Driving more than two monitors with Surface Dock

Question

At present at work I am running a company owned Surface Pro 3/Win 8.1 with the old surface docking station.  I am using three external monitors daisy chained using DP 1.2. My company has a routine policy to replace hardware on a regular schedule, and since a Surface is regarded as a laptop, it is reaching end of life. My understanding is the new Surface Pro using the Surface Doc will not support DP 1.2 or daisy chaining. This forces support down to a maximum of two external monitors.  Is this true, and if so, is there a work around that does not involve plugging in extra cables every time I dock?  If not I need to rethink the Surface next round.   

Original title: Driving more than two monitors with Surface Doc

Answer 1

Update, no responses, this must be a "no touch" subject.  I did look on Amazon, there are USB docking stations and a third party Surface Pro (2017) dock that looks like the old Pro 3 Dock out there.  However there is little information on if they would solve this particular problem.  It does sound like the mini DP port on the Surface itself will support this configuration if you delve into the classic monitor setup in Windows 10.  However everything I read says the Surface Dock uses its own software to drive the two mini DP ports and they do not support DP 1.2, or much of anything else.  Hopefully someone will chime in and provide some more information here.

Answer 2

Hi,

Connecting your Surface Pro to external displays may be a challenge but you'll be able to work it out with the correct setup. You can go to this link to find the information you need regarding your concern.

Let us know if you have other questions.

Answer 3

Hi Ruz

Thank you for the reply. The linked help page seems to show using only two external monitors, I am now using three with the Surface screen off.  Is there a set of instructions that breaks through the two monitor barrier with Windows 10 and/or the Surface Dock? 

Brad

Answer 4

Thank you for getting back to us, Brad. If you're unable to find the instructions to allow your setup to work, we recommend you post your concern in TechNet to seek more advanced steps. The IT Pro audience will be able to tell you what specific steps you need to get the setup working.

Feel free to post again if you run into other problems.

Answer 5

Thank you Ruz