SurfaceBook with Surface dock and two external displays

[benyukhis]

I can get one display to function but not two at the same time and never when dock is initially attached upon IPL. Even to get a single external display to function through the Surface dock, I have to boot the machine w/o any displays attached, then disconnect the dock, re-attach the external display to one of the mini display ports and then re-attach the dock to the SurfaceBook. I can not get both external displays to function no matter what I do and no matter which display I disconnect. Either one will function if its the ONLY external display connected to the dock. Any thoughts on the matter? Anybody?

Thank you,

Ed Benyukhis

 

[protip]

This is a known issue and many of us are affected by it. For my part, I cannot get two 4K monitors to work on the dock, despite it having been advertised as supporting precisely that. See, for example, the following thread:

4K monitor not working thru new dock | Microsoft Surface Forums

 

[benyukhis]

Protip, very much appreciated. My two external displays are Asus VS278. Is the issue applicable to my situation as well or it only afflicts folks with a pair of 4K displays?
Thanks,

Ed-

 

[protip]

From what I've gathered here and elsewhere, attempting to connect two monitors is a general problem with some having success and others not. But I don't think anyone has a dock successfully powering two 4K monitors simultaneously.

I suspect whatever the problem is with dual displays is made especially acute when you attempt to drive two 4Ks.

 

[Aegeas]

You have to make sure you are on the very latest driver revisions and have done a real shutdown and restart (shift+click shutdown in the start menu).

Reddit link removed.

 

[jnjroach]

I'm using a 4K and a 2K Monitor through the new dock as well as the SP4 screen, using high quality mDP to DP cables, one in each of the mDP Ports in the dock. I'm not chaining or using the mDP on the device.

We also have our Surface Books using the same setup.

 

[protip]

Note that this guy is using a Surface Pro 4 and not a Surface Book. He has one of the two 4K monitors plugged into the Surface's internal mini-DisplayPort, and not both on the dock. While it is not easy to attach a mini-DisplayPort to the Surface Book base while docked (it is necessary to shave your cable's connector down to squeeze by the dock connector), this workaround also does not work on the Surface Book.

To date, I have heard of no one running two 4K monitors on a Surface Book. Surface Pro 4 via the aforementioned trick, yes. But not Surface Book.

 

[Nuspieds]

I have three external monitors connected to my Dock: 2 via mini DP-to-DP and 1 via USB DisplayLink to DP. All monitors are 2560 x 1600 30" Dells.

They have all always worked from the outset; however, there were major reliability issues: Wake from sleep and reboots would often cause one or more to become unknown to Windows. Moreover, screen resolution would be totally messed up to the point where Windows would recognize the monitor as having a max resolution of 1024 x 768.

With the cumulative updates, things have significantly improved for me. The December 2nd update--so far, with just a few days in--has proven to provide the most stability. It's still too early for me to make any firm conclusions but, so far, no more external monitor issues (except those caused by wake-from-sleep).

 

[elee532]

I have one 2560 x 1080 monitor and one 2560 x 1440 monitor. Are these considered 4k monitors? Is it going to be problematic running both of these through the Surface Book dock?

 

[Telstar1948]

I have one 2560 x 1080 monitor and one 2560 x 1440 monitor. Are these considered 4k monitors? Is it going to be problematic running both of these through the Surface Book dock?

No, your monitors are not 4k. Whether both will work through your dock depends on different variables. You'll have to give it a try to see what happens. I have one 32" hooked through my new dock to my Surface Book, and it works fine. I have two 24" monitors that I had with my SP3 with dock, and they both worked fine that way. Of course, one was hooked up through the dock and one through the mDP port on my SP3. I haven't tried to run them from my new dock though.

 

[protip]

I have one 2560 x 1080 monitor and one 2560 x 1440 monitor. Are these considered 4k monitors? Is it going to be problematic running both of these through the Surface Book dock?

As Telstar1948 said, the monitors you cite are not 4K (The shorthand name "4K" roughly refers to the horizontal resolution and commonly means 3840x2160 and somewhat less commonly, 4096x2160). The monitors you've cited in similar shorthand may be called "2K," even though they're more accurately something like 2.5K.

Based on the reports I've read here and on other forums, I suspect your two monitors would work with the dock, but there is a possibility they would not. I think the balance is that more people have had success with that type of configuration than those who have not.

 

[benyukhis]

Happy to report to you all that if the lid is configured in power management setup to keep machine running, with closed lid I can drive both displays connected to two mini display ports on the surface dock. The Intel 520 HD device driver is still not completely stable but is usable.