Surface Pro Miracast Connection Problem

Hello Barb,

I have just returned from our day-long trip.

TV FIRMWARE: The TV is about 1 month old.  I have not applied the latest firmware to the TV and I am not sure if the Geek Squad did, but I will follow up on this.

However, I rather doubt this is the issue, because it connects flawlessly via Miracast every time with both my HP computer and my Galaxy S6 phone.

I have friends with different versions of the Surface Pro but with the same model of TV.  None of us had any success in connecting this combination of devices until manually implementing the Alternate Configuration for IPv4, and all have been able to make it work immediately after implementing the IPv4 change - but none of us has been able to successfully repeat the successful connections.  The fact that in all cases it did work once must mean something.

**LIST OF DEVICES HAVING CONNECTED TO TV:**I did stop at Best Buy en route home today.  The Geek Squad did not know the answer to your query about the TV retaining a list of computers that had connected and nobody there could find such a list.  Although your messages came in after we departed at the crack of dawn this morning, I had thought of the same thing and we did take the SP2 with us.

We attempted to connect our SP2 to a similar TV in the store, and the result was the same - both devices indicated "Connecting...", but the connection timed out and failed.  That would tend to suggest that the issue is not a list within the TV, as this was almost certainly the first time anyone had tried Miracast with that specific TV.  I had no problem connecting to the store TV with my Galaxy S6 phone.

OTHER SUGGESTIONS: The chap at the Geek Squad desk suggested that some folks he knows had to turn off the Firewall (temporarily, of course) in order to get their Surface computers to connect via Miracast.  At least one of the two apparently continued to work after the Firewall was turned back on.

That seems bizarre to me, and I don't like diminishing our security even temporarily, but I may disconnect from the internet and try it.  However, this also brings me back to another suggestion I found online that apparently resolved the problem for the author's Surface, namely to create a Firewall exception for WUDFHost.exe.  In this case, it was a permanent change - not temporary.  Although 1 or 2 others replied that it worked for them as well, I have not tried this for three reasons:

• The aforementioned reluctance to play with the Firewall;
• I am not adequately knowledgeable to understand what that does or the implications of excepting it;
• my HP computer does not have such an exception, and I do not understand why it would be required for the SP2 if not for the HP running the same version of Windows 10 and with all the latest updates.

TV MIRACAST CERTIFICATION:  I cannot say for sure that our model of TV is Miracast 'certified', but the Geek Squad believed it to be and I would be surprised if LG could legally display "Miracast(TM)" on their screens while connection attempts are underway, if it were not.  Further, their Website also specifically states Miracast(TM) as well.

http://www.lg.com/us/experience-tvs/smart-tv/connect

Thanks again for continuing to follow up on this Barb.  It has been weeks of frustration and your assistance gives me hope of finding light at the end of a very long tunnel.

His TV is not Miracast certified.

How do we find out for sure if a TV is "Miracast certified"?  For example, this sounds like the opposite of what I got last year when buying a TV for my mother.  The sales people could not tell me if the Samsung we were buying was capable of supporting screen-casting (AKA Wi-Fi Direct) so I had to buy an MWDA just in case.  Turned out it was not necessary and the built-in functionality in the TV is much more usable than trying to use the MWDA alternative.  The Samsung E-manual only refers to two alternatives Wi-Fi Direct or "screen mirroring such as AllShare cast" (which seems to be support for some kind of app presumably based on Wi-Fi Direct).   No mention of Miracast but as I say it works fine using either my mother's HP Envy or my Surface 2 Pro or my Surface RT.

BTW Wi-Fi Direct seems to be the more general implementation detail to consider than Miracast even with my MWDA.  E.g. using PowerShell's  Get-NetAdapter -IncludeHidden  that's what I see, not Miracast.

His TV is not Miracast certified. This could be an issue. Note: yes, it is certified, my bad. Didn't see the WiFi Direct cert label. The MWDA is Miracast

certified. You can't use the experience with a MWDA with a non certified

Miracast device.

If they have this TV on display, assuming you can take your SP2 with you for the

day, see if you can connect to their display model.

Also, have you applied the 12/2017 firmware

http://www.lg.com/us/support-product/lg-OLED55C7P ?

the Smart Share video on http://www.lg.com/us/support-product/lg-OLED55C7P shows

linked devices menu after you click more on Smart Share. check there.

I note that this TV does not appear to be a certified Miracast device (the WiFi

Alliance certifies devices) and there is no mention of the word Miracast or the

WiFi Alliance logo in the user manual.

>If I make it before closing time, I will pop into Best Buy and ask their Geek Squad to answer that question

Hello Barb,

Thanks for your continued interest and assistance.

I do not know if the TV retains a list of connected computers.  If it does, I have not yet found it but, frankly, trying to find things on this TV is a frustration of its own!  The model is a 2017-year OLED55C7P 4K Ultra Smart TV with LG's WebOS 3.5.

It was purchased from Best Buy about an hour's drive from here on a summer day (we live in a rural community and there is perhaps 2ft of snow on the ground now).  Coincidently, en route back from picking up a load of construction materials tomorrow, I expect to be passing by the city where the TV was purchased.  If I make it before closing time, I will pop into Best Buy and ask their Geek Squad to answer that question (and if there is a retained list, how to find and edit it).

You have raised a valid possibility regarding a retained list associating the manually-configured IP address I selected with a different MAC address (i.e., the HP laptop); so, I will be interested in hearing what the Geek Squad have to say - but it does raise another question in my mind, namely:

• If the TV does retain a list and associate an IP address with a MAC address, and as the HP computer was the first one from which a Miracast connection was successfully attempted, why has the Surface managed to connect twice immediately following my manual changes and yet I cannot repeat that success?

You may be correct in saying that the connection is not being negotiated, but it does appear to be.  By that I mean, the instant I initiate a connection attempt, both devices indicate "Connecting" and that indication continues until the attempt times out.  That tells me the TV is seeing that a device is attempting, but that is all I can tell.

Thanks again, and I will report if/when I get an answer to your question.