Surface Pro 7 flickers with every external monitor

Current state of affairs - 

Unpacked a third brand new SP7 and disabled Windows updates. Using it to remote desktop into one of the broken SP7s that has all my applications running on it. Hasn't flickered once.

On the broken Surfaces the Application Log has hundreds of Event 514, SurfaceOEMPanel errors before and during flickering, and the System log has hundreds of the Surface Tcon Driver TP Read fails errors.

On the working Surface (i.e expensive thin client), it logs two of those during bootup then they don't happen again. Guessing it's when the Surface video output syncs with the dock and external display.

Hi, few more observations:

There are clearly HW issues with some SP systems - my SP7 got exchanged, most problems were gone.

Other problems are related to the Surface Dock (V1) - it just can't do 4k monitors at 60hz, and if you add (as I did) a second monitor, it just "stretches" the HW capabilities and that results into issues which only go away with reboot, or unplugging/plugging monitors, etc... - it seems to work "fine" with just one external monitor (4k @ 60hz) - so the issue seems not to be with the SP7, but with the dock.

Interestingly there is already a new version (2) of the dock; however, it comes with a hefty price tag. The specs (everything about dock 1 and 2 see in link below) are fine; but it's too bad that both the new dock and the high end SP7 isn't able to deal with higher end monitors, e.g. with higher refresh rates...

So I have to figure out what I am going to do - buying a new dock, or a different solution or connecting the second monitor directly via USB-C (well, I don't like the plugging/un-plugging)...

Hope that helps

Theo

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4539069/identify-your-surface-dock-and-features

Thanks for this. For us, the issue is there with and without the Surface Dock. It's also occurring on very simple HD monitors (HP E232s) that run at 1920x1080. I can plug my Surface Pro 3 into the same Dock and Monitors and it works perfectly, even with the UHD Monitors at full resolution and 60Hz.

Just to reiterate to Microsoft if they are reading this:

• Brand new SP7
• Screen flickers and is unusable with USB-C to HDMI converter
• Screen flickers and is unusable with USB-C third party dock (Satechi - Certified Surface Pro 7)
• Both the Surface display and external screen flicker so both are unusable
• Screen flickers and is unusable with Surface Dock using 1 or 2 external screens that are within the Surface Dock compatibility list
• Problem exists on HD 1920x1080 external displays and UHD displays
• I can plug my SP3 into the same Dock and screens and it works fine

So either we have a bad batch of Surface Pro 7's, all were bought at the same time, or there's a firmware or driver update needed. My last stop is to unpack yet another Surface and use it without doing any updates whatsoever and seeing if it works and whether it can be pinpointed to any particular updates.

Hi, few more observations:

There are clearly HW issues with some SP systems - my SP7 got exchanged, most problems were gone.

Other problems are related to the Surface Dock (V1) - it just can't do 4k monitors at 60hz, and if you add (as I did) a second monitor, it just "stretches" the HW capabilities and that results into issues which only go away with reboot, or unplugging/plugging monitors, etc... - it seems to work "fine" with just one external monitor (4k @ 60hz) - so the issue seems not to be with the SP7, but with the dock.

Interestingly there is already a new version (2) of the dock; however, it comes with a hefty price tag. The specs (everything about dock 1 and 2 see in link below) are fine; but it's too bad that both the new dock and the high end SP7 isn't able to deal with higher end monitors, e.g. with higher refresh rates...

So I have to figure out what I am going to do - buying a new dock, or a different solution or connecting the second monitor directly via USB-C (well, I don't like the plugging/un-plugging)...

Hope that helps

Theo

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4539069/identify-your-surface-dock-and-features

Yep , exact problem as me since updates in May.. I think. 

SP7 was fine out of the box until all updates applied.

Hello , did your video go?

I have this problem and working on the documentation for Microsoft..

I have reproduced the issue as we took delivery of many brand new Surface Pro 7's with Surface Docks.

Problem doesn't exist until all the latest updates are applied... I can't pinpoint whether it's Windows Updates or Surface Firmware.