Surface Pro 3 external monitor / display port issues

LOL! I was just logging on to see if anyone has seen this on the SP4. That answers that. Now I am convinced that no one at Microsoft is using dual external monitors!

After many attempts to get my ASUS portable display to work, I have finally found success by using the Star Tech 3.0 USB. Port.  What I needed was an additional power source on the port.  Once I got the right connector, the display is a plug and play.

Also using the EVGA 200-DP-1301-L1 device but the problem is very present. Loss of external monitor config settings, unable to reconnect. Detection sometimes will reveal the monitors but still cannot connect. MDP/DP cable to EVGA HDMI splitter to two Dell HDMI monitors. Much inconsistency in what is required to re-establish external monitor functionality. Just piling on here. A fix would be nice.

This problem still exists on a surface pro 4 with the new docking station and the same startech MSTMDP123DP  .  (had the problem on our sp3's as well)

Reading this thread with trepidation and providing my saga. Long story - this is still not fixed. We have been having this problem since November of 2014 un and including today 11/2/2015.

I bought two Surface Pro 3 i7 256Gig units with two docking station when they first came out. One for me and one for my wife. I have twin 2008 Syncmaster 26" displays with DVI/HDMI inputs. My wife had twin Dell 19" Ultra sharps and now has twin Dell U2414h displays. I also purchased a third docking station as my wife has a home office and an office-office and moves her SP3 back and forth.

The SP3 had Windows 8 on them, did the update to 8.1, then I did Win10 preview, then full blown windows 10. The wife updated to Windows 10 just this past month when she got her new monitors with the miniDisplayPort daisy chaining.

When my wife was on Windows 8.1 and the two 19" Dell Ultra sharps she had one StarTech miniDisplay port to DVI adapter connected to the docking station and one Starttech miniDisplayPort to DVI connected to the miniDisplayPort on the SP3 itself. This worked (no display problems) from November of 2014 until she updated to the newer displays and the miniDisplay port chaining last month.

My twin Samsung Syncmaster 26" display were connected with miniDisplayPort to DVI cables, one to the dock and one to the SP3 directly. This setup also worked from November up until I bought the StartTech 3 headed MSTMDP123DP DisplayPort powered adapter and connected both displays to the MST hub via CableMatters DisaplyPort to HDMI cables.

What I mean by not working; If the SP3 goes to sleep or hibernate, when it wakes - if it wakes, the external displays are not recognized and thus get no displayed image. If the SP3 is shut down and not allowed to enter sleep/hibernate 50% of the time when the machine boots, the display may or may not be recognized. Sometimes when the SP3 enters sleep mode, when awaken the displays either flash repeatedly, or there is no visible display. Interesting thing here is that the system 'thinks' that the displays are there and if you blindly type in your login password or PIN number, the system will come out of sleep on the built-in primary display. Powering down or up the external displays has no effect.

What we have done = all of these listed items failed to fix the problem:

• Obviously all updates through the Windows 10 update process - which I manually do every single day now - many SP3 firmware updates in the last year, none have fixed the situation.
• I have read that the new Dell U2414h monitors had to have firmware post May 2015, not A00 but A01. The four of them that I bought are all post May 2015. (Wife has two at home and two at office) - so this doesn't fix it. http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/peripherals/f/3529/t/19600249

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/peripherals/f/3529/t/19585842

• This site recommend some registry changes to fix the problem: This does not fix the problem: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/peripherals/f/3529/t/19580375
• swapped out Docking station for a later build - didn't work
• tried more expensive cables - no difference.
• there was a thread somewhere that discussed that pin 20 in the Displayport cables should not be connected.  I have found this to be false. Either way it didn't fix the problem.
• suggestions here did not fix the problems: https://www.techdata.com/microsoft/surface/files/MultiMonitors%20and%20Surface%20Pro%203%20_SurfaceTSP%20Airlift.pdf
• Microsoft's dedicated web page for this also doesn't solve the problem. http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-us/support/music-photos-and-video/trouble-connecting-surface-to-second-screen?os=windows-10
• There was also a hotfix patch (must manually request through a Microsoft website) that was suppose to address the problem (sorry lost the link) but that didn't fix the problems either. I still have the hotfix downloaded at home so I will add that link later today.
• Called Startech tech support, although they claim that this is not a problem with their device nor a known issues, they had very detailed instruction for how to fix it. It is a work around at best, but doesn't fix the problem.
• I called Samsung to get a firmware update for my Syncmasters but no one with these displays has ever reported a problem. There is no firmware update.

So long story short...... the problem still exists.

Startechs steps to fix it:  

• Plug the Startech adapter into the SP3 directly with no monitor connected.
• Connect one monitor.
• In the Windows 10 display settings (right click in center of screen and select screen resolution) select DUPLICATE display on both adapters.

Then do it again and select extend display to the new display.

• Connect the second external display.
• Again right click, screen resolution, and select DUPLICATE screen 1 on screen 3.
• Again select screen resolution and select Extend display to Screen 3.

:: This worked.

Then remove the adapter from the SP#'s port and connect to the docking station. Then repeat all of the steps selecting the duplicate then extended display on 2 and then again on screen 3.

:: This is where the tech support guy said - see it all works.

I made him wait while I rebooted. When it attempted to reboot, the Surface Pro 3 got stuck with the word Surface on the internal display but I never got the rotating dots during the boot. I opened the dock and hit the power button twice and the system would boot. Repeating the shut down after resetting the displays so I had all three screens again, again the machine failed to boot - removing the Startech adapter from the Docking station allowed the machine to boot. Therefore the Startech unit was causing the machine to not boot. This occurred about 50% of the time. The support person had no solution.

When the machine fails to boot and the word SURFACE is on the main display, I have let this sit for several hours and it never proceeds.

So this is my process. I shut down completely when I am gone for a large chunk of the day. When I do boot it up, if it fails to boot, I open the dock and hit the power button twice. I let it boot. Then I close the docking station. Sometimes the displays come up. Mostly not. If they do not, I right click on the internal display and select duplicate display to screen 2 (both screen 2 and screen 3 are listed in the pull down). Apply changes. Select screen resolution again and extend to screen 2. Screen resolution again duplicate internal display onto display 3. Then lastly screen resolution again and extend to screen three. Every time I do this, screen 2 and screen 3 are in a different spot. Frustrating as then I have to play the find the cursor game.

I also force the power settings in the control panel to never go to sleep and never hibernate while I am working a majority of the day or weekend.I simply created a new power profile names "NeverF'inSleep".

This is most certainly a Surface Pro Docking station issue.

I guess no one on the Surface Pro team using two or more external displays or they would most certainly be pulling their hair out. The quick boot on these systems is worthless when the darn displays take ten minutes to get up and running.

UPDATE: Amazon is great. I returned my StarTech adapter and both DP - HDMI cables and got my $125 back. I am now using two mini DP - HDMI cables; one connected from the SP3 dmDP connector to one Samsung SyncMaster and the other cable connected from the docking station mDP to the other Samsung SyncMaster monitor. No issues for several days. It is just a pain to have the video cable hanging off the side of the Surface Pro - running through the curtain rod so it doesn't fall behind the desk every time I want to disconnect or reconnect. But hey - all the monitors work and wake up properly.