Surface Pro 4 Incompatibility with Ultra-wide Monitor

Anonymous
2016-04-12T04:59:50+00:00

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.

Surface | Surface Pro | Display and screen

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Anonymous
2016-10-13T12:16:05+00:00

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
2016-04-23T22:50:42+00:00

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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  1. Anonymous
    2017-09-13T16:25:09+00:00

    I'm glad it worked for you.  As I've noted before, I am using the proper display port to display port cable.  After months of communication with the top level of support, who supposedly worked with the engineers on this, and 3 different docks ( one of which was shipped with the latest firmware directly from MSFT for this testing ), the end result with my LG was clear:

    1. Although there are two Display Port outputs from the dock, only one will work with the ultra wide monitor.  This is consistent across all three docks with older, and newest, firmware.

    2)  The Surface Pro 4 cannot output directly from it's mini port to the monitor.

    3)  Although Microsoft has a Display Port to HDMI adapter for the Surface, it will not work with this monitor.

    4)  This problem has been shelved.  MSFT has "done all they can do" ...

    The problem is not generic to Windows 10.  The monitor works fine with a Dell Desktop computer sold through the Microsoft Store, and has never had a problem.  

    My caution - if you want to use an ultra wide monitor with a surface device, test it immediately and return it if it won't work.  Some may, others won't, and there will be no resolutions for those that fail.

    In no way am I suggesting people should not buy a Surface device.  My SP4 will be a go to solution for a long time to come and it does output fine to a standard monitor.  It's just not going to replace my desktop which is where I use the Ultra Wide.

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-09-13T15:29:31+00:00

    Solution found - Samsung ch711 Wide 32" & Surface Pro 4

    This case was very strange in the start. We have Surface Pro 3 and Pro 4 and external monitor CH711.

    CH711 monitor has two types of output HDMI and Mini DisplayPort. I also have a dock, but I have tested this with and without the dock. All drivers were updated to the latest with Surface and the dock. OS WIN10, Creators update.

    HDMI to mini DisplayPort cable

    1. Pro 3  was able show higher resolution on CH711, no issues
    2. Pro 4 max resolution was limited to 1920 x 1080 and the screen was blurry.

    While Pro 3 was able to perform and Pro 4 not; I naturally scoped out there is a problem with the cable. Wrong assumption.

    The solution was to buy a mini DisplayPort to mini DisplayPort cable Delock Mini Displayport 1.2  (http://www.delock.de/?setlanguage=en) .

    Now the setup is working perfectly.

    Rootcause: a cable

    Hopefully this helps other Samsung wide monitor users

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-08-04T16:59:26+00:00

    Richard,

    I originally had the first release Surface Book.  It didn't work right with the monitor, so I didn't use it.  Creator's update messed it up ( known issues ) so I took it to the store and we did an exchange for a new SP4 top model.  With the smaller screen I needed the larger monitor.  I also received a new dock ( which it turned out had the old firmware ).  I had the dock DVI to HDMI adaptor and that didn't work with this monitor.  I ordered the cable mentioned earlier in this thread ( DVI to DVI ) and it still didn't work.

    I contacted MSFT support who gave me specific written instructions on updating the firmware on the dock with the new SP4.  I ran the utility and it destroyed the OS on the SP4.  I took the bundle back to the store and returned with another new SP4 and dock.  MSFT support then informed me that the engineers said there was a KNOWN problem with Creator's update and the firmware utility that does cause this problem ( contrary to the insult I received from another poster in this thread ).  

    For more than two months I then worked with Global Escalation Services directly.  Several Win 10 updates were released, and eventually the output from the dock to the LG monitor worked on the right DVI port, but not the left one.  In addition, going from the SP4 direct to the monitor did not work.  The dock ports are supposed to be identical.  They even sent me a new dock, updated, for testing.  

    Nothing ever resolved the problem and they finally gave up.  Mine is a 34 inch ultrawide from LG.   From deduction, we can know:

    • The monitor is not the problem.  It works fine with Windows 10 displaying from a desktop perfectly.
    • The two DVI ports on the dock are not addressed the same or we would see the same result from each
    • The dock is necessary for this output.  The SP4 will not work at all in communicating with the monitor.
    • The cable is not the problem.  It works on one dock port, and is the spec called for by MSFT.  They even confirmed this is the correct cable.

    At this point, I doubt you will see any further work done that might address the problem.  It is simply not of interest to those who work on the video aspects of the Surface team.

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