External monitors not detected through docking station after Windows 10 update

Question

I have a Dell Inspiron 7520 and a Dell D3000 docking station connected through the USB 3.0 port. Before updating to Windows 10 (I was using Windows 7), everything worked fine. Two monitors were connected to the docking station (one through the HDMI and one through the DVI port) and my laptop used all three displays just fine.

After updating to Windows 10, no monitors that are connected through the docking station are detected. The monitors are detected if I plug them directly into the laptop's HDMI or VGA ports. However, other USB devices (e.g. keyboard, mouse) still function properly through the docking station. Only the display monitors seem not to be detected.

I upgraded the driver for the D3000 to the most recent one (here). But this did not help.

Solution 1

I work in IT for a small company and recently one of our users had the same issue. If you open device manager do you have any display adapter drivers that have stopped working? If you have an Intel driver that has stopped due to a problem there may be a work around.

We found that if you opened the laptop lid and then restarted the computer, the external monitors would identify and work. You could then close the laptop screen and continue working but whenever the laptop is turned off or undocked it would need to have the screen open in order to identify the monitors.

This is by no means a long term solution but it seems like this is a problem with Win 10 and will hopefully be fixed in the near future. I haven't tested it yet but I also so that Nvidia pulled their driver from last week due to some display issues so maybe that was the problem. Hope this helps.

Solution 2

This may be useful to some. My computer is a Lenovo W530 and with the same issue, after I reinstalled Windows 10, the monitors connected to the DVI ports on the dock, did not work. This computer has a second video card Nvidia Quadro and I went to Windows system directory and found an application which is the control panel for the Nvidia. There all I had to do was to enable the monitors on DVI ports and it all worked. Perhaps on Dell the solution is similar. For some reason, Windows 10 installation does not add a shortcut for the Nvidia control panel as it does for the Intel Graphics that only controls the laptop screen, so I had to hunt for it.

Solution 3

Just incase anyone else is having the same problem I had:

• Check that the power to your docking station is plugged in correctly.

Solution 4

Yesterday I updated my NVIDIA driver through "NVIDIA GeForce Experience" and it worked.

Today it doesn't work. I tried disabling and enabling both Intel onboard and NVIDIA video cards' drivers, restarting, reinstalling drivers but it didn't help.

Then I found this link that was saying that the sequence of reattaching cables is important. I tried it. It didn't work.

Then I tried to replug USB 3.1 cable, so the side that was in docking station I put into laptop and the other end that was in laptop into docking station, and it worked.

I am still not sure which of those made it work, but it feels like the reattaching the cables worked for me.

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Comments

[m1nkeh]

worked for me (just now, at home) ! interestingly, this foxed me at work yesterday too... normally i come in, and dock and all works fine. Yesterday i docked at a different desk and as i normally do opened the laptop to resume from sleep, and immediately shut the lid to go make a coffee - no dice. Now i think i know what was wrong... first time at a new dock.. keep the lid open!

[Markarian451]

Actually power cycling the docking station can be one way to trigger monitor re-detection. Make sure to wait a while before plugging in again. This turns out to work for me on an Latitude E7440 (Intel graphics) running Linux.

[ssmith]

And what was the name of the NVidia Control Panel program?

[David Balažic]

@ssmith it is literally NVIDIA Control Panel. On my system it can not be found in the Start menu (by typing N V I D I...), but if I right click the desktop, it is there in the context menu.

[candle]

Where in NVIDIA Control Panel did you enabled monitors on DVI ports? If I enable everything I have only "3D settings" and "Developer" available. I have Intel onboard graphic card and also NVIDIA on my laptop.

[Admin]

For me, it wasn't the plug into the docking station from the power brick, but the plug from the outlet to the power brick. The plug going into the power brick wasn't fully seated. Worked after rebooting.