HP Spectre x360 13, Laptop - Second Monitor (USB-C to HDMI hub) keeps going black

[Charlie1A]

I am currently on Windows 10 version 1909 build 18363.476

I have updated every driver and the BIOS to the latest versions available on the HP Support site.

I have a secondary monitor connected via HDMI and an Anker Premium 5-in-1 USB-C Hub, 4K USB C to HDMI Adapter, SD/TF Card Reader, with 2 USB 3.0 Ports which works without issue.

After I have been working for some time (30-40 minutes) and apparently for no reason the second monitor goes black. The USB 3 ports on the hub continue to function. Unplugging the hub and reconnecting to the PC has no effect on the monitor. It stays black.

I can then unplug the hub and plug it into the second USB C port on the laptop and the second monitor comes on and functions correctly.

After a while, the second monitor goes black again but the hub's USB 3.0 ports continue to function normally.

The USB C ports can be 're-activated' if the laptop is hard reset and both work with the hub and the second monitor until after a while it goes black again.

I have checked the event log and there does not appear to be any fault events coinciding with the time the monitor goes black.

The HP SUPPORT COMMUNICATION - CUSTOMER ADVISORY Document ID : c06489916

has a driver that apparently fixes intermittent failure of the USB C ports however when I try to install this I get the error message "This Driver is not supported on this OS version (10.0.18363)

I have also changed the USB 3.1 device settings in device manager so that they are not put to sleep when the computer sleeps but this had had no effect.

It appears to me to be a basic driver error but a working driver is not available from HP.

This is very frustrating! Please does anyone have a fix for this? Thank you.

[Charlie1A]

I tried to use the laptop yesterday with the second monitor and it stayed on for just three minutes. Very annoying!

I remembered that this issue started when I updated the BIOS to the latest version F.34 so I rolled back the BIOS to version F.33. When the laptop restarted the second monitor started working straight away and continued to work for 5 hours. This looks like a fix! 

However, when I rebooted the laptop this morning the system utility came up with the message that the system was updating the BIOS to the latest version!  It seems it is the latest version of the BIOS that is the issue. How do I stop the utility from trying to update the BIOS every time I restart the laptop?

I have set the HP Support Assistant to ask before it installs software but it is not this software that is trying to update the BIOS.

I could really do with some help with this. Thank you

[Echo_Lake]

@Charlie1A
Thank you for posting on the HP Support Community.

I appreciate your efforts to try and resolve the issue.
Don't worry as I'll be glad to help,  I have a few troubleshooting steps we could try to fix the issue:  

Method 1:
Click on the "Start" button and select "Run" and type MSConfig in the field where it says Open and click the "OK" button. Select the Startup tab, uncheck HP Updates and click the "Apply" button.

Method 2:
Press the Windows logo key + R then type gpedit.msc and click OK. Go to "Computer Configuration" > "Administrative Templates" > "Windows Components" > "Windows Update". Select "Disabled" in Configured Automatic Updates on the left, and click Apply and "OK" to disable the Windows automatic update feature.

Hope this helps! Keep me posted for further assistance.
Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

[Charlie1A]

Thank you for your message.

I decided to allow the BIOS update to proceed to see if it was actually the install of the latest BIOS update that was causing the issue. This time I made sure that the hub was not connected to the USBC port. The laptop re-installed version 34 of the BIOS successfully and since then I have not had any issues (so far!).

I am assuming that it was the install that had a glitch in it rather than the update being at fault.