Surface Pro 3 external monitor / display port issues

Anonymous
2014-09-04T17:19:34+00:00

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.

Surface | Surface Pro | Display and screen

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-06-04T22:13:12+00:00

    Hey - We use the DisplayLink USB3 hubs in a business environment and have problems with them!

    We are running the same setup as you with various HP (19, 20, 22 and 23 inch) wide screens.

    On a handful of users when undocking / re-docking, the screen that's plugged into the DisplayLink USB device doesn't come back on.

    We've got the latest driver for the DisplayLink and all the latest drivers / firmware etc for the SP3, but it still happens.

    Our workaround at present is to unplug the DisplayLink USB cable and plug it back in which kicks the screen into life.

    We're going to trial a different make USB device to see if it solves our problem.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-06-05T03:01:04+00:00

    After 4 trips to the store to work on my issue we learned that the MS development team has found a bug in the video drivers that cause the problems with the docking stations.  There will be a firmware update to correct this when windows 10 is released this summer.  We were able to get mine working by going to a new monitor though the problem comes up every now and then.  I switch between the video output on the docking station and the surface to get things working again.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-06-14T13:28:00+00:00

    Same problem here.

    I've been dealing with this since I got my Surface Pro 2 with docking station and 1 Dell 27inch Monitor. The docking station just sometimes would not connect to the one monitor. The workaround is...I have to disconnect the Surface Pro 2 from the docking station, then connect the mini display to display port cable directly to the Surface Pro 2, and then disconnect -put the Surface back to the docking station, and reconnect the display port cable back to the docking station.

    Now I'm using a dual monitor setup since January of this year and it got WORSE!

    Here's what I'm using...

    Setup:

    Surface Pro 2

    Microsoft Docking Station

    2 Dell 27inch Monitors (Model: P2714H) - Resolution 1920x1080

    Display Port Cables

    Club3D Multi-Stream Transport Hub (CSV-5300A)

    Cable Matters® Mini Display Port to DisplayPort Male to Female Adapter

    Intel(R) HD Graphocs Family:

    Driver Date: 3/16/2015

    Driver Version: 10.18.14.4170

    When the Surface Pro 2 doesn't recognize the Club3D after sleep mode or hibernation OR sometimes after a restart/shutdown, I have to go through a lot of restarts and shutdowns to get it up and running again.

    Also, I notice at 70% of the time it takes along while for my monitors finally display the login screen. It looks like it takes the Surface Pro 2 to finally recognize Club3D or it could be the Docking Station it self is the problem.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-06-18T21:00:20+00:00

    So, I'm not sure if the fix for this lies with Microsoft, Intel's graphics, or the makers of the MST hubs, but it's very frustrating that we can't use dual external monitors with the Surface dock without a menagerie of workarounds and hubs.  Every other business-grade laptop dock supports dual external monitors out of the box (well, at least Dell, which is what we used before this).

    TL;DR - Try an EVGA 200-****-1301-L2 hub.

    So here's my experience.

    I purchased a Surface Pro 3 (i7/512GB) to replace my main workstation (I code). Since my existing monitors were of the Korean type (Yamanashi 30") I had to either purchase two active DisplayPort to DualLink DVI adapters for around a hundred bucks each, OR, replace the monitors for something with native ****.

    I choose the second option. However, due to my criteria for monitors I couldn't get anything which supported daisy-chaining out of the box. I ended up grabbing a couple Benq BL3200PT monitors and after a little searching around on forums a StarTech MSTMDP123DP MST hub.

    My god what a f$%#ing nightmare that turned out to be. From the outset I had nothing but problems with screens flickering, disconnecting and reconnecting by themselves and last but by no means least BSoDs.

    I kept trying to get this setup working for about a month, but finally gave in and returned the StarTech to Amazon for a refund.

    I then purchased a couple no-name MiniDP-**** cables and ran docking-station to one monitor and SP3 to the other. I continued this until it became a chore having to reconnect cables every time I re-docked my SP3.

    At this point I considered getting rid of the SP3 completely and going back to my old rig still sitting idle under my desk, but stubborn as I am I figured I'd give it one more chance. I took the plunge on a EVGA 200-****-1301-L2 MST hub. As soon as I plugged this in, still using the no-name mDP-**** cable connected to my docking station my SP3 recognized both external monitors and I was able to extend my desktop no problem.

    So, basically, if you're all still having issues, try replacing your existing hub with the EVGA one (apparently there are chipset differences between the L2 and non L2 versions so get the L2) and it should work out of the box.

    Thanks to all.  You saved  my life. 

    With powerpoint,  going in presentation mode and going back to edit mode put the surface 3 in external screen even  if there is no!

    Windows+P helped me go back to the S3 screen.

    Very good device but so messy in some occasion....

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-06-26T11:01:21+00:00

    I have my Surface pro 3 in the docking station and from the docking station connected to two daisy chained Dell monitors on the display port. 

    The monitors generally work. Still there are two issues:

    1. when putting the switched of or running Surface into the dock the monitors are not automatically detected. Both are in stand by mode. I have to fully power one of them down in order to make the Surface recognize that there are external monitors. It will then automatically switch back to my default setting: Extended display over both external monitors, no display on the Surface itself. how do I make the Surface / W8.1 recognize the external displays automatically?
    2. When in the dock and both external displays are working in the default way as described above both external displays keep disconnecting up to 5 times per minute. they turn black and it takes them up to 3-4 seconds to display the video feed from the Surface again. How do I stop this behavior ?

    thank you very much

    Christian

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