Laptop + 2 monitors

Evening PC nerds. I want to use two external monitors in extended display mode with my Windows 11 laptop, but it only has one HDMI port. It does also have some USB ports: a type A and a type C, both USB 3.2 Gen 1.
So I bought an HDMI – USB C adapter thinking I would be good to go, but it doesn’t work – it seems my USB C port doesn’t support ‘DisplayPort alt mode’.

Is it worth trying an HDMI – USB type A adapter or am I going to run into the same problem? I don’t really want to spend more on a dock type thing if an adapter cable will do what I need.

Sounds like it like my laptop doesn’t drive HDMI over the USB connections. Dedicated dock specific for that laptop might well work, a generic one, probably not.

Sounds like it like my laptop doesn’t drive HDMI over the USB connections. Dedicated dock specific for that laptop might well work, a generic one, probably not.

Hmm, that’s annoying. A £15-ish cable is probably about as much as I’m prepared to spend on this

I’m here too.

I’m going to get a usbc docking station 35 quid from amazon

Kensington do a USB C to HDMI splitter. I use one for exactly this. I’ll find the model number later, was about £35 though I think (got it from work).

EDIT

Holy crap they’re £85 on Amazon ☹️

https://www.kensington.com/en-gb/p/products/connectivity/video-adapters/usb-c-to-dual-hdmi-1.4-video-adapter-1/

Does the graphics card support 2? For they better does win 11?

As I found with my personal laptop, not all USB c connectors and chipsets can drive video. I eventually found out from the manufacturer that mine couldn’t but only after buying a Kensington USB c Dock and spending some time trying to get it to work.
Equally I also have a tiny work laptop that is capable of doing it just fine via USB c so YMMV

We have usb-c to one monitor and hdmi to the second for our work laptops in the office. Can you test that first? For home I fixed that with a 34” ultra wide which I much prefer. The usb-c Dell dongle I have does not support the resolution and my charger is not powerful enough to charge through usb-c from the monitor (85W not the 150 it draws), so a neat solution has never been possible.

Doesn’t it all depend?

Work have given me a new laptop which drives two screens (one via USB-C and presumably Thunderbolt, the other driven from screen 1 by HDMI to HDMI).

Old laptop would only drive one external display and then by the docking station.

If you disable the laptop screen (it’s hidden in the display settings somewhere) or change your lid settings so the laptop stays on when you close the lid on mains power, that will often enable the second screen of a dual screen setup. Mine will only run one external display with the lid open.

We have the two screens with specific ‘docks’. We’ve both got work thinkpads, and MrsF was given a USB C Pro dock and I have one at work, but for home I wasn’t prepared to pay nearly £200 for the USB C dock, so bought the previous Gen USB 3 Pro dock off ebay used for £35.

Kensington SD3500v USB 3.0 Dual Monitors Docking Station
Several results on the Bay.
(some without power supplies so be careful)
Like this

Just connects to your laptop via 1 USB C lead which carries dual monitor output, Kybd, mouse, ethernet, sound once you’ve installed the software.

Other makes / models also available.

What make and model of laptop is it? It can be a bit of a minefield but it does sound like you’ll probably need an external dock, that won’t be cheap though.

We have something called a Lenovo USB-c Travel hub which lets me have two monitors plus the lap top screen on.

We have an Anker hub thing that will run two HDMI screens.
Uses a standard USB A to connect to the laptop (W10) and can also support keyboard, mouse etc
Similar to the Kensington one above

Latest version seems to be this one:
https://www.anker.com/uk/products/a8380?variant=37340052258980&ref=collectionBuy

I have a Dell laptop and use a Dell usb C hub to connect two screens. In combo with the laptop screen I use three screens for work