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Lucky736

macrumors 65816
Original poster
I have a PC Laptop...... quick question to those who may have done this. I need an extra monitor to be attached to it. The VGA port is in use already. I would like the HDMI to power another VGA monitor, the monitor has already been purchased. Can I just buy an HDMI to VGA cable? I don't believe this is the case but everything I read is for people wanting to go VGA TO HDMI not HDMI to VGA.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Using the best USB to VGA adapter I could find and the performance is sluggish at best.

Mods feel free to move this to a better category if you see fit.
 
I have a PC Laptop...... quick question to those who may have done this. I need an extra monitor to be attached to it. The VGA port is in use already. I would like the HDMI to power another VGA monitor, the monitor has already been purchased. Can I just buy an HDMI to VGA cable? I don't believe this is the case but everything I read is for people wanting to go VGA TO HDMI not HDMI to VGA.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Using the best USB to VGA adapter I could find and the performance is sluggish at best.

Mods feel free to move this to a better category if you see fit.

Don't know about HDMI to VGA, but there is HDMI to DVI. Could you use that?
 
You might want to connect the HDMI to a TV (and the VGA to a monitor) first to see if your graphics card will even support three (including the laptop) monitors simultaneously.
 
AFAIK, HDMI carries only a digital signal. It will work with monitors that can take a digital signal (DVI-D) but not those that only have analog (DVI-A or VGA)
 
You might want to connect the HDMI to a TV (and the VGA to a monitor) first to see if your graphics card will even support three (including the laptop) monitors simultaneously.

I do have the ability to do this so I am definitely going to try this. Thank You. I am fairly certain it does however no reason not to verify. 🙂
 
Go from hdmi to dvi and then use a dvi to vga adapter.

HDMI only carries a digital signal, VGA only carries an analogue signal and DVI will both but will not convert between the two. So you can go VGA to DVI or HDMI to DVI but not VGA to DVI to HDMI.
 
There ARE boxes that go DVI / HDMI to VGA - however they're not cheap cables, as the signal must be converted.

Also be aware that it will increase display latency slightly - so if you plan on doing anything requiring feedback to you, it might degrade performance a bit. (gaming, drawing, ect...)

Check Amazon - they had those boxes last time I looked.
 
There ARE boxes that go DVI / HDMI to VGA - however they're not cheap cables, as the signal must be converted.

Also be aware that it will increase display latency slightly - so if you plan on doing anything requiring feedback to you, it might degrade performance a bit. (gaming, drawing, ect...)

Check Amazon - they had those boxes last time I looked.

Sorry, should have specified. You can go VGA to DVI to HDMI but you'd need something to convert the analogue signal to digital, i.e. an A/D conversion box.
 
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