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WD19 dock problem: no monitors detected
I've lately bought a WD19 dock to extend my HP Windows 10 laptop display to two Dell monitors.
Both monitors work when plugged directly into the laptop's single HDMI port one at a time.
The dock doesn't seem faulty, it has power, connects the keyboard and mouse through USB and I've tried a replacement.
However, neither monitor will work through the dock, whether connected by HDMI or DisplayPort (I bought an adaptor after seeing the other posts recommending it was the way to get dual monitors working).
I've updated the laptop BIOS and tried re-installing the Realtek drivers and firmware update, but still can't get the laptop to detect the monitors via the dock.
Error message when connecting says 'the USB device malfunctioned and windows does not recognise it'.
I'm about ready to return the dock unless anyone has bright ideas?
Thanks.
jphughan
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November 23rd, 2021 12:00
@jaycarey What specific HP laptop are you using? Video output from a WD19 requires that the USB-C port support video output, called DisplayPort Alt Mode. (USB-C always uses DisplayPort output even if an adapter/dock later converts that signal to HDMI.) That is an optional capability on USB-C ports and therefore it not implemented on all systems that have USB-C ports. Did you check the specs of your specific laptop to confirm that its USB-C port is specifically mentioned as supporting video output rather than being a data-only port?
(edited)
jphughan
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November 23rd, 2021 12:00
@jaycarey Adding to my suggestion above, if your USB-C port turns out not to have the required support, one option you can consider would be a dock that use "indirect display" technology called DisplayLink -- not to be confused with DisplayPort. That technology involves transmitting video as regular USB data rather than as native video traffic, and as such it can be used even with data-only USB-C ports (and even USB-A "regular USB" ports). However, be aware that DisplayLink has some drawbacks that can be significant in some use cases, which I wrote about in the post marked as the answer in this thread. If you think DisplayLink might be workable for your use case, then Dell makes the D6000 dock that uses that technology, and other third party vendors like Targus, VisionTek, and others have DisplayLink-based products as well.
jaycarey
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November 23rd, 2021 13:00
Ah, I think that's it - I need thunderbolt to support video and this model's USB-C looks like it's charging only. Thanks so much for your help.
jphughan
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November 23rd, 2021 13:00
@jaycarey Happy to help. To be clear, you don't necessarily need Thunderbolt. That would guarantee support for video over USB-C because that capability is mandatory for Thunderbolt, but there are systems that support video over USB-C without supporting Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt also allows support for more video bandwidth than regular USB-C, as well as support for PCI Express. So if you had a Thunderbolt dock to pair with a Thunderbolt system, you could do more than using a USB-C dock. But the WD19 is not a Thunderbolt dock; that would be the WD19TB.