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

Anonymous

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.

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

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:

Make and model of external displays
Make/model of adapters if present
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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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

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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315 additional answers

Anonymous

2015-12-24T10:11:41+00:00

Hi Everyone

I also had the same problem and really was pulling my hair out. I followed as much of the help you have all given (apart from getting active MDP to HDMI adapters).

Then I unplugged the Surface Dock and plugged it back in and miraculously it all worked - 2 x external monitors and the Surface Pro 4 Screen.

Hopefully it will continue......
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Anonymous

2015-12-24T12:56:10+00:00

My honest answer is I do not know..... but it does seem that everyone who has a solution ends up with it working (probably until the next time they try!!) but no one has a definitive solution that fixes all everyone for all times! The common elements to all seem to be the driver and the new style dock - but once a connection is established it does seem to remain for the session (my personal experience only??!!) and so I tend to suspect the software rather than physical elements (which remain constant for me) and "suggest " it is during the establishing the connection (and/or possible scaling resolution between devices).

I have NO solution BUT I HOPE (live in hope) that some MS engineer will read this and consider it as a possible lead. The negative to my suggestion is that I notice lots of different pc side hardware and I am unsure if all are on the same GPU (is skylake intel gpu driver different on non MS BOOK equipment??? if so then it seems to point more to the BRICK (Surface Hub). I see the Insider people activity to help MS broaden their vision in looking for a solution which looks urgent to a lot of people and doesn't even warrant a separate section! --- end of Rant????
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Anonymous

2015-12-24T23:28:18+00:00

I have been successfully working with 2 P2815Q Monitors using their Display Port connectors for the past several months using the original docking station and the StarTech MSTMDP122DP. Both monitors are running at 3840x2160 at 30 Hertz. I just purchased the new Dock and it setup the same way using Mini DP to DP. No issues even testing with lots of shutdowns, undocking's, and opening 20 or so application. I did try using Mini DP to HDMI and it just would not sync up correctly and I could not get it to work. My recommendation when using 2 Monitors is to buy monitors with DisplayPort and use straight through Mini DP to DisplayPort cables.

One other note is that using the original Surface Docking Station and running the same Monitors off of the Docking Station Mini DP and the Surfaces Mini DP was inconsistent, would throw off intermittent errors, and shut down applications.

Hope this helps.
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