Mini DisplayPort on new docking station doesn't work

[logger]

Then how are people daisy chaining monitors from the MS dock? That requires DP 1.2, doesn't it?

Yes, but adiamant is not Daisy chaining and he is incorrect as the docking station does indeed support DP 1.2 and it works fine. He has but a single monitor connected to his docking station so cannot have DP1.2 selected.

When connecting monitors to the docking station the last monitor must be set to DP 1.1, to tell the system the chain ends and there is no pass through beyond it. If he were to hook up a second, third or fourth external monitor those within the chain need to be set to 1.2 but most importantly the last one must be set to DP1.1.

 

[imikekennedy]

I have a new Surface Pro 3 with docking station where the external monitor was working fine for a month connected to the dock. Then, out of nowhere, it went out. The surface would not even detect the monitor in Display settings. I checked connections, device manager, windows updates and found everything to be in order - I even returned the dock and exchanged it for a new one at Best Buy. It worked fine if I connected the mini display port adapter directly to the Surface itself. I'm an IT Analyst that started as a technician 15 years ago and currently hold various Microsoft certifications. So, I tried the oldest trick in the book (that I've been using since Windows 98) - I went into device manager and uninstalled the display driver (without checking the 'Delete the driver software for this device' box) and rebooted. Windows will automatically reinstall the driver during your next boot (restart). ...And VOILA! My external display was working again while connect to the dock via the mini display port adapter. Note: My Surface Pro 3 came with Windows 10 natively installed; I didn't upgrade from Windows 8.1, but it shouldn't make a difference.

I rarely post to forums, but this issue was so frustrating that I figure it would help. Good Luck!

 

[Dnard]

Not sure if this was mentioned in previous posts but my keyboard and miniDP quit working and here's what I did to restore them:

Step 1 Press and hold the power button for 30 seconds or shutdown normally from within Windows.
Step 2: After your Surface turns off, press and hold the volume-up button and the power button at the same time for at least 15 seconds, and then release both. The screen may flash the Surface logo or just flash, but continue holding the buttons down for at least 15 seconds.
Step 3: After you release the buttons, wait 10 seconds. Then press and release the power button again to turn your Surface back on.

 

[tkutay]

Not sure if this was mentioned in previous posts but my keyboard and miniDP quit working and here's what I did to restore them:

Step 1 Press and hold the power button for 30 seconds or shutdown normally from within Windows.
Step 2: After your Surface turns off, press and hold the volume-up button and the power button at the same time for at least 15 seconds, and then release both. The screen may flash the Surface logo or just flash, but continue holding the buttons down for at least 15 seconds.
Step 3: After you release the buttons, wait 10 seconds. Then press and release the power button again to turn your Surface back on.

This fixed the video out on my docking station! I just registered to thank you! I spent half a day installing and removing drivers, trying different cables, adapters, etc. and finally gave up. Then came back to this thread and found your post. After all the things I tried I wasn't really expecting this to be fixed, but I tried and now I am using my external monitor. Thank you very much.

Edit: Just wanted to add that I shut down my SP3 from Windows while docked and external monitor connected, but not working. Then I pressed the power and volume up buttons simultaneously as Dnard suggests for more than 15 seconds and released them. Nothing happened, no flashes at all. First I thought I did it wrong and tried it one more time, nothing happened again. Then I powered up normally. When it booted up, it detected the monitor.

Edit 2: This is really getting annoying. In the last two weeks I had to apply this fix three times. Every once in a while the video output of my docking station stops working. Luckily I have been I able to fix it every time with this method. This looks like a fixable problem with a firmware update. I hope we will get one soon.

 

[ivanjh]

Not sure if this was mentioned in previous posts but my keyboard and miniDP quit working and here's what I did to restore them:

Step 1 Press and hold the power button for 30 seconds or shutdown normally from within Windows.
Step 2: After your Surface turns off, press and hold the volume-up button and the power button at the same time for at least 15 seconds, and then release both. The screen may flash the Surface logo or just flash, but continue holding the buttons down for at least 15 seconds.
Step 3: After you release the buttons, wait 10 seconds. Then press and release the power button again to turn your Surface back on.

This was the fix! Oh My! After power off/on several times, unplugging docking station, swapping adapters, removing/reinstalling video drivers. Windows updates. More reboots. More cable un/plugging. This fixed the monitor connected to the docking station's mDP instantly.

@Dnard THANK YOU. (I also signed up specifically to confirm this worked for me)

 

[benjambb]

Not sure if this was mentioned in previous posts but my keyboard and miniDP quit working and here's what I did to restore them:

Step 1 Press and hold the power button for 30 seconds or shutdown normally from within Windows.
Step 2: After your Surface turns off, press and hold the volume-up button and the power button at the same time for at least 15 seconds, and then release both. The screen may flash the Surface logo or just flash, but continue holding the buttons down for at least 15 seconds.
Step 3: After you release the buttons, wait 10 seconds. Then press and release the power button again to turn your Surface back on.

Signed up also to confirm this solution.
Spent 1.5 hrs searching for a fix this morning when my docking station display port went out. Found this, worked 1st time.

Only thing I would ask is that someone explain what the steps do. I was reluctant because I didn't want it to be a factory reset of my surface and lose everything, but it wasn't. Worked like a charm.

 

[xargos32]

Not sure if this was mentioned in previous posts but my keyboard and miniDP quit working and here's what I did to restore them:

Step 1 Press and hold the power button for 30 seconds or shutdown normally from within Windows.
Step 2: After your Surface turns off, press and hold the volume-up button and the power button at the same time for at least 15 seconds, and then release both. The screen may flash the Surface logo or just flash, but continue holding the buttons down for at least 15 seconds.
Step 3: After you release the buttons, wait 10 seconds. Then press and release the power button again to turn your Surface back on.

One more signing up to thank you and confirm this.

I've had my Surface Pro 3 for about a year and a half, and starting yesterday the monitor attached to the docking bay went out. When I hooked it directly to the tablet it worked for a while and then starting blinking on and off. This made me suspect the monitor, but when trying a different one gave the same results I knew it had to be the tablet itself. Thankfully this fix shows that the issue is just a firmware related glitch rather than broken hardware.

 

[CrazyMapMan]

I know this thread is old, but I just had a similar problem on my Surface Book 1 + Surface Dock in 2019. And solved it a different way.

Symptoms: The keyboard and mouse continued to work, but my external monitor would not. Direct connection to the SB1 worked fine, but not through the dock. The monitor was getting a signal (some of the time), but Windows did not see the monitor was there.

What did I do to fix it?

• Uninstall (+ Delete) the Intel HD 520 video driver
• Uninstall (+ Delete) the NVidia GPU driver
• Neither of those seemed to work, so I moved on to forcing an update of the Surface Dock firmware
  • Deleted the Surface Dock Firmware Update device (buried in the Device Manager)
  • Followed these instructions: Microsoft Surface Dock Firmware Update
    • Note: Just running the installer is NOT sufficient. Additionally, I
      • Rebooted the machine after installing
      • Disconnected and Reconnected the Dock to the Surface Book.
      • (Still didn't work). Waited - to let it trigger an update in the background.
      • Then, disconnected the Dock for 10 minutes. [Apparently, the DisplayPort firmware update only works when the computer is disconnected, but the dock is still powered.]
      • Reconnected - and it WORKS!

I hope this helps someone else.