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mandar

New Member
I have a variety of monitors/projectors that I want to connect to (at home and at work) with the surface dock but unfortunately none of them have display/mini display ports, only HDMI VGA and DVI. So I went out and bought some adapters and it seem HDMI and DVI do not work in the dock or when plugged directly into the surface book (all through the adapters obviously). However, VGA works fine.... Considering the quality through VGA is disgusting, I am more annoyed that this works and HDMI/DVI don't.
I have read a lot of posts about the dock having issues, but obviously a $2000+ laptop has issues with using adapters too. On a side note my old (work provided) acer works with adapters perfectly (although it wasn't mini display ports)....
Yes, I have all latest firmware and updates. Also, I have read that 'active adapters' work, but it blows my mind that VGA has no problems.

Questions now
1) Is it only thunderbolt ports which work with passive adapters for dvi/hdmi?
2) Does anyone have other laptops with mini display ports that do not work with display port adapters?
3) Has anyone fixed this problem?
4) If 'active adapters' are needed, does anyone know some good 3 in 1 mini display to HDMI/VGA/DVI for the surface book that work, and are reasonably priced in Australia, considering I need about 4?

Thanks
 

MrTickleMan

New Member
I also get the issue. I have completed the latest windows update as of 2nd March and this "may" have resolved it. I won't know for a few days but will report back to let you know.

No sorry it is not fixed. If I leave the machine (say over lunch) and it goes to sleep after 20 mins. The external monitor will not wake up unless I reboot the machine.
 

Chris_Koch

New Member
Hi all,
I installed the latest Windows 10 build and the latest available firmware update. After that my scenario is not working properly anymore.

I use as external monitor the Samsung S32D850T in PIP/PBP-Mode= using a splitscreen to display two different devices. Until the latest patch everything workes fine, but now...

When I switch off the PIP-mode, and connect only the Book -->everything is fine.

When I switch on the PIP-mode, and use the Samsung as secondary monitor -->everything is fine

When I switch on the PIP-mode, and use the Samsung as primary monitor --> some apps behave quite strange; it seems they are in a kind of 'tablet mode'. E.g. Outlook 2016 looks like in tablet mode; email preview is gone (and cannot be activated anymore); the folder area at the left is automatically minimized (and also can't be activated anymore).

Can anyone confirm this? I know maybe a quite special scenario, but it used to work before the latest update...

BR chris
 

dmills6788

New Member
I have similar problems with the Dock. I have two HD TVs (720p and 1080p) connected directly to the dock via HDMI->Mini display port cables. In order to get both monitors working simultaneously, I almost always have to do a fresh reboot with the dock cable plugged into the SB. If it goes to sleep or hibernate, the windows all move back to the SB screen and need reconfigured. Then, eventually after taking it to work and back or waking from sleep, it just won't recognize them at all. No amount of plugging/unplugging/turning on and off the TVs will help it recognize it, and I need to do a fresh reboot again.
 

elbaz

New Member
I have two ASUS monitors that work perfectly with my old Lenovo W520. With the Surface Book and the Surface Dock I can't let the system turn off the monitors. If I do they may not wake back up. When I try the monitors go into some kind of error state and become unresponsive. The only way to get them back is to pull and reinsert the power plugs on the monitors. This never happened with the Lenovo which used a DP-DP cable. I've tried two different brands of mDP-DP cables, both exhibit the same problem.

My work around is to go into the power settings and turn off the sleep and monitor options when on external power. When I'm done for the day I disconnect from the Surface Dock so that the monitors don't stay on all night. In the morning I make sure the Surface Book is booted up and I'm signed in before reconnecting the dock.
 

Inversion

Member
I have 2 Acer 27" external monitors connected to a docking station. When I open applications on these external monitors they apps are super big. Oddly enough it doesn't affect all apps, just PPT, Skype for Business.

Different problem with Win X mail. It opens the preview panel on the entire screen whereas on the SB monitor it shows both the mail tree on the left and the email preview on the right.
 
Hi all,
I installed the latest Windows 10 build and the latest available firmware update. After that my scenario is not working properly anymore.

I use as external monitor the Samsung S32D850T in PIP/PBP-Mode= using a splitscreen to display two different devices. Until the latest patch everything workes fine, but now...

When I switch off the PIP-mode, and connect only the Book -->everything is fine.

When I switch on the PIP-mode, and use the Samsung as secondary monitor -->everything is fine

When I switch on the PIP-mode, and use the Samsung as primary monitor --> some apps behave quite strange; it seems they are in a kind of 'tablet mode'. E.g. Outlook 2016 looks like in tablet mode; email preview is gone (and cannot be activated anymore); the folder area at the left is automatically minimized (and also can't be activated anymore).

Can anyone confirm this? I know maybe a quite special scenario, but it used to work before the latest update...

BR chris

I have a similar problem with a Dell U3415-W UWQHD with two devices for PBP. Whether full or aspect ratio, I cannot get the Surface Pro 4 output to anything approaching full PBP without letterboxing or skewing, regardless of miniDP > HDMI, miniDP > DP or miniDP > miniDP. Second input machine, a Lenovo ThinkPad L440 running Windows 7, does 1720x1440 (half the screen) full PBP with no aspect ratio skewing just fine.

Pretty sure this is the Intel HD 520 adapter and no full Intel control panel. I've settled on 1920x1080 over MHL using my Microsoft WiDi adapter (30Hz) as that's the largest resolution/display I can get without skewing, but still (of course) have black letterboxing top and bottom.
 

elbaz

New Member
Yesterdays (4/20/2016) updates appear to have fixed my monitor problems. I reset my power setting to allow it to sleep while connected to power. I check it after an hour and left it connected to the dock over night. Both times the monitors woke up normally. *\o/*

I have seen reports that the updates caused problems for some, so you might want to do your research before jumping in.

Bernie
 
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