Hey y'all, so I've been using Zorin OS 17.3 Core for about a year but still feel like I know nothing so I don't even really know where to start looking for a solution, lol.
Basically, until recently, the HDMI port on my computer was working fine and I guess something in the last few weeks changed but I'm not sure what and now I cannot connect a second screen. When I plug in the port, there is a little symbol that appears in the bottom right corner (see below, the weird lightning bolt with ellipses) but that disappears after a few seconds and no external screen is detected.

I have tried a different monitor and a different HDMI port but the same problem happened every time. I also did sudo apt-get update followed by sudo apt-get upgrade a few times to make sure everything was up to date and other than my VPN, it seemed everything was.
I am on a Framework Laptop 13 with an AMD Ryzen 7040Series processor with radeon 760m graphics. The settings also say I am using Wayland as the windowing system.
Thank y'all for any troubleshooting tips!
Have you tryed switching to X11? to see if it presists? to change that log out then when you hit area to log in a gear appears in lower right corner open it and choose Zorin desktop on xorg and see if that helps
The same problem happened 
ok im wondering if a kernel update changed something do you know how to roll back to a previous kernel?
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I don't but I'm starting to think there may be some other issues cuz I'm realizing my browser isn't able to update itself either.
open a terminal and type
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
see if that helps any
I did this a few times previously, but it never hurts to try it again! (at least I hope not lol) It runs fine except not being able to update/upgrade for the VPN which I just am going to uninstall and reinstall separately (it basically can't connect to the server for repo.protonvpn.com)
ya that wont hurt nothing just makes sure your upto date is all
ah ok that sometimes happens here and there give it a few hrs it might correct itself
ok back to issue at hand to roll back to a previous kernel you shut down then on startup you hit esc key or delete or tab and a menu will pop up with 2nd line saying advance settings hit that and should see several kernels top one is what you are currently using 2nd line is a recovery for that one its the 3rd line ya want hit that one and it should boot into the previuos kernel and see if that solves the problem
the problem still exists, I can try rolling back to a previous kernel and seeing if that helps!
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if by chance it gives you GRUB> and a blinking cursor type normal and hit enter and it will return to the previous screen
Definitely try this from the Advanced Options for Zorin section of the Grub menu, but honestly... I am eyeballing your ProtonVPN as the oddly likely culprit, here.
A VPN can block an end user from getting vetted system components and upgrades.
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I rolled back to a previous kernel and it didn't fix the issue, so I tried updating/upgrading and it didn't fix. I'll try to uninstall the VPN!
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ok, the VPN is gone (what a headache to uninstall, too) and everything was able to be updated/upgraded! There was def something weird happening there but I'm glad at least that is resolved. However, the HDMI port still isn't working 
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Ok glad to hear most got corrected. im not much for multi screens all i know is they can be daisy chained but the first monitor has to have input and outputs to second monitor. I just have a 35 inch curved screen monitor for my needs... 
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I just found out when I had to give a presentation at work and the HDMI port suddenly didn't work lol. no more presentations for me ig ¯\(ツ)/¯
Welcome to the Forum!
Did You tried a different HDMI Cable, too?
And to be sure about that: You don't use a Dock or an Adapter, right? It is a straight HDMI to HDMI Connection, yes? Oh, and how long is the Cable?
I've tried 2 different cables, once with an adapter, and once with a projector, several times with a monitor, it def seems like I (or the computer lol) am the issue lol. One cable was like 10ft, one is like 4ft. The longer one worked on other computers, too, just not mine
Exciting update, y'all: after about half a dozen rounds of updates (software and firmware), upgrades, and reboots, the HDMI port works again! I think Proton VPN was preventing some updates from working properly, so some firmware was out of date, but things are working now! Thank y'all!
p.s. for anyone needing to uninstall proton vpn, good luck. I had to search through all the files on my computer and delete any for proton vpn manually since no other uninstall method was working
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