External monitors often going off and on

[Pgus2023]

Just adding to the chorus - I am in an office of 15+ users. Most of us use the HP dock, I have experience the sudden off or snowy screen several times. I've gone a while without an issue (knock on wood) but one of my coworkers just got a new laptop and her monitors keep shutting off or going snowy. I've read through most of the posts and the objective finding is this is an issue with HP's hardware. I think we will just be moving to a different brand of docking station. Too bad. I've always had very good luck with HP computers and monitors. Not sure why it can't get its act together with this docking station.

[FrankOtheMt]

Really annoying problem. 💩

[ecrooker]

I have the same issue. Three monitors that randomly go black for a few seconds throughout my workday. None of the open windows minimize or get shifted to another display but is annoying to say the least - frustrating and a distraction to my current workflow to say the most. 

I contacted HP and opened a ticket, trouble shooting steps involved:
- BIOS>Advanced>System Options and checking the box for "Enable High Resolution mode when connected to a USB-C DP alt mode dock"
- Downloading and installing HPIA Softpaq.
- Running the utility and finding no errors, missing drivers or recommendations to address

-Hard resetting the laptop - unplug everything from all ports on the laptop and hold the power button for at least 30 seconds
All for nothing, issue still persists.

HP Zbook Power G10
Thunderbolt Dock G4 280W
2-Dell SE2717H (DP monitor to DP dock )
1 HP E27 G4 FHD (HDMI monitor to HDMI dock)

[FrankOtheMt]

I think I might've figured it out. Not completely sure yet, but confidence is high. We tried many things that didn't work. I spent a few hours troubleshooting, and so did my co-worker. Did everything suggested on this thread to no avail.

The first week or so that I had my 3 monitor setup, I had no blink off problem. Then I was messing around to see how many monitors I could hook up, max. I had the laptop screen, the 3 dock ports, and a tripplite USB graphics adapter going. (5 total) I tried to do six, but 5 was the limit. When I went back to my 3 screen setup +laptop screen, the blinking started. I was moving things around a lot, and using different cables. All HP monitors with an elitebook.

There was one person on the thread who mentioned cables, and it seems that others were quickly dismissive of him, but this might be the key:

I had the two dock display port outputs connected into the monitor's HDMI input ports. I removed the display port to HDMI cable on the monitor that blinked on and off every half hour, and replaced it with a display port to display port cable. Going into the DP input on the monitor, not the HDMI port. I didn't change the other one (yet?). I was at my desk for 3 hours, and the monitors never blinked off. I will observe more tomorrow and get back to everyone.

I know there are differences between HDMI and display port. Not sure of the exact details. I know that one direction does not work right (or at all) when mixing HDMI and display port, as far as monitors go. I remember problems like this in the past.  So there's a chance that DP to HDMI is a bad thing. See how you have yours hooked up.

[ken3333333]

@FrankOtheMt

Thanks for spending the time to troubleshoot and sharing with us. We did solve the issue by changing the cables to DP to DP or HDMI to HDMI. Also change the cable brand to C2G. 

[FrankOtheMt]

Ah, good news.

[Jax38]

Hi Frank,

I really appreciate you doing the trouble shooting. The dock has one HDMI and two DP Ports. I have two monitors and I have tried with one monitor with HDMI and one with DP Port. the HDMI port didn't work. Only DP Ports work. I will try new cables per feedback from the forum. Let's please continue to monitor and report back. 

Btw,  "HP Executive Support" has assigned a dedicated person to work with me. I had to reach into the organizational hierarchy to get attention from all the tickets I've logged. They're asking me to consider BETA firmware update. I will report back once I get this sorted as well. 

As of right now, HDMI and DP port doesn't work for me. I need both DP Ports to power up the monitors. Can someone direct me to where to buy the brand names cables?

[Jax38]

Hi Ken,

I have since been downgraded from the Thunderbolt Doc to the G5, which only has ONE HDMI port. I have to monitors. There are two DP Ports that I'm running. I've tried ONE monitor going into HDMI directly and the other into DP. This combination fails. I only have the two DP ports as options and this is failing. What cables are you running?

Also, waiting new BEAT firmware update per HP Executive Support to provide me to "try" fixing this problem.

[teemstro]

I can almost guarantee it's a firmware issue. I had nothing but problems with my G5 dock so I found an old G2 one lying around our office. Plugged that in and it was flawless for a whole week...and then HP Support Assistant said there was a firmware update for it. Ever since I installed that latest firmware, it's been just as bad as my g5 dock was.

I haven't got around to figuring out how to downgrade the firmware. It's not straightforward that much I know. 

I'm interested in this BETA firmware they're discussing with you.

ps...it's not the cables. 

[FrankOtheMt]

Well, I've been going for 3 hours today without any blinking, so far. Changed both cables: DP to DP.