How do I correct display scaling issues on Surface Pro 4

Anonymous
2016-02-19T16:31:28+00:00

I'm noticing display scaling issues and docking issues on the Surface Pro 4.  I'm using the docking connector and have two Dell 24" Ultrasharp U2415 monitors.  When I undock the Surface, the text is aliased very poorly on the Surface display, not crisp as it should be.  Certain elements appear fine, but my browser, Outlook 2016, and other apps have poor quality text.  A restart is required to get the text back to its normal hi-DPI quality. 

Secondly, if I start a program while undocked and dock the surface, some apps are scaled up (both text and UI elements of the window) and others are fine.

Lastly, a few times when the SP4 is docked and I return from being away for a few minutes, my external displays don't kick on.  Clicking the mouse or pressing keys on the keyboard do nothing.  Occasionally, the SP4 display will activate and my mouse/keyboard will control work.  I've tried disconnecting the dock connector, power cycling the dock, but only restarting the SP4 will correct this issue.

In general a restart is required to resolve any of these issues.  Is this the result of buggy display drivers or something else?

I've installed the latest SP4 firmware update and have the latest OS updates through Windows Update, as of this morning, February 19, 2016.

Surface | Surface Pro | Display and screen

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Anonymous
2016-04-28T16:48:01+00:00

Hello SP4_user11,

A lot of work was done in Windows 10 to support high resolution screens, such as the Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4, Surface Book, and third-party laptops and tablets with screen resolutions above 1080p. However, there are issues that occur when using Office apps on these devices when connecting to an external monitor with a lower resolution.

To find out more about what has been improved and what is still being worked on, please check out these articles:

The current and future improvements are dependent on having Windows 10 Creators Update installed. So if you have not yet updated, please start with that.

Best Regards

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-04-04T13:16:37+00:00

    When I use my SP4 as a tablet, and I put it to sleep and then re-dock, the external monitor icons are too large, and the only way I can fix that is to restart.  It's a Dell monitor.  Interestingly, shutting down, re-docking, and starting does not fix it, I still have to restart.  Is there any solution to this?  Minor problem, but irritating.  It doesn't happen with my Dell laptop when I remove and re-dock.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-04-07T18:23:30+00:00

    When you dock or undock, you need to sign out then sign back in. Seems to work for me every time.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-04-07T19:37:09+00:00

    What are your power settings set to? Are you set to sleep or hibernate when plugged in? You can change the settings for the screen to not time out when it's plugged in. It will always be on and you can just turn your monitor off when you're not using it.

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-04-21T21:59:35+00:00

    Ok, so my surface pro 4 had finally gotten to be fairly stable and then this week they release the "FIX" we've all been waiting for.  Now the scaling on my second monitor is completely screwy.  For example on Internet explorer the tabs and menu items look like they are at 400% while the pages themselves look correct (100%).  PowerPoint is close to useless--the ribbon takes up a couple of inches and the slide claims it is at "52%" when it is more than full size on my screen.  Dialog boxes seem to come up at about 200-300% as well making it impossible to see the entire content of the box.  Just checked my drivers and they are all the "recommended".  Any ideas?  I'm getting tired of the instability of this entire device.  Just recommended my kid by something else. . . . Wish I had my Pro3 back.

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