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

mDP to HDMI on a Philips 288P8 selects 3840x2160@30Hz, which is the best that the HDMI input on this monitor can handle.  It does display but the top 5-10% of the display has random flickering repeated triangle interference.  This is with a fosmon mDP to HDMI cable but that is hardly relevant; the same cable plugged into the Surface 4 is fine (also at 30Hz).

I'm getting an mDP to DP cable to try that, although the monitor only has one DP input so that isn't a solution for me (I have multiple computers connected to it).

Using an active adapter is, of course, not a solution; it's just admitting that the dock doesn't work correctly (the *dock* is an active adapter itself!)  If I buy a $200 computer (the dock) I expect it to work.

John Bowler

Hi John,

Make sure that the Dock's firmware is updated. You can follow the steps from this article.

If after updating the firmware and the issue still persists, contact our Answer Desk team here.

Make sure that the Dock's firmware is updated. You can follow the steps from this article.

If after updating the firmware and the issue still persists, contact our Answer Desk team here.

I've been updating using the "Microsoft Surface Updater".  The regular cumulative updates also update the surface dock.  Since I worked out it was required I have also been careful to disconnect the dock; it doesn't get updated unless it is disconnected and left on its own in a darkened room for about 3 minutes.

Both the problem with the mDP port on HDMI UHD @ 30Hz and the problem of intermittent Ethernet port disconnects (around five every 24 hours) still exist with both the latest software and the latest cumulative update (KB3194798).  I had hoped the latter can cured the ethernet issue (I was able to confirm it hadn't fixed the mDP issue immediately), however after a few hours another disconnect occured.

I've also confirmed that neither problem is specific to my hardware (although there are plenty of other reports of the same two issues here!)  I've already sent one surface dock back and obtained a replacement (via Staples).   I would, of course, be entitled to keep on doing this, or simply get my money back; I can't tell at this point whether this is a software problem or a hardware design fault.

I have to admit, the Ethernet problem seems intuitively to be a software issue; various work-rounds have been posted (e.g. disabling the wireless).  The mDP looks like hardware; it looks like the port doesn't have the umph to handle 3184x2160@30Hz.  I have a reputable (StarTech; a highly reputable vendor) mDP->DP cable on order from Amazon (no one in SW Oregon seems to retail them) so I will be able to see if the port itself is really 4k; the display port on my monitor does support 3184x2160@60Hz.

The answer desk?  You must be joking.  As I've already reported it is a major feat to actually register the product on this and, frankly, the answer desk is just an attempt to blame customers.  I know this is an honourable approach in traditional computer sales, like the sexy black turtleneck, but this is Microsoft; I expect better.  I know when I have a product that doesn't work and I can see two threads on this bb that show that thousands of other customers have the same problem, so crowd-sourcing a bug report is not something I want to be part of.

John Bowler

This is the exact same problem I am having. It is driving me mental as I have just set this up for work, and basically anytime I disconnect the screen to use, or disconnect the dock, my screens will do this. I can get it to normalise (with no rhyme or reason, it seems to just happen eventually) but this will only last as long as I don't disconnect the dock or screen.

Has Microsoft acknowledged this is an issue?