Finally: Daisy-Chaining Monitors With DisplayPort 1.2!

[MarkGM1957]

HI , I hope someone can tell me what's wrong, I am tearign my hair out. MS support chat gave up. I have an SP2 bought Feb this year. I have Dell U2713H and Dell 2713HM 2560 monitors. I can drive the Monitors with the MS own MDP to HDMI adaptor at 1920 (it sometimes works at 2560). I can sometimes drive them a MDP to DP cable (several at good quality) at 2560. But its only luck if it works. Now it doesnt. Updating Windows, Intel drivers etc have no positive effect. I set the power manager to 'high' as well. What may be wrong? I am out of ideas. Thanks.

so I used a different cable and it really seems to work better. The cable which works is and 'AMPHENOL' cable. Any comments from anyone? Why is this cable not workign ad others are? From comments on the web it looks like DP cables are an issue, so why does MS not sell cables which work? Maybe I will order a couple more on the web , but this is gettign to be an expensive game....

Any ideas?

 

[Eric Oakley]

I have a Surface Pro 2, and have used a StarTech MiniDP to HDMI adapter for the past few months, and it has been flawless for the most part. Using a 2nd display was nice, but after many hours of research about the capabilities of DP1.2, and finding the monitors that support it, I finally made the decision to purchase a couple of Dell U22414H's.

I am now a bit frustrated though, because I am trying to use the daisy chain feature on the MiniDP, and having the same problems as people that have posted on this thread. Now the external displays give a message that no data is being received and they go in to sleep mode. However, if I disconnect the MiniDP port, the displays then report they are disconnected.

Monitors: Dual Dell U22414H
Cables: Come pre-packaged with Amphenol, and have also tried Cable Matters brand, as suggested by other users in forums about this issue.

My chain of events:

.:1:.
Assembled and powered both monitors.

.:2:.
Connected 2nd displayto Surface via native MiniDP to DP, and it worked.

.:3:.
On the 2nd display, I enabled DP1.2 mode.

.:4:.
Connected 3rd display to 2nd display via native DP to MiniDP, and it also worked. At this point I have 3 displays acting as my expanded desktop (very awesome).

.:5:.
I walked away from my desk, so I locked my computer ([Win]+L).

.:6:.
I returned to my desk several minutes later and woke the displays to find only the built-in Surface display is responding. I tried to turn the displays off and on, tried to unplug the DP connections and reconnect, and even tried to swap the 2nd monitor for the 3rd. The beautiful Dell displays, just sat there. ...asleep

.:7:.
I pulled the power plug from both external displays and power cycled them. After that, only the 2nd display worked. Then when it went to power save mode, it never worked via the MiniDP ports after that.

.:8:.
I ordered suggested MiniDP / DP cables from Cable Matters. No change.

So, like the rest of you, I am stuck with 2 beautiful external displays but am only using one of them.

Here is some additional information I find interesting...

I have purchased three Surface Pro 3 (i5) tablets. One of them is setup exactly like my Surface Pro 2 using the same external displays, but the SP3 works flawlessly. The SP3 never had one issue with these displays; not one!

I'm afraid this might be yet another thing that Microsoft has handed the public that should really still be in Beta phase. ARE YOU LISTENING MICROSOFT? HELP!

 

[jefhart]

So there is no clear answer on how to support dual monitors? All the reviews on the Dells say the daisy chaining is spotty at best.

 

[Nuspieds]

So there is no clear answer on how to support dual monitors? All the reviews on the Dells say the daisy chaining is spotty at best.

I started this thread and using DP daisy chaining one year ago--using Dell monitors at that.

I can honestly tell you that it has been one year of pure external-monitor bliss. No spotty issues here for me; it works.

 

[surfdock]

For those of you with the EVGA MST hubs, we confirmed with the vendor that the hubs that are not working with Surface Pro 2, Surface Pro 3, and other Intel-based laptops is due to a hardware problem in the MST hub itself. Unfortunately, this problem cannot be corrected with a firmware update in the field, so you need to RMA the unit by calling 1-888-881-3842.

 

[Peter C]

I started this thread and using DP daisy chaining one year ago--using Dell monitors at that.

I can honestly tell you that it has been one year of pure external-monitor bliss. No spotty issues here for me; it works.

Are you running this through the docking station? From what I am gathering pretty much everyone that is running their daisy chain and having problems is
a) using a docking station
b) using the U2414H (Dell is no longer offering this model... hmm?)

Hey All, Newbie here to the forum, but thought I've come to the right place. I have the same set up as PerG - Surface Pro 2, Surface docking station, 2 daisy chained dell U2414H monitors. Running into an interesting problem that I thought someone might have a little advise on....

When I connect the daisy chained monitors displayport connection directly to the Surface, things run beautifully. Yet when I dock it, with the monitor displayport connection running through the dock, each display - including the Surface itself appears to go into "Power Saving Mode" for 2-4 seconds every minute or so.... any of you seen this type of crazy behavior with daisy chained displays through a dock?

Thanks!

Have you resolved this issue? I am close to purchasing these monitors... Please adivse.

The possibility to use multiple monitors was a requirement from my side before choosing the Surface Pro 2 since I wanted to use it as my main work computer (previously I had one external 23" monitor and a laptop with 15.6" monitor). I looked at some Dell monitors (the only manufacturer I found that had monitors with DP 1.2 out?) and finally selected two Dell U2414H since it had a very attractive price (I had a somewhat tight budget). They also look really great since they have a very thin border!

I'm still awaiting the docking station and Type Cover 2 since they were out of stock, but the setup works anyway! (I will fix the cabling when my dock arrives! )

I had some small problems (only happened two times so far) when resuming from sleep and the last monitor in the chain not wanting to receive any signal. A reboot of the Surface seems to fix that... Hoping that some driver update might fix that...

The monitors are nice since they have a USB 3.0 Hub so I have daisy chained the USB as well, giving me a total of 7 USB 3.0 ports that I use for headphones, iphone cable and wireless receievers for mouse and keyboard and so on!

View attachment 1495

I see you had some issues with sleep mode activating. Is that still happening? Also, how are they working with the docking station?

 

[jefhart]

Are you running this through the docking station? From what I am gathering pretty much everyone that is running their daisy chain through the docking station is
a) using a docking station
b) using the U2414H (Dell is no longer offering this model... hmm?)

I am in the same boat. I was going to purchase a 27" and 24" Dell monitor but these posts are scaring me. I guess I could always return them but that is a pain in the a$$.

 

[Nuspieds]

Are you running this through the docking station? From what I am gathering pretty much everyone that is running their daisy chain and having problems is
a) using a docking station
b) using the U2414H (Dell is no longer offering this model... hmm?)

No docking station; direct from SP2 to my Dell U3014 then U3011.

 

[PerG]

I see you had some issues with sleep mode activating. Is that still happening? Also, how are they working with the docking station?

No, the sleep mode problems have gone away a long time ago. It was probably fixed in some firmware update (don't remember when it went away).

Unfortunately I don't have a docking station since Microsoft seems unwilling to sell it in Sweden (or anywhere else in Europe?).
I still run my setup as I initially described with the monitors daisy chained directly to the SP2 displayport. I'm now used to connect the three cables (power, displayport and USB) every morning so I don't really miss the docking station that much... .

 

[jefhart]

So there really is an issue with the docking station PerG?

 

[VieuxJules]

OK, I have 3 U2414H monitors connected to a docking station daisy chained through display port. Long story short, they worked perfectly throughout a month or so and then they started showing problems that are reported here and everywhere else, even on Mac sites.

Finally got a work around. It is simply to connect all 3 monitors to a separated power bar. When I start my SP2 the monitors stay in sleep mode, no signal seems to be exchanged. Just have to shut down the monitors' power bar and light it back up. The monitors recycle, send a signal to the SP2, the SP2 screen shuts itself down (the graphics card only supports 3 monitors through DP 1.2) and finally my 3 monitors wake up with a nice spanned desktop. It works 99% of the times. Decided not to return my monitors.

 

[Nuspieds]

OK, I have 3 U2414H monitors connected to a docking station daisy chained through display port. Long story short, they worked perfectly throughout a month or so and then they started showing problems that are reported here and everywhere else, even on Mac sites.

Finally got a work around. It is simply to connect all 3 monitors to a separated power bar. When I start my SP2 the monitors stay in sleep mode, no signal seems to be exchanged. Just have to shut down the monitors' power bar and light it back up. The monitors recycle, send a signal to the SP2, the SP2 screen shuts itself down (the graphics card only supports 3 monitors through DP 1.2) and finally my 3 monitors wake up with a nice spanned desktop. It works 99% of the times. Decided not to return my monitors.

First, congrats on finding a workaround that allows you to keep your monitors and benefit from a multi-monitor setup!

However, it is odd that you have to turn off then on your monitors' power bar during SP2 startup. In my case, my external monitors are enabled and functioning at the Windows logon screen. Actually, I have two boot partitions (one for Windows and the other for Macrium Reflect) so my SP2 always boots to the Boot Manager and I even get that on my external monitor (the first one in the chain).