Surface Book Docking - Either some monitors display or not all the time.

[dollabill]

So I think it's always been a "thing" where using the surface dock with multiple monitors it will either work and display all monitors, or sometimes just one monitor (and will have to do into display properties and "extend" the other disconnected one) or NO monitors will display and in the display settings, show both monitors disconnected and will either have to play with reseeding the power to the docking station to get them back or doing that AND restarting the machine. All sorts of different combinations might work. Most our monitors are DisplayPort to Mini Display Port to the surface docking stations. I've tried "higher end" DP 2 MDP cables to handle 4K better but no different cords have really made a difference. Has anyone really figured out the special cable that always works or combination? It can be with Surface Book 1/2/3

I've also always gone through installing the software so that it updates the docking station firmware to the latest, as well as, updating the GPU and setting it as primary.

 

[mjblazin]

Type "surface dock 2 won't handle 2 monitors" into Google and you get pages of hits on MS forums and individual monitor vendor forums. No firm answer exists. Weirdest ones are "working for awhile but stops working." If you need 2 monitors, the one solution that always works is USB C to USB C/HDMI for first monitor and daisy chaining the second monitor to the first. I have seen detailed technical responses on monitor forums that show the SD2 does not send a signal the monitor(s) need to establish that the monitor(s) connected. Until SD2 gets an update, no improvement is expected.

 

[wecanseeformiles]

I'm using the older Surface Dock 1661 not the Surface Dock 2. The two monitors I have running off it are.

Surface Dock >> Mini DP >> DP >> Dell U3417W at 3440 X 1440
Surface Dock >> Mini DP >> HDMI >> BenQ GL2450H at 1920 x 1080

It's been a while but on my older Surface Dock I I think there was an issue running more than 1920 x 1080 on the second monitor.

 

[mjblazin]

I was able to consistently get the Dell Display Manager app on my SP 7 to recognize the Dell monitor I connected via SD2. I never had an issue with recognizing and using the single external monitor. Since the Dell app did not consider the monitor as "supported", I did not have access to the full range of adjustments.

I had to update the firmware on the monitor and SD2 and the monitor driver plus use a displayport cable instead of HDMI. It looks like the issues likely result from the signal output from the SD2. SD2 may not deliver enough to keep these monitors going in all conditions. That type of error may account for the apparent randomness of problems reported.