Driving two 2560x1440 displays with Lenovo T430 and 433715U ThinkPad Mini Dock Series 3

laptop display multiple-monitors thinkpad

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I ended up biting the bullet and doing option #1 with a DP to mDP cable and connecting directly to the laptop's mini-DisplayPort for the second screen.

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MDMarra

I'm a Senior Solutions Architect at a Philadelphia area IT consulting firm. I currently focus on Microsoft technologies, but I have a background in vSphere, Cisco 802.11, and OS X deployment and management as well. I occasionally blog about work related things that interest me. Click on the website link to the left if you're interested. Get in touch: @mdmarra profiles.google.com/markmarra markmarra (at) gmail (dot) com

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

MDMarra over 1 year
I want to grab a second HP ZR2740w for use in my home office. I have a Lenovo T430 with an Intel HD4000 GPU, not the nVidia model.

The HP monitors come with Dual-Link DVI or DisplayPort for connectivity. The Lenovo dock has a single DisplayPort, a single-link DVI, and a VGA connector. The only output on the dock that supports 2560x1440 is the DisplayPort, which is in use by my current single monitor.

The options, as I see them, are:
1. Get a second monitor and use a DisplayPort to mini-DisplayPort cable and plug it directly into my laptop's mDP port. According to random forums on the Internet, this will work, but I can't find an official support statement from Lenovo on this. It also defeats the purpose of the dock.
2. Get a second monitor with a lower resolution and connect it to the dock's single-link DVI. This is a bummer, as there's a sweet deal going on near me for the HP monitor that I mentioned, and I already own one of them.
3. Get some kind of DisplayPort splitter. I've seen some talk that electrically, a single DP connector can support two devices at 2560x1440. Is this true? Will these devices work on the dock that I've mentioned?
Unfortunately, it's not possible to get a new dock. They are work-issued. Also, if there are any options that I've missed, feel free to chime in!
- Dan over 10 years
  
  Hire a professional.
- Chris S over 10 years
  
  #3 is true, if the chipset supports daisy-chained displays. Last I knew AMD was the only manufacturer to support this, and people have reported problems with various drivers and whatnot.
- MDMarra over 10 years
  
  @ChrisS I know you can daisy-chain thunderbolt displays, which are electrically similar (identical?) to DP when used for displays, and that Apple supports this on Intel HD4000-based notebooks. But I wouldn't be shocked to find out that they're using some special sauce to do it.