Docking station broken by firmware update

[e4ch]

I have a docking station HP 2013 UltraSlim (Product D9Y32AA, regulatory model HSTNN-IX10, Assembly number 727347-001, HP spare 732252-001, note ICC 6060B1709001 - V2 - 331813).

I'm using it with a HP EliteBook 1040 G1 (from office, on Win7) and a new EliteBook 850 G5 (private, on Win10) and connected to an Acer 4K monitor via DisplayPort.

From the office we have various such docking stations and the one I initially used didn't work with my 4K monitor (lowering resolution or refresh rate worked), so I thought it was an older version and took a different one which worked fine with 4K. Someone told me that these devices have firmware that can be udpated. As this docking station is at home and I also connect my private notebook, I thought I update the firmware to the latest version, even if it was working. I don't remember which update it was, but it was the only link from the official product support page. That was a bad idea. Although the update ran successfully through, after disconnecting the notebook, I now cannot get any picture anymore (on the external monitor). If I run the update again, I got the error that I need to connect a monitor first. In the meantime I have reinstalled my private notebook (for other reasons) and downloaded the support pack sp79015, which seems to be the latest version of the firmware. There I get the same error, that I need to connect an external monitor, even if one is connected (no image though). When I also connect another monitor on VGA, that error doesn't show up, but later I get the error "Can not find Synaptics MST DP hub IC". How can I fix this?

[e4ch · Accepted solution]

I solved the problem myself.

Note: The old firmware installed was version 2.20, so make sure you never install that (not sure what sp..... package this was from). Anyway, here's the solution:

Connect an old monitor with VGA input via an adapter DisplayPort to VGA on the docking station's DisplayPort connector. Then run the tool to install the latest firmware version 2.33, via SP79015, link: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp79001-79500/ (direct link to exe: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp79001-79500/sp79015.exe) again and it will update successfully.

Notes:

- Don't mix HP UltraSlim Docking Station and HP 2013 UltraSlim Docking Station. These are two different products.

- Latest firmware is mentioned here: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-Notebooks/HP-2013-UltraSlim-Docking-Station-latest-firmware/t...

- The trick with the old VGA monitor on a DisplayPort to VGA adapter is mentioned here: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-System-and-Recovery/SOLVED-HP-2013-Slim-Docking-sta...

- It's a shame that HP doesn't list the latest firmware version on the respective product page or under software/drivers for the product. I only found it in the forum post mentioned above.

- How can HP release a firmware version 2.20 that causes a black display and causing impossibility to update the firmware again without some special hardware and not even document this problem well?

Anyway, if this helped you, click the thumbs up button.