New Surface Dock Does Not Work via mini displayport to HDMI & DVI

Anonymous
2015-10-27T17:18:04+00:00

The specific device I am referring to, is the new Surface Dock for Surface Pro 3/4 and Surface Book. I have described the issue here on Reddit, and a number of others are also experiencing the same problem. Basically, the new dock doesn't work when the monitor is connected using mini displayport to HDMI. The monitor is detected correctly and the correct resolution is set, but the screen remains black. In my case, I randomly get some image on the monitor, but it's compressed to one side of the screen and garbled. The mini displayport to HDMI adapter works properly when connected directly to the Surface, so the adapter itself is fine. If I instead connect the mini displayport to VGA adapter to the dock, the monitor displays correctly. I have tried using a straight mini displayport to DVI cable and the issue remains. Additionally, I have connected a Surface Pro 3 to the dock and experience the same issue.

So to summarize, the dock does not function correctly when using a mini displayport to HDMI adapter to connect the monitor, but does work with a mini displayport to VGA adapter. This problem is repeatable using both a Surface Book and Surface Pro 3.

Surface | Accessories | Surface Dock

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Anonymous
2015-10-29T17:45:57+00:00

I purchased an active mDP to HDMI adapter from Amazon (Plugable is the brand) and so far the external monitor is working correctly through the dock.

Moderator Edit (11/3/2015):  If you are using a passive MDP to DVI adapter and experiencing difficulties, you may need to switch to using an active adapter.

If you switched from a passive to active adapter and continue to experience difficulties using Surface Dock to display to external monitors please consider making some changes to your cabling: different lengths, different quality, different adapters, etc.  If adjusting your cabling fails to resolve please consider sharing the following:

  1. Make and model of external displays
  2. Make/model of adapters if present
  3. Make/model of cables

For more troubleshooting info and steps to confirm your Dock is updated, please view our Troubleshoot Surface Dock article.

Thank you,

Josh

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Anonymous
2017-05-22T09:18:50+00:00

Hi,

 We suggest that you contact our Surface Answer Desk team for further assistance or visit the nearest Microsoft Store if you are in the US. In case you're offshore, contact our Global Customer Service team.

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-11-08T03:20:56+00:00

    I had a similar problem with Surface Book connected to a new Surface Dock and then to a LG 34" Ultrawide LED monitor (model 34UC97-S). The connection between Surface Dock and monitor was via a Mini DisplayPort (on Surface Dock side) to HDMI (on the monitor side) cable.

    The exact symptom that I had was:

    as soon as I connected the monitor to Surface Dock via the aforementioned cable the screen on Surface Book started blinking between a black screen and Windows desktop every couple of seconds and nothing got displayed on the external LG monitor. This symptom rendered the Surface Book completely unusable. If I bypassed the Surface Dock and connected the monitor directly to Surface Book via the same mini DisplayPort-to-HDMI cable everything worked perfectly at 3440 x 1440 resolution.

    Solution (workaround): I replaced the mini DisplayPort-to-HDMI cable with a mini DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort cable, connecting the mini DisplayPort side to Surface Dock and the DisplayPort side to the monitor's DisplayPort and now everything works perfectly (obviously this workaround requires the monitor to have a DisplayPort). It seems the Surface Dock cannot handle the transition from mini DisplayPort to HDMI properly.

    So if your monitor has a DisplayPort monitor, it seems a mini DisplayPort-to-DisplayPort cable (male on both sides) can solves this issue.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-11-06T17:57:19+00:00

    This is a review I posted for their Surface Dock after trying to new firmware/build released last night (11/5/2015):

    As of 11/6/2016 with newest insider Windows 10 and appropriate drivers, this product does NOT deliver. Not only does the USB controller not function correctly, it does not support dual 4k monitors as advertised. I have spent hours and hours with Microsoft technical support and they are unable to help me. I just called one last time, and they said there isn't even an ETA on it being fixed. I will change my review if their engineers can ever get the product's issues resolved. Until then, I would stay FAR away from this device. If I could give "0" stars, I would have done so.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-11-06T01:47:11+00:00

    Agreed - obviously, we couldn't get true dual 4k with that Startech. It was more wishful thinking that anything else.

    Yeah, design-wise, the new surface dock is nice as far as being so small and out the way. I just can't wait to get those monitors working together though.

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