Surface Pro 7 flickers with every external monitor

Anonymous
2019-12-19T15:19:53+00:00

When I connect an external display while the Surface is already turned on, the external display is flickering. When I restart the Surface with the external monitor already attached everything works fine. Disconnecting the Surface then and reconnecting

  • same problem. The flickering appears with different monitors, different cables and with different connectors (Surface Dock or USB-C). I have the 16 GB, i7 Version of the Surface 7 with an up to date OS.
Surface | Surface Pro | Display and screen

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-03-25T13:20:14+00:00

    Update on my side: Meanwhile I got a replacement device for my Surface Pro 7 because of another problem that triggered the warranty (light bleed). The new device got a similar problem but not quite the same. So now I have still problems with a second screen but this time it is total distortion from the beginning on the second screen. But rather to restart the Surface every time with this problem I "only" have to make sure to switch projection mode to second display only. After that I'm fine, but it's still a workaround and annoying to check the projection mode every time.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-03-25T03:13:21+00:00

    Earlier I stated that I could not get the second screen to work. I was using a Microsoft USB-C HDMI adapter.

    My wife has an HP Spectre laptop that sensibly came with a Moshi USB-C to HDMI adapter.

    I tried it out just now on the surface 7 and it worked.

    The monitor is a HP Pavilion 27" with high speed HDMI cable.

    There was another posting which also an adapter problem:

    https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/all/surface-pro-7-usb-c-to-hdmi-adapter-plus-hdmi/fed202c2-99f1-40a1-b3b8-34bff3b68639

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-03-24T19:41:37+00:00

    It is such a pain.  I had the same problem with the Microsoft docking station, (the one I used with my surface 3) and a HP docking station.  However, oddly, a toshiba docking station worked fine.  The difference (I think) is that the toshiba uses a USB connector to link the Surface 7 to the dock, not the fancy microsoft all on one power connector.

    So the toshiba docket is great, no flickering BUT....it does not power the Surface.  So I also connected the microsoft surface dock to the Surface to give it power.  The microsoft dock had no external monitors attached.  This works fine.  The downside is that its more cables traipsing across the desk, needing the second docketing station (I just happened to have the toshiba handy) and just not simple to manage.

    I see Microsoft advertisements touting how fabulous their solution is.  Really??? :)

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-03-24T19:31:30+00:00

    Sounds like it.  I have not had any issue with the surface if disconnected from an external source.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-03-24T18:47:28+00:00

    I am setting up a new surface pro 7 and it will just intermittently connect to any second display and flickers when it does manage to connect for a few seconds.

    The older surface 1 and surface 3 pcs have no problem. I am using an ms brand USB C to HDMI adapter.

    This is not good.

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