Connecting an HP Spectre laptop and an HP 32QHD Monitor

[JCTalleyHo]

I have been trying to connect the 32 QHD HP monitor to my HP Spectre laptop. The monitor was sold to me as a 'docking station' with ports all along the back. The Spectre only has 1 USB and 1 HDMI, as well as 1 USBC. I was informed i need a USBC to USBC to connect so I can use the ports on the back of the monitor. I could not find an HP cord so bought a Belkin. Now I get an error message that says it is unauthorized, and when my computer tries to shut down, if I don't unplug the cable, it keeps chiming every minute, non stop. Does anyone know if there is an HP USBC to USBC cable, or how else I can solve this issue?

[banhien]

@JCTalleyHo 

Before we can help, we need to know what EXACTLY is your HP Spectre laptop ? Please use the following instructions to find out the model/product of your machine:

     https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03754824

             or

     https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00033108

Please do NOT post its Serial number (s/n).

Regards.

[JCTalleyHo]

Thanks! Straight from the HP Support Assistant:

HP Spectre x360-15-df1033cx

ProductID 7UT64UA#ABA

[banhien]

@JCTalleyHo 

The specs of your machine is

   https://support.hp.com/au-en/document/c06453247

It has

• 1 AC smart pin;
• 2x Thunderbolt™ 3 (40 Gb/s signaling rate, Power Delivery 3.0, DP 1.4, HP Sleep and Charge);
• 1x USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A (HP Sleep and Charge);
• 1 HDMI;
• 1 headphone/microphone combo

You can use a Thunderbolt™ 3 port to connect to a QHD monitor. But the manual for the older series say it has HDMI v2.0a port:

         http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c06422405.pdf

Therefore you can use HDMI v2.0 cable to connect it to a QHD monitor and save valuable Thunderbolt™ 3 port for other accessories (such as an external eGPU).

Regards.

[JCTalleyHo]

Thank you for that reply and your time. I do have the HDMI cable connecting the laptop and monitor, which allows me only to see my screens on the monitor, but does not let me access the USB ports on the back of the monitor. I have tried various USB sticks, such as for wireless mouse/keyboard and data, but nothing is accessible from the back port. I can only access the monitor's USB port if I use the USB C to USB C Belkin cable, but that keeps giving me an error saying it is an unauthorized cable. I can live with an error message, but if I leave it connected anyway, when my laptop goes to sleep after whatever interval timeout I set (have tried several), the computer keeps chiming every minute with no error message. If I unplug the USB C to USB C Belkin, then it quits chiming.

Does all that make sense? I wanted to call support, but it has been down or long waits due to the worldwide issues I went to Best Buy where I bought all this equipment, and they were equally stumped. 

[JCTalleyHo]

Hi again. This was marked as solved but is not. I added another comment yesterday to explain why the HDMI cable isn't the solution. Can you please review again?