Surface Pro 3 external monitor / display port issues

Anonymous

I know many people have been having issues with external monitors and the displayport connections on the Surface Pro 3 and Surface dock. I've been having some issues too, and thought I'd share my config / workarounds in case it helps. I believe the issue is fundamentally with the Surface video drivers getting confused, not the docking station.

My explicit questions are: Is there an easy way to force it to detect new displays? Anybody have any other suggestions on how to resolve this? Is there some way to open a formal technical ticket with MS?

My hardware: Surface Pro 3 i7, 256 GB; Surface docking station, 2 HP Z24i displays (1920x1200 resolution each), StarTech Mini DisplayPort 1.2 to Triple Head DisplayPort MST Hub (StarTech PN# MSTMDP123DP)

It's setup as follows: Mini DisplayPort MST Hub plugged into back of docking station, HP monitors plugged into ports 1 and 2 of the hub.

I've had this setup running for about 2 weeks. At first I couldn't get it working, but with the last firmware update in mid August it started working fine.

HOWEVER, just this week I've had issues where I can't get the Surface to detect the displays / output to them when I first plug in to the dock in the morning OR sometimes when it's waking up from going to sleep (like at lunchtime). No amount of fiddling / plugging / unplugging things seems to consistently fix it. The 'Detect' button in the Screen Resolution window doesn't help. Doing a shutdown / restart of the Surface also doesn't consistently work. Note that when the Surface gets like this, even plugging the Hub directly into the mini display port on the Surface itself (with it not docked) won't work.

The reason I believe this is a Surface / Windows issues is that when it gets into this state, within the screen resolution settings in windows it often thinks that there is another active display plugged in and will act as such (e.g. lets me extend or duplicate the desktop) - even if I have the surface completely undocked, not plugged into anything. Specifically it says it is a "Display device on: Mobile PC Display" with a resolution lower than 1024 x 768. See pic below. This state often survives through a reboot of the Surface.

The general process I usually get to work after a couple tries:

-Use Windows-P keys to set the surface to use only the internal display

-Shutdown the surface and undock

-Unplug the dock and hub

-Plug hub back in

-Power Surface back up while undocked and login

-Dock surface

-Plug dock back in

-I'll know it works at this point because the displays will automatically come on (no need to use windows-P key to toggle them)

NOTE TO FORUM MODS:

Before you reply with your standard questions, know that I've already done all the normal things, including shutdown, check all cables, all updates installed, run the hardware and devices troubleshooter. I've also checked related threads, such as: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfpro3-surfdevice/external-display-flicker/1e2b9154-0533-4137-880f-55a90d2d6659?page=1&tm=1409850909719 (Note I've never had an issue with flicker) and http://www.surfaceforums.net/threads/mini-displayport-on-new-docking-station-doesnt-work.10577/ (This isn't an active vs. passive adapter thing.) Once I get it working it works just fine until the surface undocks or reboots. It's clearly an issue with Windows / Surface not properly detecting displays.

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129 answers

Anonymous

2015-10-31T00:21:38+00:00

This is getting ridiculous. My three monitor setup was working fine, then it broke after an update, another update fixed it and now another freaking update broke it again. Microsoft really need to get their shat together as it is becoming increasingly difficult to be an advocate.
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Anonymous

2015-10-23T14:04:58+00:00
From time to time i'll have monitor display issues between the Surface Pro 3 (i7) and the doc and the external monitors connected to the dock and to the port in the Surface Pro 3.

Today's was a new variation... in this problem where I am trying to run two external monitors, when starting the computer this morning, only one external would work at a time. I could connect either the minihdmi (and it would work external-extend) OR i could connect the dock (and it would work external-extend). In both of those cases it would show that it counted 3 displays, but the options were excluding the other number so that it was always "1 and 3" or "1 and 2" but not anything that allowed for all three to be working at the same time... if I DID choose to only display external and not use the surface pro 3 screen, then magically the two external DID work correctly.

I've looked online and seen many, many, many people running through issues and I thought I'd share the things that I've done that, so far, have worked when trying them all in a row, or together, or over again till the monitors work correctly to allow me to have 2 external monitors and the Surface Pro 3 screen all working together.
1. first off, most of the time, going to display settings kicks it into checking for externals and they show up at that point
2. unplug minihdmi from Surface Pro 3, disconnect doc, reconnect
3. do the same and switch which monitors are plugged where (crazy, but this helped a couple times)
4. plug in one at a time and see what happens, check the "extend" settings each time
5. restart while being plugged in to dock and minihdmi
6. restart while NOT being plugged in to both and then plug in one at a time after start up has finished
7. check for updates while the dock is connected and run any updates
8. this is the best one, has worked twice when other things did not... roll back to a previous restore point. twice now, when monitors have stopped working correctly there was a "critical update" the night before. I roll back to a week or two previous and magically everything works like it used to.
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Anonymous

2015-10-06T09:37:46+00:00

I have the Startech MSTMDP123DP which have worked "fine" (a lot of hasle setting it up) for a month or so on Surface Pro 3 windows 10 Enterprise. After undocking it and redock the day after, i could only connect 1 monitor. Tried a lot of disconnecting and re-connecting but without success, and I actually thought the MST hub failed. In device manager I could see all 3 screens, but was unable to detect them in display settings. Finally i downloaded Intel HD 5000 display driver from Intel site, and manually updated the driver in device manager. (unzip driver and choose the "Have disk" during driver search, point to the Graphics folder).

Using the Intel tools afterwards, I now have all 3 screens back online.
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Anonymous

2015-10-05T21:09:03+00:00

They recommended the StarTech MST Hub, (Part MSTMDP123DP) which is the one with the mini-DisplayPort. That works like a charm on the Surfaces that we have on both Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.

Docking while on, power on when docked, docking, un-docking and docking again all works perfectly so far. Resolution stays on what it should do. Quite happy so far.

Microsoft support is not telling the truth. Because many of us on Windows 8.1 with that exact StarTech MST Hub, Part MSTMDP123DP, are having issues and they know as we have reported that to them...

StarTech even sent me a new hub in case the existing one was faulty, but it had exactly the same issues.

I will try and upgrade to Windows 10 when I finish my current workload. Hopefully that will fix the issue.
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Anonymous

2015-10-05T18:21:31+00:00

Thanks Keng, this has been a big help. I have been struggling with this monitor for a month. I was about ready to return it.

I appreciate your input.
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