I am trying to use this dock to run two external monitors via HMDI from a new Microsoft Surface 5 laptop running Windows 11. When connecting the monitors only one of them is being recognized by the PC. Any suggestions on how to move forward?
Hi Bill,
Thank you for contacting us, I am sorry this is not working as expected and I am happy to help!
This docking station relies on two graphics technologies to support up to three external displays.
The “Display 2” and “Display 3” outputs are controlled by DisplayLink USB Graphics Technology, this is a combination of software on the computer and hardware on the docking station which extends the capability of the computer to support more displays than the computer was designed to support. This requires installing the DisplayLink drivers for Windows ( https://plugable.com/drivers/displaylink ) or the DisplayLink Manager App for macOS and configuring macOS to support the external displays ( for macOS 13: https://kb.plugable.com/1595423, for macOS 11, and 12: https://kb.plugable.com/1185378 ).
The “Display 1” output relies on the computer’s internal graphics controller, it utilizes USB Type-C DisplayPort Alternate Mode (“Alt-Mode” for short). This is an optional USB Type-C port feature which is not enabled on all computers. This relies on the computer’s built-in graphics drivers and requires the docking station to be connected directly to a USB Type-C port with Alt-Mode capability using the original USB Type-C data cable provided with the docking station. USB Type-C cables from other products, or purchased separately online may be charging cables that do not support Alt-Mode video data.
If the “Display 1” connected display is not being detected I recommend double-checking to ensure the docking station is connected directly to the Surface Laptop 5’s USB Type-C port using the USB Type-C data cable included with the docking station.
If the “Display 2” or “Display 3” connected display is not being detected, I recommend manually installing the DisplayLink drivers from the link above to see if this enables both external displays.
If neither of the above suggestions help, we can get some additional details from the computer to help determine exactly how the docking station, and external displays are being detected by the computer.
- Keep the docking station connected to the computer with the displays and devices connected to the docking station
- Download and run our PlugDebug utility ( http://plugable.com/support/plugdebug )
2a) For Windows: Download the PlugDebug Utility, then Right-click on the PlugDebug application and run as administrator
2b ) For macOS: Click on the red button “Generate PlugDebug Report (Deprecated Pending Update)” to expand the section, select the PlugDebug utility from the Downloads pop-up on the Dock, or double-click if saved to the Desktop
2c) Follow the on screen instructions to launch the application - Click the “Start” button to begin gathering logs from the system
- When completed the application will pop-up a message with the name of the zip file containing the logs on the user desktop directory
- Please attach this zip file to your reply email to ‘support@plugable.com’ with the subject line ‘Ticket #411843 - Attention Pat’
This will allow us to examine some log files from your system to help determine the next steps.
Thank you,
Pat
Plugable Technology
support@plugable.com
That worked. I actually was able to plug into Display 2 and 3 and get everything to work. Thanks for the explanation on how this works!
Hi Bill,
You’re very welcome, I am glad both displays are working now! Please let me know if you have any additional questions, or if there is anything else I can do to help, and have a great day!
I’ll go ahead and mark this thread as resolved. If you have any additional questions, or if there is anything else we can do to help, please feel free to start a new thread, or contact our support team directly via email.
Thank you,
Pat
Plugable Technology
support@plugable.com