is fairly easy and usually troubleless. However, reportedly, many of the users have been facing some problems connecting the secondary display as the operating system is not able to detect the screen.

There can be several reasons the operating system is not able to detect the secondary monitor, it could be connection issues, there could be a program running in the background that might be interfering with it, or something completely else.

Fortunately, the problem most of the time is easy to fix without professional help. However, as mentioned earlier, since there can be more than one reason that may present the issue, you might need to perform more than one fix in order to eradicate the problem.

1. Rule Out Connection or Cable Issues

Before you start tampering with your system, it is definitely worth ruling out issues that can present themselves just due to an improper connection or a faulty or unsupported cable.

Make sure the secondary display is connected to power and turned on.
Locate the display ports and make sure you have selected the correct input port and source.
Try connecting to a different display to make sure the problem is with the display and not the cable.
Make sure you are not confusing HDMI/DisplayPort with one another, try referring to the device manual to rule out the mismatch between the cable and the port.
Disconnect printers, USB devices, and cameras, to make sure any external device is not interfering with the connection.
In case you are trying to connect to a wireless display, make sure they are connected to the same WiFi network.

Once you have ruled out the above-mentioned issues, you can be sure that the problem is most probably software-based. If nothing from this list worked out, just hop onto the next section to resolve the issue.

2. Force Detect the Secondary Screen

If the secondary display doesn’t light up as soon as you connect it with your computer, you can also force detect the screen easily from the Settings app on your device.

To do so, first, head to the Start Menu and click on the ‘Settings’ tile present under the ‘Pinned apps’ section to continue. Otherwise, type Settings in the menu to perform a search for it. Alternatively, you can also press the Windows+E keys together on your keyboard to open the app.

After that, from the ‘Settings’ window, make sure you have selected the ‘System’ tab present on the left sidebar to proceed.

Then, from the right section of the window, locate and click on the ‘Display’ tile to continue.

Note: Before proceeding to the next step, make sure your secondary screen is connected to the computer.

After that, on the next screen, scroll down to locate the ‘Multiple displays’ tile present under the ‘Scale & layout’ section on the page and click on it to expand the option. Then, click on the ‘Detect’ button following the ‘Detect other display’ option. Windows will now detect the other displays connected with the system.

3. Update your Graphics Driver

If the operating system is not detecting the secondary screen even after force detection, this can indicate a problem from the graphics card’s driver side. Hence, if you have not recently updated them, it is high time you should do that as there’s a high possibility updating them can fix the issue for you.

To update the graphics driver, first, head to the Start Menu and type Device Manager to perform a search for it. Then, from the search results, click on the ‘Device Manager’ tile to open it.

After that, on the Device Manager screen, locate and double-click on the ‘Display Adapters’ to expand the section. After that right-click on the graphics card installed on your system to reveal the context menu. Then, from the context menu, click to choose the ‘Update driver’ option to proceed. This will open a separate window on your screen.

Then, from the separately opened window, click on the ‘Search automatically for drivers’ in case you wish to let Windows find the latest driver for the graphics card from the Microsoft server.

Otherwise, if you already have a driver package to install, click on the ‘Browse my computer for drivers’ option to open a File Explorer window and locate the driver package manually.

Note: Some devices may have more than one graphics card installed in them, hence we recommend updating both of them following the same set of instructions mentioned above.

Once the drivers have been updated, restart your PC from the Start Menu and again connect the second display to check if the issue has been resolved.

4. Roll Back Graphics Driver

If you have recently updated your graphics driver and started facing the problem right after that, most probably the update is causing the issue. Hence, rolling back the update of the graphics driver can definitely resolve the issue in this case.

To roll back a driver on your Windows device, first, head to the Start Menu and type Device Manager to perform a search for it. Then, from the search results, click on the ‘Device Manager’ tile to open it.

Next, on the ‘Device Manager’ screen, locate and double-click on the ‘Display adapters’ option to expand the section. Next, right-click on the graphics card present under the section to reveal the context menu. Then, from the context menu, click to choose the ‘Properties’ option to proceed. This will open a separate window on your screen.

Now, from the separately opened window, click on the ‘Driver’ tab. Then, locate the ‘Roll Back Driver’ button and click on it to initiate the rollback process. This will open a separate window on your screen.

Now, from the separately opened window, select a reason from the list to roll back the driver by clicking on the individual radio button preceding each reason and then click on the ‘Yes’ button to roll back the driver.

Once the driver has been rolled back, restart your Windows 11 computer from the Start Menu and check if the issue still persists.

5. Make Sure Both of your Screens Have the Same Refresh Rate

Having different refresh rates on separate screens can cause a conflict of display and might cause the secondary screen to not work. However, fortunately, changing the refresh rate is a fairly easy process and only requires a couple of clicks from your side.

To change the refresh rate, first, head to Start Menu and click on the ‘Settings’ tile present under the ‘Pinned apps’ section. Otherwise, type Settings in the menu to perform a search for it. Alternatively, you can also press the Windows+E keys together on your keyboard to open the app.

Now, on the Settings window, make sure you have selected the ‘System’ tab present on the left sidebar of the window to proceed.

Then, from the right section of the window, locate and click on the ‘Display’ tile to proceed.

Next, on the ‘Display’ settings page scroll down to locate the ‘Advanced display’ tile present under the ‘Related settings’ section to continue.

Then, on the next screen, locate the ‘Choose a refresh rate’ tile present under the ‘Display information’ section. Then, click on the drop-down menu present on the far right edge of the tile.