Surface Pro 4 Incompatibility with Ultra-wide Monitor

Anonymous

Last year I had purchased a brand new Samsung 29" ultra-wide curved LED monitor S29E790C to use with my older Surface Pro 2, and it worked like a charm. I would have it set to only display on the external display, and the graphics ran smoothly. However, much to my dismay, when I bought a brand new Surface Pro 4 (256 GB, i5, 8GB RAM model), the external monitor will, under no circumstance, adjust the native resolution properly.

The maximum option available is the 1920 x 1080 (recommended), and it's getting pretty frustrating trying to multitask using a 21:9 monitor with fat 3" black bars on either side of the active display area. I am using a regular Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter cable, which I have eliminated as the cause of the issue -- tried swapping it out with the other 4 identical ones I have as backups. I have heard tales of others experiencing the same exact issue with the newest design of the Surface moving to a 4:3 resolution in later models. Any input is appreciated.

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Anonymous

Here is my current status for connecting my ultra wide Samsung monitor to my Surface Book /Surface Dock:

I ordered 2 cables for testing - one cable is a mini display port to display port; and the second is an active mini display port to HDMI. My monitor has a display port and 2 HDMI interfaces.

The first cable I received was the mini display port to display port and when I connected this it was a complete and immediate success!! The monitor switched over right away and had the correct resolution of 2560x1080. To say I was happy was an understatement. I installed the monitor drivers for the display port and all is as it should be.

The second cable I received was the active mini display port to HDMI. I disconnected the display port cable and plugged in this new cable and I had the same issue as with the passive mini display port to HDMI meaning it would not recognize the higher resolution so the monitor and my surface both stayed black. All of this was the same exact issue as before. I am not sure if the current monitor drive installed was interfering, but honestly, was not about to make more changes at this point. I went through the typical reboot, reset the surface dock, etc, but no luck.

If you only have an HDMI port, it may be worth trying the active mini display port to see if that will work. For my configuration, the display port seems to work the best.

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Anonymous

IT WORKED!

I used the display port on my LG Ultra Wide (29UM55-P), instead of HDMI, and connected it to the mini display port on the Surface Pro 4 and now I have the native resolution (2560 x 1080) again on my LG. Looks fantastic!

Here is the cable I used:

http://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-DisplayPort-Thunderbolt-Compatible/dp/B00C7RJQPY?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref\_=oh\_aui\_detailpage\_o00\_s00

If you have a monitor that is not working with HDMI-to-MiniDisplayPort adaptors on the Surface Pro 4 I recommend going display port with cable.

Good luck all!

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47 additional answers

Anonymous

2017-08-04T12:18:30+00:00
I have the exactly same problem but with some diferences:
1. I use Surface Book.
2. My monitor (LG 25UM58-P) has 21:9 (2560x1080) and has 2 HDMI ports only, it doesn't have dvi port.
3. During the first week, it was working without no problem at 2560x1080 - with the microsoft mini dvi to hdmi adapter.
4. After one week where Microsoft made a huge SO Update, it stoped to recognize the 2560x1080 resolution and displays 1920x1080 (recommended).
So, I don't think the problem is the cable, the adapter, the monitor or the surface hardware. I think that the problem is Windows 10 for Surface Book. I have NVidia GPU which driver normally let me to force the monitor resolution and refresh hate to whatever I want, but on Surface Book, only the 3d features are shown on NVidia Panel Control - the monitor configuration is not available...

I Already tryed to update monitor drivers, intel graphic drivers, nvidia drivers...

What to do?
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Anonymous

2017-04-26T17:13:09+00:00

I ordered the same cable, and tried it with my new SP4 ( i7/16GB/512GB ) and my LG UM67-34UM67. It does NOT work, either from the SP4 or the brand new Surface dock.

I tried an email to LG, followed by a call to them, but the bottom line, it's "plug and play" so either it works, or it doesn't. There are no setting choices.

Thanks for the tip. BTW, if I output to a standard widescreen, the SP4 projects perfectly.
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Anonymous

2016-10-19T21:59:58+00:00

Did this work?
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