HP Elitebook 1040 G3 dual monitor issue with docking station

[PDAU]

Don't be sorry Happelgren, this is an issue you and many others are clearly having. Three of the richest, biggest companies in IT (Intel, HP, Microsoft) have sold you, and the rest of us, a complete boatload of PITA. We deserve a solution. Unlike others, I'm been misfortunate enough to encounter this problem - and many other variations of "video just doesn't work two monitors" - with all HP hardware! Details:

HP Z27n monitor

HP ZR2440w monitor

"HP" dock(s)

Rest assured, if you think there's any benefit or fix available by sticking with all HP hardware, you are completely wrong. Come on, throw whatever questions you want at me, I've tried it all, no success. This includes:

1. Dock (Synaptics DP hub) firmware update
2. Same monitors (2 x HP Z27n)
3. DP multi-streaming
4. DP direct to Z27n; DP direct to ZR2440w / another Z27n (that is to say, no multi-streaming)
5. DP normal to DP mini port on a HP Z27n
6. Same cables (Amphenol E326508)
7. Removed displays in the Device Manager, ensuring I tick the remove drivers box
8. Re-installed drivers from Windows Update (right-click, Update Driver in Device Manager)
9. Installed HP Support Assistant (doesn't even detect the dock) and taken recommended action
10. Installed HP Image Assistant and taken recommended action
11. Tried each and every mad combination of work around actions to kick the monitor detection into behaving
12. A seance
13. Good money after bad work-arounds: "HP Travel Dock" (actually a DisplayLink device).
    Works via HDMI to ZR2440w but no colour profiles and doesn't solve the insane issue of the GPU not consistently bringing the displays out of sleep or Win + L properly/at all.
14. RMAing the Dock, only to receive a physically identical unit that is labelled completely differently
15. Voodoo

It's this sort of disaster that sends people to crApple land. Hands up if you're surprised that PC sales growth has tailed off lately? Stick with what you've got that works, is what I recommend!

[Happelgren]

Sweet mother of god what a post!

Well **bleep** it.. Perhaps my original plan (buy hardware from Dell) wasn´t such a bad idea anyways.. I´ve been working with Dell hardware for six years and never seen anything like this. Sure a motherboard or two would break, but within 24 hours you had it replaced. 

dealing with issues like the onces we are having with HP hardware is just plain boring and gives a really bad user experience..

[KenGreen168]

I've not tried with my ELiteBook 1040 G3 yet, but a couple of weeks back I bought an HPE ProLiant ML10 box which uses DP for it's monitor connection (there's nothing else). Works fine if I plug it into either of my DP monitors. I've a nice Samsung one and a cheap AOC one. No problems with either.

But when i tried it with adapters to to DVI and HDMI it's not interested. I've tried the same adapter/cable/monitor combinations with 8740w. It seems there are lots of flavours of DP and this seems to become important when using adaptors. In the end I found a posting on an HPE site which described the problems I was having and gave a list of known working adaptors. Bought one of these and it worked first time.

I'll have to bring the 1040 out to the office and try that too, but I'd bought it as it was small and easily lugable about, so I don't normally have it on the dock running with external displays.

[lovebohn]

Do you have a link the adapters that work with these docking stations?

[FRHarry]

Hi guys,

stuck on the same Problem.  Any new Updates on this issue?

[Harvs45]

Hi Team,

I have the same issue on 4 HP Elitebook 1040 G3 and dock. I have 6 Elitebook Folio x 9470m and 35 x 9480m on varying OS from windows 7, 8 and 10 and none of them have this issue. Some desks are dual monitor hotdesks as we travel between sites and the first instance of this issue has been with the 1040 G3. These docking stations are the 2013 model which are still being sold to me as the only option without getting a usb type c dock. perhaps it is time to redesign the dock?

Also we vary the connections from DP to DP, DP to HDMI, DP to DVI - it does not change the issue accross all connection types

[Terrence13]

Updating the Firmware on the docking station to 2.33 seemed to do the trick for this problem.

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?swItemId=ob_181406_1#tab-history

[FRHarry]

Thank you sir!

Just tested this fix with 4 Workplaces and it worked for all of them.

In my tests everything worked fine with the Monitors in the DS.

Finally, took them long enough.

[DLB_84]

SP79015 HP Ultraslim Docking Station DisplayPort (DP) Hub Firmware Update Version 2.33.000 Rev. A resolves many of the issues described.

Links

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/swdetails/hp-elitebook-1040-g3-notebook-pc/8654820/...

http://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp79001-79500/sp79015.exe

Description

HP Ultraslim Docking Station DisplayPort Hub Firmware Update provides the EEPROM firmware required to enable the DisplayPort hub on the HP Ultraslim Docking Station. This package is provided for supported notebook models running a supported operating system.

Fixes

- Fixes a display flicker symptom that occurs when the DP monitor connected to the docking station is set to low power mode.- Provides improved display connectivity with NVIDIA GPU equipped notebooks.
- Provides improved compatibility with BenQ 32" monitor over DisplayPort (DP) input.
- Sets the color depth on the docking station DP monitor to 8 bpc if the original depth is not defined in the monitor Extended Display Identification Data (EDID).
- Changes the VGA port maximum pixel clock limitation from 193 MHz to 205 MHz. Additional resolutions are supported.