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
    2015-11-16T23:29:19+00:00

    I can confirm that the Threshold 2 update has not resolved this issue.  After a promising morning, I'm back to the distorted/flickering second screen.

    I managed to get a picture of it this time, which you can see here:

    http://i.imgur.com/DMIaPxq.jpg

    This is issue #3 as mentioned in my previous post.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-11-17T14:42:13+00:00

    I have 2 external monitors--Dell P2715Q 4k monitor and a Dell U2913WM.  I am able to only get 1 monitor to work at a time.  I am able to run the P2715Q at 60hz after I turned off MST (seems backwards but it works).

    One time I was able to get both monitors working but can't remember if that was before I had turned off MST but since then I can only get 1 external display to work at a time.

    It is definitely jacked up.  I may end up returning the dock at this point.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-11-17T16:18:54+00:00

    Thanks for the additional feedback Gerry.

    it's interesting that you ever had two working.  I've tried just about every possible configuration to attempt to get both working, even attempting to set both monitors to the very disagreeable 30 Hz refresh rate.  Nothing works for me with the Surface Dock.

    My monitors are two Philips BDM4065UC 4K displays.  These are SST displays, so there should be not be the issues that you might expect from using MST displays.

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