Tuesday, August 19, 2014

How to fix HDMI problem on Dell XPS 14 (2012 or 2013 version)

My HDMI port stopped working on both Fedora 19 and Windows 7 on my Dell XPS 14 laptop, which I purchased in 2013.  You may also have this problem with the Dell XPS 12 laptop.  Unfortunately, the solution to fix it was replace the motherboard, which Dell was able to do for no charge since my system had 1 week of warranty left.  If you don't have a warranty, you might be in an unfortunate situation.

I had been using the HDMI port for almost a year with no problems on both Linux and Windows.  When I started using the Display Port with the HDMI port to drive two external monitors, that worked for about a week, and then the HDMI port stopped working.  The Dell tech support person on the phone said that they do not recommend that I use both the HDMI and Display Port at the same time on the Dell XPS 14 model, because there is not enough power to drive both (for this particular laptop model).

Here is another guy who had a different Dell model with the same issue, and he also replaced the motherboards: http://www.experts-exchange.com/Hardware/Displays_Monitors/Q_28337978.html

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