Another Spectre x360 USB-C to HDMI No Signal Issue

[yingjie_]

Hello all,

I've been having difficulties with my 3 year old HP Spectre x360 - 13-ae084tu 's HDMI connection and have finally decided to write in to the community hoping that someone can help.

Specs: 

Processor - Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8550U CPU @ 1.80GHz 1.99 GHz 

RAM - 16.0 GB (15.8 GB usable)

My laptop used to be able to connect to external monitors (e.g. house TV, office screens) via HDMI cable & the HP's USB-C Multiport adapter https://store.hp.com/au-en/default/hp-usb-c-to-multi-port-hub-1bg94aa.html in the first year of purchase, but afterward it became kind of buggy (sometimes able to, sometimes no signal) and by the third year it's just No Signal all the way. 

I recently sent my laptop in for a battery replacement, fan cleaning and audioboard replacement, and bought a desktop monitor (Dell S2421H) 1 month ago.

Since then, the laptop has no issues, except that it is still unable to connect to any external monitors. When I connect my Dell monitor or TV to my laptop via Dell's HDMI-HDMI cable and   (which came with the laptop) the monitor says "No HDMI Signal from your device". Thinking the port was faulty, I bought a different, new off-market USB-C multiport adapter, but the problem wasn't resolved. 

I'm starting to suspect it's the laptop's issue as the USB ports on both multiport adapters seem to work fine, and the laptop registers HP's multiport adapter connection when I connect it. Other users seem to say there's some issue with HP's laptop reading only certain types of USB-C multiport adapters(?) and advise to use the official ones as far as possible; so I'm really confused why the HP Multiport Adapter that came with the laptop and used to work stopped doing so randomly. 

Both my USB-C ports on my laptop work fine with charging. There's been no issue of water splashes, mechanical trauma or any such obvious causes for hardware failure I can think of in the past 2 years.

The fixes I've tried (from other users' experience) that don't work for me are:

1.  Any variation on: turning on my monitor first, connecting the cable to laptop, then turning on laptop; or vice-versa

       -  Unlike other users, I've never gotten a signal even once in the past 1-2years

2. Updating my bios, graphics driver [Intel (R) UHD Graphics 620 on the HP website] & misc drivers

3. Resetting my laptop and restoring via system image 

4. Trying both USB-C ports on my laptop, trying both HDMI ports on my monitor

5. Battery replacement - saw some users advise this and explain that static may have built up over time, but technically as my laptop's battery was replaced 1 month ago, I was hoping this issue would be resolved too 

Is there anything else that you might suggest trying before I have to take this down to HP repair centre again?

I'd really like to avoid doing so as (1) I'm not sure if it's a hardware issue given that the USB-C ports both work fine with charging (2) I'd like to avoid having to wait while my laptop is sent in to the centre as much as possible.

Thank you very much for your time and guidance in advance! Cheers and have a great day :')

[yingjie_]

The 2 ports are Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports, and I've read that they support DisplayPort - would it be worth buying a USB-C to DisplayPort adapter https://www.whymazer.com/product-page/usb-c-to-display-port-video-adapter and DisplayPort-HDMI adapter just to give it a shot? https://en.j5create.com/products/jdc158 

Since so far I've been using USB-C to Multiport and HDMI-HDMI adapters...