How to Fix a Lenovo Laptop that Won’t Detect Monitor

When your Lenovo laptop does not detect an external monitor connecting through HDMI or USB-C, reset your laptop using a physical button or from BIOS.

If you’re still having trouble connecting your laptop to monitor, manually detect the monitor in Windows, and update the GPU & monitor drivers.

While this guide is specific to Lenovo ThinkPad, the same instructions applies to troubleshooting this same issue on Lenovo Carbon or ThinBook series.

Reset your Lenovo Laptop

The quick solution is to reset your Lenovo laptop using the physical reset button. This has been confirmed by many users on Reddit as well.

Here’s how to do that:

1. Turn off your laptop.
2. Look for a small reset button that is usually on the back on Lenovo laptops. See the image below:

3. Press this Reset button for 7 seconds using a paper clip. After that, turn on your laptop again.

If you can’t find the reset button, you can also try resetting your Lenovo laptop from BIOS. Here’s how to do that:

1. First, restart your Lenovo laptop.
2. As soon as the Lenovo boot screen appears, press F1 button on the keyboard several times until the laptop enters BIOS.
3. In BIOS, press F9 key to load default settings.

4. Press F10 key to save the settings and exit the BIOS. Select Yes and press Enter key on the keyboard.

If resetting your Lenovo does not work, try the troubleshooting steps explained below. I will start with the simplest one, so follow them in order:

Manually Detect Monitor

The first thing to do when your Lenovo laptop fails to detect your connected monitor is to force detect it manually.

To do that, open Windows Settings from the start menu.

Then, go to System -> Display.

Under Multiple Display options, click on Detect button.

If your Lenovo computer still can’t detect the monitor, then move on to the second method.

Restart your laptop

A genius man once said, “Have you rebooted your PC”? This is perhaps the ideal response to any computer issue.

If this issue is due to some temporary bugs or glitches, then rebooting your laptop would likely solve it.

If this does not work, continue reading.

Check Monitor Input Source

Most latest monitors come with multiple HDMI ports, so it is essential to have the correct port selected as the input source in the monitor’s setting.

If your monitor has multiple HDMI ports, note the port number you use to connect your laptop

Then, press the Input button on your monitor to select it. You can also switch the input source from the keyboard.

Some monitors have Input settings under their settings menu. So, open the monitor settings the pressing the Menu button and then select Input Source option.

Reset the Monitor

The steps to reset monitor vary from brand to brand, but here are general instructions which apply to most common HP, Dell, Lenovo, or LG monitors:

Open the On-Screen Display on your monitor using the monitor physical button and open its Menu.

Scroll down to the Reset options and select it factory reset your monitor.

On some monitors, the Reset option may be under General Settings or Advanced Settings.

There may be a different name for Reset option on your monitor, such as Reset to Initial Settings (LG monitors) or Memory Recall (ViewSonic monitors).

Update the Monitor Driver

Like any other hardware, the monitor also has a driver that needs to be updated for proper functioning.

Here’s how to update them:

1. Open Device Manager. Expand the Monitor section.
2. Right-click on each driver there and choose Update Driver.
3. Select Search automatically for the driver option.

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I hope you found this a helpful guide. If you have any queries, feel free to ask me in the comments.