Windows 10: External monitor greyed out after changing refresh rate

I modified the refresh rate for an external monitor connected via HDMI from a W11 laptop, and as a result the monitor is no longer available to Extend or Duplicate my display. I can still use the monitor perfectly fine when selecting "Show only on 2" but it will not extend and when checking the display adapter properties when using it on it's own it lists the refresh rate as 60Hz. When I attempt to select "extend" or "duplicate" for the monitor it simply defaults back to "show only on 1". When it defaults back to "show only on 1" the external monitor is greyed out, as are all settings for this

:)

 

Refresh Rate Settings/External monitor

My external Dell UP2720Q 4k monitor has a refresh rate of 60Hz but my Windows 10 PC automatically sets a refresh rate of 59.997Hz as seen in Settings/System/Display. Should I leave that setting as is, or should I change it to 60Hz? Thanks

 

Refresh rate Problem

Hi Robert,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

Screen refresh rate is the rate at which the data displayed on screen is refreshed; it may be an image or some text document. Most of the users would like to set it to a higher rate but this also depends on the capacity of graphic
card and monitors. If the refresh rate is slow, the images on the display looks as flickering to the user eye and makes it uncomfortable to work.

Nowadays the latest monitors available in market will have minimum 60 Hz of refresh rate and it is very good option to set it to 70 Hz if you your monitor is compatible. Normally a high performance or quality monitors can reach
120 Hz of refresh rate. So I would suggest you to set your monitor refresh rate as higher as possible, below given steps describes how to access this feature on your Windows 8.1/10 PC.

• The default refresh rate setting is 60 Hertz (HZ); however, your monitor may support a higher setting. Check your manufacturer's documentation for information about the settings that your monitor supports.
• If you use a higher refresh rate, you can reduce the rate that your screen flickers; however, if you specify a refresh rate that is too high for your monitor, your screen may become unusable and your hardware may be damaged.
• Changes to the refresh rate affect all users that log on to the computer.

I would, as of now, suggest you to visit the computer manufacturer's support website and install the latest display and chipset drivers available for the latest operating system (currently it would be 8.1 in the list).

Hope this information is helpful. Please feel free to reply in case you face any other issues with Windows in future.

 

Refresh Rate Settings/External monitor

You can safely leave it as is. *Smile This is mine... In Nvidia Control panel it says 60Hz.