Compatibility issue with Microsoft Surface Tablet Pro 8

Hello everyone,

We have compatibitity issues with the StarTech dockingstation TB3CDK2DHUE and the Microsoft Surface Tablet Pro 8. On this dockingstation are two HP E24i G4 monitors connected.

When connecting the MS Surface tablet on the docking, only one (screen 2) external screen will be active. (Screen 1 is the tablet itself) The other one (screen 3) is not showing a working video signal, but is reconized by windows. When switching the display cables between the monitors the problem still exist but then screen 2 will not work.

When connecting a HP laptop on this StarTech docking station everything works fine.

When connecting a Microsoft Surface on a other docking station (like HP) it works fine.

We have tried many things like swap cables from display to HDMI, change the USB C cable or look into resolution and refresh rate. Nothing helps.

We have 270 StarTech dockingstations in our firm. Please help us with this issue.

Thanks in advance,

David

Hello David,

Thank you for posting this issue on the StarTech.com Community.

I took some time to review the TB3CDK2DHUE, the Microsoft Surface Pro 8, and the HP monitor specifications. I did not find similar issues. Some questions may help me better understand.

  1. Did the TB3CDK2DHUE work with the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 before?
  2. How many TB3CDK2DHUE docks are affected by this issue?
  3. Is the original Thunderbolt 3 cable tested with the TB3CDK2DHUE? Can you test other Thunderbolt 3 cables?
  4. Does screen 1 work correctly when screen 2 is disconnected? Do video 1 and video 2 ports work when connected independently?
  5. Are any video adapters or converters used between the monitors and the TB3CDK2DHUE? If you have model information this may be helpful. Or, are standard HDMI or DisplayPort cables used in your tests?
  6. Do other TB3CDK2DHUE functions work correctly? That is power delivery, Ethernet, audio, and USB functions.
With some more details, we can certainly review further and recommend next steps.

Sincerely,

David F

Senior Technical Advisor

Hello David,

  1. The docking had this issue from the start with all the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 devices we have
  2. We havetested it on 5+ dockings, but haven't tested it on the other 265 dockings we have, as this scope seemed large enough for conclusions that there must be something in compatibility
  3. It has been tested with the original TB3 cable that came with the dockings and a seperate one, but without different result
  4. The output on Video1 is not working regardless of the configuration. So : - Video1 independently does not work - Video2 independently works just fine - Video1 and Video2 at the same time, only Video2 gives output on the screen
  5. The connections has no extra connections in between Laptop [-] Startech TB3 cable [-] Docking [-] 2 DisplayPort cables to monitor 1 & 2 [-] monitors We have tested with the standard and different cables that have the minimum specs of DP 1.2, which should easily give 1920*1200@60Hz output resolution (we have also tried various lower resolutions e.g. 1080/720)
  6. PD, Ethernet, Audio, USB all work perfectly
Hope these details help in the troubleshooting.

David

Hello David,

Thank you for answering all of the questions in my last post.

It is strange that video 1 is not working at all with the Surface Pro 8. We can investigate this further.

You may have already tried this test, but please confirm. Is there any change if video 1 is connected to the TB3CDK2DHUE dock before or after the Surface Pro 8 is booted?

Could you test a different display? Another make and model monitor can quickly isolate any possible display issues.

I look forward to your update. I will take some time to look into this further and check with my colleagues.

Sincerely,

David F

Hello David,

Thank you for the swift follow-up. We see no difference before or after the Surface Pro 8 is booted.

Coming monday I will be at the office again and will then follow-up with the results of experimenting with different monitor models.

Regards,

David

Hey David,

Thank you for confirming there are no differences when booting.

I look forward to your results with different monitors on Monday.

Thank you,

David F

Hello David F,

Today we tested with two other monitors and exact the same result. No Video on this monitors at port VIDEO1. Models used: HP Elite 242 and HP Compaq LA2405wg

Again, in Windows → display settings, there are three monitors showing.

Extra check, when connecting a HP dockingstation with these other monitors and the MS Surface it works fine.
Looking forward for your answer.

Regards,

David E

Hello David,

Thank you for the results of the testing with the second monitor.

The best way to proceed is to start a live support session with my team. Please reach out to us by phone or chat:
https://www.startech.com/en-us/regional-list

When connecting with us, reference case: CAS-45238. I have added the details we’ve discussed here to help my colleagues understand what is occurring quickly. We can then gather more details and look additional troubleshooting.

Thank you,

David F

Senior Technical Advisor

Hi David F,

Unfortunately your chat function doesn’t work at all and by phone I get a menu with choices and when entered it stops, no one picks up.

David E.

Hello @David,

I apologize for the trouble with the phone and chat.

Would it be okay to email you at the address you used to sign up for the StarTech.com Community?

Thank you,

@DavidF

Yes, that will be okay of course. thanks

Hi @David and anyone else watching this thread. Quick update as the issue seems to be resolved at this time.

There was an Intel® Irix® XE Driver Extension for the Surface Pro 8 published on August 1st. This corrected some issues in the special Surface Pro 8 driver (version 31.0.101.889 not found on the Intel’s site, only pushed out via Windows update) and which corrected some “graphics configuration and artifact issue”:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/surface-pro-8-update-history-1080bf34-7e87-408c-8619-80571283526e
. There we some other updates published as well that may have contributed.

If you have a Surface Pro 8 on Windows 11 and currently have this issue, please ensure this update from August 1st is applied, and all other updates are present. You may need to run Windows update a few times until it reports back that there is nothing new.

As a note, this Intel® Irix® XE update does not change the Intel Driver version displayed, it will remain on 31.0.101.3889 as it has since June 2023, and this is how the missing update slipped by when I tried to confirm the latest driver was installed. As this is pushed out via Windows update, you’ll want to keep an eye out for something in the update list akin to “Intel Corporation - Extension - 31.0.101.3889”.

https://us.v-cdn.net/6035386/uploads/1641MXYXVJQU/image.png

Thank you for your patience and working with us David, and hopefully this post can assist anyone else should they come across this issue as well.

If you’re satisfied with the result, please ensure you mark this response as the answer to allow others to see it quickly, thank you.