Question If I need to connect to projectors often, is it better to get laptop with hdmi port than usb-c port?

anandtechreader

Senior member
Apr 12, 2018
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Hi, I need to connect my laptop to projectors often for presentations. I bought a Lenovo laptop recently. It has no hdmi port but two usb-c port. I bought a USB-C to HDMI 2 adaptor. At the beginning, it had issues in connecting to projectors 90% of the time but after Lenovo support showed me how to uninstall and reinstall video card driver, the situation improved. However, it does not work 100% of the time. Also, it seems that one if I connect the USB-C to HDMI adapter to the USB-C port near me, the chance of success is higher. Is this common? What is the reason? If given a choice, is it better to buy a laptop with built-in hdmi 2.0 port than a laptop with only usb-c port and connect it via usb-c to hdmi adapter?
 
Feb 25, 2011
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Depends on the laptop and adapter you're using. Which model Lenovo do you have? What adapter?

A lot of laptops run multiple protocols over the USB-C ports, including things like Thunderbolt, DisplayPort, and HDMI, and you just need the right kind of "dumb" adapter. (Well, smart enough to tell the laptop what it is, but dumb enough not to pretend to be anything else, IYKWIM.)

An adapter that is an honest-to-god USB->HDMI converter is intended for laptops with no other video output options. It's basically an external video card and I'd expect you to have a wide variety of problems.
 

anandtechreader

Senior member
Apr 12, 2018
293
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81
I have Yoga C930. Adapter is Anker USB-C to HDMI. It worked fine with X1 Yoga Gen 3 before. Today I had it connected to a projector at school. Within a few minutes the laptop screen turned black (sleep?) I pressed key or moved the trackpad to wake it up. Nothing showed up on the big screen. I had to unplug the HDMI cable and reconnected in order for the projector to show the images.
 
Feb 25, 2011
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That hardware should work fine.

Windows is more finicky about multi-screen than some other OSes, but you sound like you know what you are doing, and were fine with the X1, and it does sound like you're still having driver wake/sleep issues, so... if you're using the laptop plugged in, I'd also disable the various lowest-power sleep modes in the BIOS and see if that helps. Some GPU drivers don't handle those well.

Beyond that, I'd probably nuke and pave. (Clean install of a clean Windows OS without the Lenovo customizations. Manually install drivers afterwards.)