I have an HP Spectre 15" (15-eb0053dx) plugged into a new plugable USB-C 4K via the USB C cable that was included. I’m trying to run just two external monitors (both HP 1920 x 1080). Although on the first day I was able to have monitors connected with one via the HDMI and one via the top Display port, the next time I used it it didn’t recognize the HDMI-connected screen.
They both work fine when plugged into the display ports, but I can’t get a signal from the HDMI output to either. I can get a picture from the laptop’s built-in HDMI to either monitor.
Is the issue just that the HDMI will only recognize a 4k screen? Am I missing any performance by using only the display ports? Although right now I’m only using these 2k screens, at some point I could envision upgrading to an external 4k screen and would like to know if the plugable will work with it.
Thank you for contacting Plugable support! Sorry to hear about this issue. I’d be more than happy to assist you.
The 4K port doesn’t require a 4K display, that just means it supports up to 4K, inclusive of all lower resolutions.
Since the 4K port was working for a bit and then stopped, let’s try resetting the dock and see if it comes back. If you haven’t already done so, fully unplug the dock from all devices, power, and USB-C cable to the host computer. Wait about 30-60 seconds, then reconnect the power cable first, USB-C host cable next, and USB devices last. Sometimes a reset in this order can resolve this issue.
If that doesn’t help, technically the 4K HDMI port offers the best performance since that port is driven by the graphics card in your laptop over USB-C. The two DP ports use DisplayLink USB Graphics via a chipset in the dock, and they will perform slightly slower than the HDMI, though for Internet/office applications, I wouldn’t expect to notice much difference.
Please don’t hesitate to let us know of other questions.
Thanks again for contacting Plugable support and best wishes!