Surface Pro 3 not working with Mac Thunderbolt Display (Windows 10) - should it?

Question

I'm using a Surface Pro 3 right now with Windows 10 and am at a clients site. I've been offered the use of a spare Mac Thunderbolt display but connecting it to the Surface's mini Display Port does nothing. The port works fine with other displays and the display works with other Macbooks.

Is there a way to get this to work with my surface? It's pretty annoying to say the least.

Solution

Thunderbolt displays will not receive input from Mini DisplayPort. Though the ports are physically identical, the display will only be driven by a Thunderbolt port.

The reverse, however, is possible. A Thunderbolt port will happily send input through a mini DP monitor.

For clarity:

• Thunderbolt Video Output -> MiniDP Monitor | Good!
• MiniDP Output -> Thunderbolt Monitor | Will not work!

You can read about it here (sorry about CNET) http://www.cnet.com/news/confusing-mini-displayport-with-thunderbolt/

Comments

[user1901982]

This is correct. To clarify, a MiniDP driver will not detect or support Thunderbolt protocol displays. The issue is licensing and the addition of backward compatible chip level hardware. Thunderbolt drivers however can cut down their data rate and send MiniDP compatible signal through the existing Mini DP pins on the TB socket. And yes, this means about 0.001% of the computer market can use an Apple TB display and that's why basically nobody else makes them.