HDMI to VGA Not Working: How to fix it? (Explained)

If you’re a tech-savvy individual, having HDMI to VGA not working is a big problem.

If your HDMI to VGA is not working, try checking the power on the monitor to see if it actually is powered up. Make sure that you are also using an adapter and not merely a cable. In any other case, it could be due to bad ports on either the monitor or the device you want to connect to it.

Can you go from HDMI to VGA?

Even though most devices we have today actually connect with monitors and televisions via HDMI, there are still some older devices that still rely on VGA as their means of connecting to televisions and monitors.

As long as these older devices are still working for you, there is no reason why you should throw them out, right?

But the problem here is that most monitors and televisions today don’t even carry VGA ports because of how VGA is now inferior and obsolete in comparison to HDMI.

This can make it difficult for you to connect a device that only comes with a VGA port and doesn’t have an HDMI port. That said, can you actually go from HDMI to VGA if you do have a device that only handles VGA?

So, the good news for those who have devices that only have VGA is that, yes, you can go from HDMI to VGA even if you have a monitor that only has an HDMI port.

And the reason why you can do this is that there are HDMI to VGA adapters that you can connect to your devices such as your laptop and PC so that it can connect with a monitor or television that only comes with an HDMI port.

Also, HDMI to VGA adapters actually also change the input of your device to an HD output in the monitor or television even if your laptop or desktop only has a VGA port.

This means that you will end up seeing HD resolutions on the monitor that you connected to your laptop or desktop because of how the HDMI to VGA adapter could essentially adopt the standard definition resolution of your laptop or desktop to the HD resolution that your monitor or TV comes with.

As such, you don’t have to worry if you have an older device such as a laptop or a desktop that is still working completely fine but doesn’t come with an HDMI port.

By using an HDMI to VGA adapter, you will be able to use them in monitors or TVs that only come with HDMI. You are basically milking these devices while saving money in the process.

How do I get HDMI to VGA to work?

While HDMI to VGA adapters are indeed great to use if you are looking to connect your computer to your HD monitor or TV, there are some issues that tend to come with this setup.

And the most common is when the HDMI to VGA adapter isn’t actually working the way it should work.

So, what are the reasons why your HDMI to VGA adapter isn’t working and how can you fix this issue?

There is an issue with the power connection

The first reason why your HDMI to VGA adapter isn’t working is due to how there might be power problems in relation to the monitor or to the adapter itself. After all, your display won’t show if you don’t actually have any power in the monitor or the adapter.

So, the first thing you need to look at is your monitor to see if it is actually connected to a good power source or if it is powering on.

Try to troubleshoot the problem by looking at your monitor first and to make sure that it actually has power. If it has power, try connecting it to a different device to see if it is working.

If your monitor is working, look at the HDMI to VGA adapter. The adapter is constructed such that it also comes with a USB connector that should connect the adapter to your laptop so that it would have an external power source to provide the power the adapter needs to convert VGA input to HD input.

So, what you need to do is to make sure that the HDMI to VGA adapter is actually connected to your laptop via the USB connector. That’s because it should be getting enough power from the USB port on your laptop.

Always make sure that it is connected the entire time or else your adapter won’t even have the power it needs to work.

Make sure that you have an adapter and not merely a cable

So, this is one of the more common mistakes that people make when they buy HDMI to VGA adapters. They often assume that just because it comes with a head for a VGA slot and a port for an HDMI cable it is already an HDMI to VGA adapter. But this is entirely wrong because of how adapters are totally different from cables.

The first thing you need to know about adapters is that they actually adapt the VGA input to display an HD input.

In doing so, the adapter actually needs the power to adapt and convert the display and not merely connect together two ports with different connector heads. As such, a real adapter is different from a cable.

HDMI to VGA cables, to some degree, can also work as long as your laptop or computer is already capable of displaying HD input.

So, by connecting your HDMI to VGA cable to your laptop and your monitor, the cable no longer needs to adapt and convert the input to HD unlike HDMI to VGA adapters.

So, that said, always check if you actually have an HDMI to VGA adapter and not a cable. The most obvious way to tell is if the adapter comes with a USB connector so that it can connect to your laptop and get enough power to adapt the two different devices together.

However, if you only have a cable, you probably need to get yourself an adapter if the cable isn’t working.

Bad ports

Finally, if your HDMI to VGA adapter isn’t working, that probably means that there are bad ports in the laptop/desktop or the monitor/TV.

This should be quite common if you have devices that are already a bit too old because of how their ports will naturally degrade and deteriorate over time.

So, you will know if you have bad ports by connecting other devices to them. If you have a monitor with a VGA port, connect it to the port on your laptop or desktop.

The port should be good if there is an actual connection between them. If not, then that means that the port on your device might be malfunctioning.

For the monitor, you can try connecting it to a different device via an HDMI cable. So, if it is still working with a different device, then the obvious culprit should be the port on your laptop.

But, of course, you can also try connecting the laptop or desktop to a different display to check whether or not its ports are working.

So, if the computer’s VGA port is working and the port on the first monitor was also working, then it could be due to how there might be a problem with the adapter itself.

Can I use HDMI to VGA as VGA to HDMI?

So, now that you know that you can use HDMI to VGA adapters to connect a VGA input device to an HDMI output device, can you actually do the reverse with the same adapter?

We mean that in the sense where you connect an HD input device to a VGA output device using the same adapter that we used to connect a VGA input device with an HD output device.

Unfortunately, no. You won’t be able to use the same HDMI to VGA adapter as VGA to HDMI precisely because this adapter was only meant to convert VGA input to HD output and not the other way around.

So, if you are looking for a way to convert an HD input to VGA output in case you have a newer computer but an older monitor, you can still get a different adapter.

Conclusion

Even though we live in a newer age where HDMI is the standard for display ports, you still can find a way to use your VGA-only computer when it comes to its display capabilities. And this is through the use of an HDMI to VGA adapter.

So, in that regard, as long as you know how to properly use an HDMI to VGA adapter and as long as you are actually using an adapter and not merely a cable, you will be able to get the most out of your older computer without spending a lot of money.