Multitude of issues with Elitebook x360 1030 G2 and Thunderbolt 3 dock

[WCCIT]

We just purchased some Elitebook x360 1030 G2's.  Luckily for us, these are all in IT, if they were not they'd be going back and replaced with something that's ready for prime time.  As is, we still may return these devices.  

For reference, we are running:

OS: Windows 10 1709 build 16299.192

I've updated every single driver, BIOS, and Firmware (including the Thunderbolt 3 90 watt dock) as of 2/14/2018.

Here are the issues I experience:

1) Laptop will not cold boot on dock (especially with the lid shut).  I have attempted to enable "Boot on AC power detected" in the BIOS, but this only work sporadically.  It is also not ideal if I choose simply to charge the laptop and not power it on….  If that feature is disabled in BIOS it fails to boot 100% of the time while connected to the dock. It does NOT matter if I press the dock power button OR the laptop power button.  What I find when I power up on the dock with the lid shut, then raise the lid to see what's happening, is a grey stripe down the screen about a third from the right of the display.  It remains in this state until I power off the laptop.  Note, if I boot on the dock with the lid open, it will boot sometimes, but just this morning I opened the lid, connected the dock and powered it up and all it did was fail to boot with the all too common for me grey stripe on the screen.  It also takes longer to boot and populate my external displays than my old Elitebook 840 G2 with the Slimline 2013 dock (which was no great piece of hardware either).   For reference I have 2 HP 1080p displays connected with HP brand Displayport to HDMI adapters into the dock.

2) Despite the fact that I have updated the Intel Management Engine firmware and software as well, the laptop seems to ALWAYS run the fan when I'm on AC power.  The fan on this device is much more noticeable than the 840 G2, I'm assuming because it's narrower and the fans are more high pitched because of this.  I've also tried changing the cooling profile in the power plan to "Passive" when on AC power, but this seems to make no difference.  This device seems to be great as a stand-alone device, but it has ALL kinds of docking issues. 

3) IT HAS COIL WHINE.  I've tried a few registry tweaks to disable some of the low power modes of the CPU as detailed in other x360 coil whine threads, but this only exacerbates problem number 2.  I've since reverted the reg changes I made since the fan running is louder than the coil whine most of the time.  Still, this is pretty crummy for a high-end business product. 

Lastly, I swear if anyone comments to update the BIOS and drivers on this machine, I'll lose it.  (unless there have been updates since I've last checked), but I've spent HOURS running every single BIOS, Firmware, and Driver update on this thing just to get it to a semi-usable state.  FWIW I would NEVER give this device and dock a- is to a user in our organization. 

I've literally spend the first 20 minutes of my day jerking around getting my laptop to boot at the dock so I can do my work.  

[smoken731]

Did you ever get anywhere on this?  I too am in IT and have the same model with similar issues.  I don't have a dock, but my touchpad is ridiculously horrible.  It's very unresponsive, even on the highest sensitivity setting in W10.  I've updated drivers and everything, but it still persists.  Contacting HP support seems to just start a scripted conversation that doesn't resolve anything.  I really don't want to replace or RMA my laptop, but it's to the point that I either use the touchscreen or a bluetooth mouse, because the touchpad is not consistent enough to be productive.

[Markkuu]

Regarding your boot issues, try the latest BIOS update. It has a specific fix for that very issue.

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp93001-93500/sp93494.exe

https://support.hp.com/au-en/drivers/selfservice/swdetails/hp-elitebook-x360-1030-g2-notebook-pc/141...

[Markkuu]

I too experienced this. Of all things that you could think of updating to resolve it...the last thing you would expect is your graphics driver, but the latest intel driver so far has seemed to have solved the trackpad issue for me.

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp94501-95000/sp94579.exe

https://support.hp.com/au-en/drivers/selfservice/swdetails/hp-elitebook-x360-1030-g2-notebook-pc/141...