External monitors often going off and on

[TL_TDJ]

Hello, we are using 3 sets of HP Zbook Fury 16 G9  + HP Thunderbolt Dock 280W G4 + two AOC U27P2. On each of them, external monitors are going off and on randomly when connected via a docking station. OS, graphics card, docking station, bios drivers and firmware are up to date. External monitors are still visible when connected remotely, but physically going black for like 3-4 seconds. 

[Rayvnlol]

Same here. You'd think for a $400 dock it would you know... WORK

[Arkkijussi]

We have had same issue quite a long time and tried everything imagineable moves like updating firmawares, renewing USB-C cables and so on... In our case Monitors are also HP EliteDisplays to make sure system would work, but still NO. Truly frustrated about this quality / price.

Some older HP combos are working, but this Dock G4 or Zbooks....We don't know which of these are causing those bugs. 

[HybridNistico]

SAME issue here.

I did some simply troubleshooting to remove the wiring, drivers, etc. as culprits.

I took my dual monitor HDMI cables out of the HP Thunderbolt Dock 280W G4 that I have, plugged them directly into the laptop (bypassing the docking station), and they never "cycled off" again. Zero issues, the issue is 100% attributable to the docking station. Not sure if I'll be returning this and getting another one if it's just going to continue doing the same thing.

Very frustrating for the money between the docking station and HP ProBook 450 G9 that I purchased.

[bitbender]

Indeed the same question here. It is totally random. I just had this twice within 15 minutes. Sometimes I work a day w/o issues (as far as I can tell; obviously I'm not at my desk 24/7 or for 8 hours straight).

For a docking-station this price, and moreover with a brand like this, this is not acceptable. I almost wish I'd gone with a "cheap" one that's just 1/10th of the price and at least works.

Definitely not gonna recommend these to any of my colleagues, at least not until HP solves this problem. Not that that's gonna bother HP even just a bit, just saying.

Disappointed with this docking-station. The only good thing is, it looks good. Well, if that would the most important thing I'd to worry about, I'd be glad.

BTW: using the Display Port connection and connect to a Philips 34E1C5600 monitor, using monitor-native resolution 3440x1440@100Hz. Laptop is a HP ZBook Fury G9 w/ NVidia RTX A3000 12GB and 32 GB of memory

[Christian_1989]

I believe it is not a dockingstation problem, since one of our users have the same issue when an external monitor is connected via HDMI directly to the notebook without the dockingstation connected.

Whenever the black screen appears, the graphics card seems to have a problem and then some programs like AutoCAD turn the hardware acceleration off.

I am out of ideas - I even created a ticket at Autodesk, but they also told us that it is a hardware or graphics card issue.

I hope that HP will fix this issue with a new BIOS update, graphics card update or that someone here finds a solution for this problem. 

In general we are having a lot of problems with the HP ZBook Fury G9 models - they have a very bad performance, get very hot and everyone keeps compalining about them.

[HybridNistico]

Hi Christian, I whole-heartedly have to disagree, at least from my experience. My monitors (both, but not at the same time) go black intermittently for no rhyme or reason, but ONLY when using the HP dock. Since my original post, HP sent me another dock which I was hopeful for... but to no avail, the same exact thing continues to happen. I think that it's either a firmware issue or a hardware issue within the docking station itself, and I lean toward firmware as we all can't be experiencing hardware failures together. For now, I will continue to deal with it and will continue to hope for a simple fix from HP.

[Jax38]

I'm having the same issue. I have the HP Dragonfly Folio, a top-of-the-line laptop connected to two HP 24es external monitors. I returned the HP Thunderbolt dock for the same reason and am now trying the lower version dock, the HP USB-C Dock G5. It just arrived, and I plugged it in; it flashed Black again, but it took a shorter time to reconnect as compared to the Thunderbolt Dock. I have also connected it to a Logitech external webcam, Lenovo USB keyboard and mouse, external headset, and an external static removable drive. It's a compatibility issue with something. My old Dell Dock didn't have any problems, but the FAN was awful, so I switched to HP. If someone has any other suggestions, please let me know. If the problem persists, the dock will be returned. It's a shame. 

[Rayvnlol]

https://www.cdw.com/product/anker-778-thunderbolt-docking-station/7403966

I'm replacing all of my g2/g4 thunderbolts with that. No issues with it other than I need an external power source to charge the laptop. 

[bitbender]

Thanks for that info. Might have to try these sooner or later.

In fact, I just did a firmware update of the docking station like less than a week ago, obviously since new firmware was out. I didn’t hold my breath already, since there was No mention of said issue.

Anyway, long story short, after the firmware update, the black-outs got WORSE instead of better. So, that docking station is a real bummer. No way it’s worth its money.

If I could still return it for a full refund, I would immediately do it. Alas, that ship had sailed, so I’ve got to stick with it. At least for now.