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
    2015-11-16T20:27:19+00:00

    "Me, too".  

    Surface Book, dock,  2x mDP to DVI cables, to two Dell 2007fp monitors. Both work when plugged directly into Surface Book, not the dock.  As for "active", these cables do work on the Surface Pro 2/3 dock.  Why not the new dock?  

    I did use the old control panel to see the two monitors and activate them, however when applied, they say sync out of range (and that is not adjustable in the monitor details).  They are getting the right res, but apparently not the right rate). I get this result with mDP to VGA, too. 

    There was rumor of an update, but I still haven't seen anything with results.  Updated today (Nov 16).

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-11-16T00:46:02+00:00

    Since reading your reply I have found a number of articles detailing an issue with the Surface Dock. One of my monitors is a 4K, while the other is 2560x1440. What is sad is that I spent so many hours on the phone with support. One call alone lasted for 4 hours. I spent hours setting up the initial machine. I spent hours to do a factory reset and reinstalling on my software. Then hours installing on the second and now third machine. I'm going to still call B.S. on the graphic below:

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-11-15T21:09:16+00:00

    If your dGPU shows up in Device Manager, it is working. I doubt you have received a defective device at all.

    You are experiencing a known issue with the dock, not the device. Both the Intel 520 internal graphics and the Nvidia dedicated graphics can drive 2 external monitors by themselves, and the number of monitors your device is capable of driving has nothing to do with the number of graphics processors it has.

    Make sure you've run Windows update with the dock connected to the device. The recent Fall Update (TH2) for Windows has improved the dock experience for me. Then go to Display Settings (right click the desktop) and see if it recognizes your monitors (they may be set to 'disconnected', this is an ongoing problem). If not, try different cables, and especially try an active adapter if you are converting from Mini DisplayPort to HDMI or DVI.

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