Troubleshooting multiple monitors on a Surface Dock 2 (Surface Pro 7)

Anonymous
2020-08-24T04:46:23+00:00

I'm trying to connect a new Pro 7 to two external monitors (Acer) through the Surface Dock. I'm using two USB C to HDMI cables. 

The Surface can detect the monitors and assigns them numbers (2 and 3) but the screens remain black and no numbers (or other display) shows up.

If I disconnect one of the monitors, the other one immediately turns on. It's quite bizarre.

I have updated the driver, downloaded firmware updates, disconnected/reconnected everything, and generally done everything that it says on the support page. 

I would be grateful if someone could let me know what I need to do to fix this.

Surface | Accessories | Surface Dock

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-04-13T20:45:28+00:00

    Exactly the same thing started happening TODAY with me. With the difference that:

    1. I have not changed any hardware configuration since yesterday
    2. I have been using 2 monitors (Dell + Philips) on a Surface Dock 1 with a Surface Pro 4 over a year now

    When the monitors are plugged into the Dock, Windows recognizes them, and they show up as active in Display Settings...BUT, only one actually displays something.

    Have tried updating fir firmware (can't figure out how to do that), hard restarting (and thus cleaning the cache), plugging/unplugging etc.

    Getting nowhere. Frustrating!!

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-04-13T21:14:41+00:00

    Give this a try for updating the firmware for your Surface Dock. The first link has information and links for downloading the Surface dock firmware for the Surface dock 1 and 2. The second link is for if you somehow get lost and never get to the actual page to download the Surface dock firmware. Make sure you read the first link about downloading the firmware, because when you go to the second link and click download, it will give you an option to download more than one Surface related software that doesn't have anything to do with firmware.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/update-your-surface-dock-58d8723e-eae8-5e8d-c295-f870f7703633

    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=46703

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-04-14T00:29:01+00:00

    Have you tried using Microsoft Display Adapters? This was the only solution I found for some Surface/Dock/Display issues.

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-04-14T01:50:51+00:00

    Yes!  I purchased four (two for each dock), with no improvement.  These are expensive, and together with the 2 expensive Dock 2's, it is adding up to alot of costly hardware that doesn't work.

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-04-14T13:38:10+00:00

    I was surprised to find the solution within Windows:

    > Settings
    > Display

    > Multiple displays

    I had never noticed this configuration before, even though using 2 extended displays for months now. Neither did I change this config before the displays stopped working. Now both displays are back working OK.

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