New Surface Dock Does Not Work via mini displayport to HDMI & DVI

Question

The specific device I am referring to, is the new Surface Dock for Surface Pro 3/4 and Surface Book. I have described the issue here on Reddit, and a number of others are also experiencing the same problem. Basically, the new dock doesn't work when the monitor is connected using mini displayport to HDMI. The monitor is detected correctly and the correct resolution is set, but the screen remains black. In my case, I randomly get some image on the monitor, but it's compressed to one side of the screen and garbled. The mini displayport to HDMI adapter works properly when connected directly to the Surface, so the adapter itself is fine. If I instead connect the mini displayport to VGA adapter to the dock, the monitor displays correctly. I have tried using a straight mini displayport to DVI cable and the issue remains. Additionally, I have connected a Surface Pro 3 to the dock and experience the same issue.

So to summarize, the dock does not function correctly when using a mini displayport to HDMI adapter to connect the monitor, but does work with a mini displayport to VGA adapter. This problem is repeatable using both a Surface Book and Surface Pro 3.

Answer 1

I purchased an active mDP to HDMI adapter from Amazon (Plugable is the brand) and so far the external monitor is working correctly through the dock.

Moderator Edit (11/3/2015):  If you are using a passive MDP to DVI adapter and experiencing difficulties, you may need to switch to using an active adapter.

If you switched from a passive to active adapter and continue to experience difficulties using Surface Dock to display to external monitors please consider making some changes to your cabling: different lengths, different quality, different adapters, etc.  If adjusting your cabling fails to resolve please consider sharing the following:

1. Make and model of external displays
2. Make/model of adapters if present
3. Make/model of cables

For more troubleshooting info and steps to confirm your Dock is updated, please view our Troubleshoot Surface Dock article.

Thank you,

Josh

Answer 2

Hi,

 We suggest that you contact our Surface Answer Desk team for further assistance or visit the nearest Microsoft Store if you are in the US. In case you're offshore, contact our Global Customer Service team.

Answer 3

(There should be a support forum category for the dock; Video Adapters are not quite the same)

I have purchased the latest Surface Dock for use with my Surface Book (i5/dGPU). Unfortunately, it seems that it has trouble outputting to external displays, which is quite an issue for a dock!

Here's my experience from last night, as best as I can remember:

• Plugged everything into the dock beforehand: 2 1080p monitors over DisplayPort->HDMI cables, 1 USB audio converter, 1 USB MIDI controller, 1 gaming mouse.
• First time connecting dock: both displays work! I arrange them, save my configuration (extended to both), then log out so that display scaling can normalize.
• Logging back in: device goes into a display reboot loop. Monitors continually flashing from searching to black. "Device found" / "Device lost" Windows sounds play repeatedly back-to-back, and the main display on the book flashes on and off. Obviously, the system is having a hard time coping.
• Experiments begin: I disconnect all USB devices, leaving only the displays. Same results. I try rebooting. Now the displays are not found at all.
• Disconnect all but one monitor. Disconnect and reconnect the dock. Now the monitor is found, works as normal. Connect the second monitor, the first monitor is lost, now the second works.
• I open device manager, both "Generic PnP Monitor"s are present. Only one shows up in the control panel at a time. I don't know a lot about hardware drivers, but I checked their driver properties in the Device Manager, and they have distinct IDs.
• I finally settle for one monitor on the dock. Plug all my USB back in. Things work ok, but of course I didn't buy a $200 dock to use one monitor ;)

Reviewing event logs from last night I see a lot of this:

The driver \Driver\WudfRd failed to load for the device HID\MSHW0030&Col01\5&294f3b18&0&0000.

... for various devices.

Looking to see if others are having problems. My coworker has a Surface Pro 4 with a dock and he is experiencing the same issues.

A few more things about the dock itself:

1. On the Surface Book, the connector takes up so much space that the device DisplayPort is pretty much unusable, which is unfortunate. I doubt I will ever try a 3 monitor setup, but it may have helped with diagnosing monitor problems to have been able to try the onboard port.
2. The dock makes a very loud, high-pitched whining noise when it is not plugged into my device. As someone very sensitive to noise, I find this unsettling. My desk is close to my bed, and I don't imagine I could sleep if the dock was not either unplugged, or connected to the device. It's quite loud!

Update: one more thing I noticed digging into the control panel: my external monitors are both set to 59hz refresh rate. Changing to 60 did not seem to help, though.

Answer 4

Hi,

When I connect my surface book directly to my 34" monitor (LG 34UM95) it properly recognizes the monitor and both displays and routes audio correctly. 

When I connect the same monitor to the surface book dock the screen flickers and regularly loses connection entirely.  Also when it's connected to the dock no audio passes through to the monitor.  I'm using the Microsoft display port to HDMI connector and I've tested it on two monitors, always the same issue.  Any thoughts/help?

Thanks

Dave

Answer 5

Same issue with SP3 using the display ports.  Never could get it to work, had to plug one directly into the minidisplay port on the SP3 and go without using the other one.