2nd monitor not recognized when using a docking station.

[TomandDeb]

We have an HP - ENVY x360 2-in-1 laptop running Windows 10.  Just purchased in June, 2020.

We have 2 EXTERNAL HP monitors that we connected.  One to the laptop's HDMI port, one to the laptop's USB-C port.

Both monitors work as expected.

We now want to connect additional devices, so we bought at docking station.

The docking station connects to the laptop via the USB-C port.

We connect the 2 external monitors to the docking station.

One works (HDMI), the other doesn't (using either the USB-C or the docking station's other HDMI port on the docking station).

To be totally honest, we've tried about 10 different docking stations.

All have the same result.  One external monitor works, the other doesn't even get recognized by windows.  It stay's black, and the power light is red. 

We spoke to the docking station tech support who said the laptop "should" support dual monitors through their docking station.  They recommended calling HP support to see if there was a driver or BIOS issue.  The graphics driver is current.  Then, the HP support said "we can't help you, but if you pay us money to use our "smart friends" site, they can probably fix the problem".    Really?   Gotta pay to get help?

So, bottom line is that the 2nd monitor works when connected directly to the USB-C on the laptop, but isn't even recognized when connected via any method through a docking station (with the docking station using the laptop's USB-C port).

Anyone have any ideas?  

PS - Not a computer nerd, so speak slowly.  Thanks.

[banhien]

@TomandDeb 

What is your HP - ENVY x360 2-in-1  ? Does it have USB-C port which supports Alt Mode ?  I can't answer your question (slow or fast) because I don't know your machine.

Please use the following way to find out the model/product of your machine

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

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

Regards.

[TomandDeb]

I apologize for not including this.

The HP x360 is a laptop.

Here is the information off the Best Buy receipt:

HP - ENVY x360 2-in-1 15.6" Touch-Screen Laptop - AMD Ryzen 5 - 8GB Memory - 256GB SSD - Nightfall B...
Model: 15M-EE0013D

It has one USB-C port, and one HDMI port.

I do not know if the USB-C port supports alt-mode (how can I find that out?)

I believe the Tech support from the last docking station vendor we tried looked up that fact on her website and I'm pretty sure it said that the  USB-C does support Alt-Mode.  But, I don't have anything factual to confirm it....just her say-so.

Thanks for any help/insight you can provide.

[Dan8719]

Dear TomandDeb, 

I had a similar issue in the sense that there was no way to make the external monitor working even by directly connecting it to the usbc thunderbolt connector. After several attempts I fixed the probelm by setting from 0 to 1 the value of an entry of the register file. If this works you will fix the problem in less than 5 minutes. 

You can find the detailed I instructions in this post I wrote today: External monitor not working with thunderbolt connector

Keep me posted! 

[TomandDeb]

Thanks for the information.  However, I can connect a monitor directly the USB-C (non-thunderbolt) port and it works just fine.  However, when I connect a docking station to the USB-C port, and then try to connect the monitor to the USB-C port that is on the docking station itself, the monitor won't connect.  We've tried at least a dozen different docking stations.  I cannot get the monitor to be recognized when connecting to the USB-C on the docking station.  Most docking stations we tried have HDMI (which works for one of our 2 monitors), or we can try the old VGA connections, which also work, but the quality and layout of the display when using VGA isn't acceptable.  We really just want one docking station to drive 2 monitors:  1 through HDMI, 1 through USB-C.  Even the expensive, power, HP branded docking station won't allow the monitor to be recognized from its USB-C port.