SurfaceBook & Doc with external monitor :(

[travelguy2500]

Got my shiny new SurfaceBook 512GB/I7 today and the ms dock - hooked up all my peripherals including my dell HD display and no joy. Driver keeps crashing every 20-30 seconds to the point where using an external monitor is useless. When I plug my monitor directly into the surface bypassing the dock, it seems to work fine so something amiss with the doc

 

[doublestack1]

I am also having issues with the SB i7 256 and a Dell 3415. All looks great when duplicating the screens but as soon as I select only the Dell monitor the screen flips 180 degrees. I checked the settings and all looks correct. It is set on landscape, 3440x1440 resolution.

Is it the dock, monitor or drivers? I updated the driver to the most recent Dell driver from their website but no joy.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Pete

 

[travelguy2500]

FWIW, I updated to the latest drivers too on my DELL P-2815Q monitor and it didn't work. At the moment, I went back to my DELL docking station (uses the DisplayLink technology) for my monitor connection (plugged into one of the surfacebook USB ports) to connect my display and all the other peripherals are plugged directly into the new MSFT dock - definitely something wrong with the msft displayport of the dock - don't know if hardware or software but it's not working for me.

 

[doublestack1]

I can't imagine why my image flips 180 degrees. I even unselected rotate screen and it still flips as soon as I select the Dell monitor as number 2 and turn off the SB monitor. Also, I miss my SP3 docking station. The SB now takes up a ton of room on my desk. Thought about tenting it but the front of the clipboard screen has the power and volume buttons.

I need to figure out another method of storing the SB when docked....

 

[todahi]

I m having the same issues. I have the new SB with the new dock and trying to drive two Dell 4k monitors. I can drive one no problem off the dock but keeps crashing when I try to extend to the second external monitor.

 

[oldsock]

I'm also having issues with the dock. I've tried several different monitors all with the same results, the machine just freaks out and keeps switching between the monitor and the Surface Book screen. I have it set to only show on the external screen when connected.

On a whim, I hooked up the dock directly to the Surface Book screen (detached from the keyboard) and it has been stable. So I guess the issue is related to the dGPU in combination with the dock.

 

[doublestack1]

So my dock issues have calmed down a bit. The Dell screen no longer flips 180 degrees (my biggest issue) however I do notice a slight cycle in the brightness. The monitor seems to fade in and out just a tad as if the driver or graphics card is strained. Inconsistently, I might add.

 

[ccates22]

Having some of these issues also. Using a mini displayport to HDMI adapter in the dock connected to HDMI cable to monitor. The external monitor keeps disconnecting itself so both screens go black for a second and then the SB comes back on. Then black again and both come on and over again. I'm going to try a mini displayport to HDMI cable so there is one less hop. So SB>dock>adapter>HDMI cable>monitor now and soon SB>dock>cable>monitor. We will see if that helps, but lots of people are having problems with the dock. I just noticed that you can't use the mini displayport on the SB while the dock is plugged in because the ports are too close. Was going to leave the SB plugged in to the dock for power, Ethernet and printer connection and plug one monitor directly in to the SB, but you can't.....
Oh, and I hear you about the loss of desk space. I was using the SP3 dock with two monitors and full keyboard. Now not sure how to fit the SB on my desk and still have room for papers. The keyboard is really nice so you could use it all the time, but I like a full keyboard for labor-intensive spreadsheets.

 

[Nuspieds]

I used to have DP daisy-chaining (since my SP2, by the way), but I eventually just recently abandoned it with my SB.

I have 3 external monitors, all 30" 2560 x 1600 Dells. I have never understood why Windows would never recognize a 3rd monitor and I have always had to use USB for the third monitor, instead of daisy-chaining.

Though I thought all such issues would be resolved not only with Windows 10 (which was proven not to be the case when I upgraded to Win 10 on my SP2) but definitely with the SB; however, that was also proven not to be true.

I have since given up and settled to use two of my externals using the two DP ports on the Surface Dock and the third monitor using USB. I'm still running into issues, but as of right now, things seems to be a bit more stable not using daisy-chaining, but just a bit.

This is all extremely disappointing and frustrating.

 

[travelguy2500]

Still no joy after firmware update - same problems. Took less than 5 min for displays to go bonkers again

 

[Nuspieds]

Yep, still the same weird behavior for me, too. As a matter of fact, I just experienced the HD Graphics driver issue, so it certainly didn't go away for me with this update.

After waking from sleep, I often lose the external monitor output. Sometimes, I can just disconnect and reconnect the dock and everything will be okay again. Other times, not so lucky and when I eject the screen, it stays blank, even after re-attaching it; end result is that I have to power off and reboot.

 

[travelguy2500]

No monitor at all and forced reboot for me too - the laptop, dock ad monitors still don't play well together