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Next, check for updated drivers and firmware for your monitor(s) from the manufacturers website. Surface Pro 4 Docking Station Display Issues: Check For Updated Drivers/Firmware If it tells you there are updates to install, install them and reconnect the monitor(s) to your dock to see if the issue has been resolved. If it doesn’t resolve the issue or your Surface tells you there are no updates to install, move on to the next step. You need to do this because Windows may not install some updates for the new dock unless it’s attached when searching for updates. This will let you use the monitor on the Surface to see what you’re doing. Next, go into the Windows Updates settings on your Surface and select the Check for Updates option. The first thing you should do is connect your dock to your SP3/SP4 or Surface Book WITHOUT a DisplayPort adapter attached. Surface Pro 4 Docking Station Display Issues: Check For Updates In addition, you should follow these steps regardless of the type of display issues you’re having with the new Surface Docking Station such as:Īll three of the issues listed have been reported when connecting external monitors the new Surface Docking Station and the same steps should help with all of them. The troubleshooting suggestions I came up with below are in the order of cheapest to try/least amount of pain to the most expensive thing to try/most pain. On the plus side, it gave me a chance to put together a list of troubleshooting suggestions to help others that run into this issue. Of course, I connect via a passive Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter… sigh. The docking station’s Mini DisplayPorts may require (more expensive) active Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapters to function properly. The TL DR Version: The Surface’s built-in Mini DisplayPort will work with passive adapters just fine. If you’re curious, here’s a Reddit thread where it’s discussed in a little more detail. So, I did some research and discovered that other people had been having similar issues because the DisplayPorts on the docking station ARE NOT the same as the one on the Surface when it comes to driving DVI connected monitors. WTF? I tried the docking station with Joanna’s SP4 and had the exact same problem…. I reconnected the monitor directly to the Surface Book and it worked perfectly…. Namely, my Surface Book couldn’t use my external monitor. Unfortunately, after re-wiring my desk to get it all setup I had a problem.
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It’s a sleek little box that offers 4 USB 3.0 ports, 2 Mini DisplayPorts, a gigabit Ethernet port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and the ability to connect to a Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4, or Surface Book via a single “Surface Connect” cable. I finally got around to getting a new Surface Docking Station and I was really excited.
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