Issue documentation - OBS only works on screen 2/"Why can't OBS render a preview on my laptop?"

JamesTDG

New Member
Disclaimer: This is a problem not inherent within OBS itself, and cannot be fixed through OBS or specific hardware/software (such as a DDU). A circumvention method is provided in this thread, but it does not resolve the larger issue.

So, certain laptop models come with a feature that lets you connect it to an external monitor, this sadly comes with a caveat with these models (such as my Lenovo Thinkpad w520 with an NVidia Quadro 1000m graphics card, running on Windows 10) though, it will make it so OBS cannot run properly on your laptop's screen.
In my situation, and this can be the case for others, the preview will not render and whatever you record will only capture half of your screen, BUT it is only if you have the application running on screen 1 (AKA the laptop), if you have it running on screen 2 (specifically what your graphics card is allocated to), it will work just fine, no problem.
I cannot provide solutions other than just run OBS on screen 2.

I have reported this problem to Microsoft, but much like with my situation with their Snipping Tool, which I have left several bug reports on over the last 6 months, they probably will do nothing about it. This is likely due to a hardware constraint from older systems that get barely if not zero support from either Microsoft, Lenovo, or NVidia.
 

GroundAttack

New Member
My Lenovo W520 had this problem. There is a workaround. Go into the BIOS and select settings/Display. I selected the high performance mode. My screen had to be set to a lower resolution, but it's all working now.
 
Top