BOTH of newly purshased Thunderbolt 4 docks require reboot of Surface Studio laptop and shows black background

Question

This might be multiple issues in one but here is the story:

1. I have been almost exclusively using Windows Surface laptop products for 8 years. I have really enjoyed them but recently the new issues have been driving my crazy, especially after purchasing 3 machines over the years and having multiple Docs such as home office and work with the same 2 external monitor setup through a Dock 2.
2. Surface studio laptop (NVIDA RTX3050) (love it except of THIS issue) purchased summer 2022 has recently been dropping the external monitors after sleeping/wake mode. I eventually get the monitor to get a signal and then I can work on all 3 screens (2 externals + Surface screen).
3. Purchased all new cables (miniDP to DP) and seemed to fix the issue for a few weeks. I always update Windows and drivers for the NVIDA GPUs
4. Finally sometime in May 2023, my Dock 2 at the home office was just not connecting to the external monitors. So since my Surface Studio Laptop has no miniDP, I opened up a couple new USB-C to HDMI and connected both external monitors directly to the surface. Glory be! Everything works great! For weeks, I could close the lid on my Surface at work, throw it in my bag, come home and connect all the cables, open my surface and everything is exactly how i left it. Just like I have been doing this for EIGHT years with all my Surface Book products.
5. Now that the Dock 2 at home was bypassed, the one at work started to do the same thing as the other doc but a few weeks later. Again, yes I updated the firmware to the Dock 2s.
6. This entire time the "black desktop" color switch glitch is happening at more frequent rate. My desktop color would change to black MAYBE once every month or 6 weeks. Now, every week or a couple time per week.
7. Thinking this must all be a "planned" way to move all my Docks to the new one that came out, I purchased two (2) new Thunderbolt 4 Docks for the Surface Laptop Studio. At $300 each, I think I am now >$12,000 invested with Microsoft Surface products since 2016. So this on going issue is a bit annoying to me as a long-time customer.
8. Now that I have all new Docks and they are all updated and slick looks, MY PROBLEM IS WORSE!!
9. Now to connect to external monitors through any Dock I have to reboot the Laptop Studio. But then EVERY TIME that occurs, my desktop color goes to black and I have to change it back to my "Window XP blue" but WORKS great until the systems goes to sleep or I disconnect the Surface to move to another office and then I have to restart and fix the black color change EVERY TIME i want to connect to external monitors.

Please help.

L.Y.

Answer 1

Hi LY_9,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community. I understand that both of your newly purchased Thunderbolt 4 docks are not working with your Surface Laptop 4. I'm sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you.

There are a few possible reasons why your Thunderbolt 4 docks are not working properly. Here are some steps you can try to troubleshoot the problem:

1. Update the Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock using the downloadable MSI package. Go to this page then select the SurfaceThunderbolt4DockDrivers_Win11_x64_22000_23.033.35236.0.msi file: Download Surface Thunderbolt 4 Dock Firmware and Drivers from Official Microsoft Download Center. After downloading, run and install the file. (Update your Surface Dock - Microsoft Support)
2. Check the video cables and adapters you are using to connect your Thunderbolt 4 docks to your external monitors. Make sure they are compatible with Thunderbolt 4 and have the right specifications. For example, if you are using an HDMI cable, make sure it's rated version 2.0, or, if using a DisplayPort cable, it's rated 1.2, and is no more than 6 feet (1.8 meters) long.
3. Reset the dock by following these steps below: (Troubleshoot Surface Dock or Surface Docking Station - Microsoft Support)
4. Unplug your Surface Dock from the power connector on the back of the dock.
5. Reset the dock PSU by unplugging it from the power outlet and waiting 5 seconds.
6. Reconnect the power connector to the dock, then plug the dock PSU into an electrical outlet.
7. Avoid plugging or unplugging your Thunderbolt 4 docks when your Surface Laptop 4 is entering or resuming from a power state such as Modern Standby, Hibernate, or Soft Off. This may cause the devices connected to the docks to stop working. For more information, see: Devices connected through a Thunderbolt Dock stop working - Windows Client | Microsoft Learn

If still issue persists, please try clearing the display cache of the Surface. See this page then refer to Solution 9: Troubleshoot connecting Surface to an external display - Microsoft Support.

Let me know how it goes.

Kind regards,
Marrion

Answer 2

Hi LY_9,

We haven't heard from you, so we assume that your issue has already been resolved. We will not be monitoring this thread moving forward so, if you need further assistance, please create a new thread to discuss these concerns by clicking this link: Create a new question or start a discussion (microsoft.com)

Thank you for understanding. 

Kind regards,
Marrion