Monitors on Surface Dock end up 640x480 or disabled after powering off

I have a Surface Pro 4 with the Surface Dock. I have its power settings all at default except that the When plugged in, PC goes to sleep after setting is set to Never. This means when I lock my PC or allow it to be unattended for too long, the monitors power down, but the Surface Pro 4 does not actually sleep.

I have three monitors:

  1. HP L2045w connected to the Surface Dock with a Cable Matters Active Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter
  2. HP EliteDisplay E221 connected to the Surface Dock with a Cable Matters Active Mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter
  3. HP L2045w, in portrait mode, connected to the Surface Dock with a USB to HDMI adapter, then an HDMI to DVI adapter

I also have the Surface Pro's native screen active as a 4th monitor.

Here's how they normally show in Device Manager:

Monitor 3 always revives flawlessly. Monitors 1 and 2 usually come back up wrong. Either they never power on at all, or they come on at 640x480 resolution and are reported as a "Generic PnP Monitor".

The only ways I know to fix this, short of rebooting, are to unplug and replug them from the Surface Dock or to unplug and replug the Surface Pro 4 itself from the dock. Sometimes I have to get up and down a lot during a day, and it's a big annoyance to have to reshuffle my applications across my monitors.

Are there any fixes for this yet?

I am seeing similar issue after latest dock update.  When my SP4 goes to sleep and I come back, I have lost my external monitor connected to the dock via mini-displayport.  Unplugging the power from the dock and then back in seems to resolve the issue.

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Interesting. For me, disrupting the dock or its connecting to my SP4 forces me to restart any VirtualBox VM guests as it loses the Ethernet adapter and cannot claw it back.

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Hi,

Let's look into this. Make sure that your Surface is updated with the latest firmware by going to Start > Settings > Update and security > Windows Update > Check for updates while the Dock is plugged in.

You can also update your Surface Dock with the Surface Dock updater. You can find the details on how to use and download it on this article.

Let us know how it goes.

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Hi,

Let's look into this. Make sure that your Surface is updated with the latest firmware by going to Start > Settings > Update and security > Windows Update > Check for updates while the Dock is plugged in.

You can also update your Surface Dock with the Surface Dock updater. You can find the details on how to use and download it on this article.

Let us know how it goes.

While the updater did find and install new firmware, it had no effect. I still routinely experience the original problem.

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Hi Aren,

If the troubleshooting did not help in resolving the issue, we suggest that you get in touch with Answer Desk. You can use this link to contact them.

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Interestingly, the Creators Update may have reduced the problem. The screen resolution stopped randomly changing when the monitors turn back on. However, I occasionally notice symptoms that were concurrent with the resolution change, including some desktop icons wandering to another monitor or applications popping over to a different window.

It appears that some firmware (and driver?) update(s?) got installed with the Creators Update, so it's unclear what fixed it.

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Last updated May 25, 2020 Views 3,817 Applies to: