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Surface Pro 7 USB-C to HDMI adapters issues

Anonymous
2020-02-01T18:47:06+00:00

So, I've got terrible issue with surface pro7 (i7/16) and usb-c to HDMI adapters. I've tried two of them and the thing is I have to replug adapters for like 20-30 times before Surface 7 detecs them and I can switch to external monitor. I can't find any pattern here. Sleep, reboot, poweroff - sometimes the adapter just works but in most cases it doesn't however device itself is recognized by the system and I can see it in the device manager (depends on the soc). There is no issue  with driver and my software is the latest. Any ideas?

Surface | Surface Pro | Display and screen

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-02-01T20:59:10+00:00

    My best guess is that alternate mode negotition with usb-c adapters fails every time and they fallback to USB Billboard device. Might be so that negotiation timeout of 1000ms which is the default is too short. Are there any ways to debug with in win10?

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-02-01T21:03:39+00:00

    Hi Staskhalup,

    Thank you for reaching out Microsoft Community. We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused.

    I'm sharing you this link: Troubleshoot Connecting To A Second Screen to provide you further assistance in getting this issue taken cared of. Please check  Solution 5 to clear display cache and Solution 7 for compatibility.

    If the link provided helps, please let our Community know by marking this post as an answer. Otherwise, don't hesitate to respond to this thread for further assistance.

    Kind Regards,

    Crest_Z

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-02-01T21:28:18+00:00

    Solution 5 doesn't work (still I don't use surface Dock just generic OEM usb-c HDMI adapter that uses alternatemode for DP/HDMI)

    Solution 7 mentions my Samsung s27D850t as a compatible monitor.

    I'd like to stress out thath this kind of misfortune is tested with 2 USB-C -> HDMI adapters, and with Lenovo x1 Carbon gen5 and even OnePlus 7 PRO with no issues. Surface Pro 7 is the only device that has troubles with alternateMode adapters.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-02-01T22:56:27+00:00

    Hi Staskhalup,

    Thank you for the immediate repsonse.

    By the way, how long is  the HDMI cord? Is it beyond 6 ft?  Can you tell us the current OS Build of your Surface device?

    If it's the updated one, it should show the OS version as Windows 10 1909. To check, simply go to Settings > System > About and see Windows specification for details.

    If not updated, make sure to update everything and try to reconnect the monitor. See if this works after the updates.

    Kind Regards,

    Crest_Z

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-02-01T23:41:06+00:00

    The adapter is less than 10cm and I am running all the latest updates including the new firmwares that were published.this week.

    As I ve mentioned the surface manages to detect adapters in 10% of attempts. All the other times the USB device driver fallbacks to usb2.0 which is clearly not the root cause but an indicator of a problem.

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