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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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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
    2015-11-09T03:16:01+00:00

    Mine works sometimes and sometimes doesn't. Then sometimes when it is working, it fails randomly for no bloody reason, and only a full shut down and physically unplugging both the dock and surface book will (sometimes) fix it. At this point, given the advice in this forum I'm starting to worry the fix can't be done with software. I hope I'm wrong, but 2 weeks in nobody from Microsoft has so much as admitted they have ANY problems with this disaster of a launch. Unbelievable that they'd ship without testing. Such a pain.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-11-09T05:02:00+00:00

    Hi AleCS75,

    I'm glad it's working for you with one monitor!

    In my case however, one external monitor works fine either directly connected to the Surface Book miniDP or the Surface Dock minDP. The other external monitor works fine directly connected to the Surface Book miniDP, but doesn't work through the Surface Dock miniDP regardless of whether or not I have another monitor connected through the Surface Dock's other miniDP.

    In response to PJDotNet's solution, unfortunately the monitor I'm having a problem with does not have a DisplayPort input. Also, I've never had the problem that the screen ON the Surface Book is affected by the Surface Dock.

    Have you tried the Surface Dock twice with each monitor as the sole external monitor?

    I think we're all still trying to figure out the contours of this problem, and at least I'm not ready to make a definitive "The problem is" statement.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-11-09T05:28:00+00:00

    After posting my Reply, I realized that this thread is marked Answered, so this thread is no longer the place for subsequent troubleshooting or figuring out the contours of the problem that some of us continue to have.

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