Unsolved
7 Posts
2
3460
XPS 13 9300 Thunderbolt docking problems
I have a XPS 13 9300 and I just can not get it to work well with external monitors, mouse and keyboard.
I have tried the following Thunderbolt Docks: Caldigit TS3 Plus, OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock, Dell WD19TB and Lenovo Thunderbolt 3 Dock gen. 2.
I have tried both using Windows 10 and Ubuntu 20.04 and both show similar issues.
I am running BIOS version 10.0.7, since 10.0.11 made the problems worse and have to reconnect my keyboard several times to get it to work.
My screens are two Dell U2515H and one Dell U2518D.
Everything works perfectly fine on my older XPS 13 9370 (except charging via OWC dock)
The problems are slightly different:
Caldigit TS3 Plus:
Connecting 2 screens through built in DP using MST and one through DP dongle on TB3 port.
Screens randomly (every 1-10 minutes) turning black for a couple seconds, sometimes coming back, sometimes falling asleep and i have to reconnect them to make them come back.
OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock:
Connecting 2 screens through built in DP using MST and one through DP dongle on TB3 port.
Screens randomly (every 1-10 minutes) turning black for a couple seconds but always coming back online by themselves without reconnecting.
Laptop not charging via dock.
Dell WD19TB:
Connecting 2 screens through built in DP using MST and one through DP dongle on TB3 port.
Screens randomly (every 1-10 minutes) turning black for a couple seconds, sometimes coming back, sometimes falling asleep and i have to reconnect them to make them come back. The dock also has a terrible fan noise that is louder than both the laptop and my stationary computer so don't want to use this one.
Lenovo Thunderbolt 3 Dock gen. 2:
Connecting 1 screen per integrated DP (2 screens in total) and 1 via TB3 port DP dongle.
Screens randomly (usually within less than 1 minute) turning black and falling asleep. Have to reconnect to get them back.
In all these cases the screens are still "active" in the OS, i.e., the screens shows up in the display configuration and i can move my mouse to the black screens.
Has anyone had similar issues or success connecting to a TB3 dock? This almost makes the computer unusable and is very frustrating.
sawsc
7 Posts
0
June 3rd, 2020 15:00
It seems like parts of the upgrade actually failed when i did upgrade to 10.0.11 the first time. Now 10.0.11 at least behaves similar to 10.0.7, but still problems connecting to screens and screens going black after just a few minutes.
describee
117 Posts
0
June 3rd, 2020 17:00
Is the display output stable if you plug in power on the other free Usb-c port? Just curious.
If Dell were to contact you I think I would focus my efforts on the WD19TB since it's a Dell product and probably easier for them to troubleshoot the underlying issue.
sawsc
7 Posts
0
June 4th, 2020 06:00
I haven't tested that specifically except with the OWC dock since charging doesn't work with that one. However, with that one with an additional charger it is still not stable.
Yeah, I bought that explicitly for the reason that they shouldn't be able to shift the blame. That's a cool 250 euros to spend.
Action123
2 Posts
0
June 15th, 2020 21:00
My 9300 has stable output to monitors while running power and CalDigit TS3+. However, I cannot get my keyboard or mouse to work. Seems to only allow one thing at a time.
Not a good look for Dell to be messing with functionality like this on a laptop with only 2 ports - both TB3. Growing more concerned each day I have this machine, will likely go crawling back to Lenovo at this point.
DGLASBR1
2 Posts
0
September 19th, 2020 08:00
I'm having a similar experience with the 9300 and WD19TB dock.
I had an XPS 9380 with a TB16 dock, which worked fine. I gave my wife this setup and bought a new XPS 9300 and WD19TB dock which is when the problems started.
I had issues with one external monitor (flickered and went blank at 60Hz) but only when using the 9300 laptop. If I plugged my wife' 9380 into the same dock then all worked fine.
I logged with Dell and we went through about six weeks of troubleshooting, including a motherboard swap and several re-builds. While doing a driver update as part of trouble-shooting, the laptop borked (corrupt audio driver) and wouldn't recover. After a push, Dell shipped me a new XPS 9300 and the problem has not recurred.
I still get the occasional flickering on one monitor, but it recovers after a few seconds. I also have the dock fan speed issue reported on here (fan races at top speed frequently).
I have noticed that even without the dock, the laptop screen itself will occasionally flicker, so I wonder whether the video driver is not quite optimised yet for the 9300.
NeillK
1 Message
0
July 3rd, 2021 04:00
XPS13 9300 with WIndows - terrible - repeated crashing - WIndows 11 - much improved.
Dock does work, but no Windows 11 specific drivers for it, so cant update the firmware, etc (WIndows 10 firmware fails install).
Action123
2 Posts
0
July 3rd, 2021 10:00
NeillK, Windows 11 is still pre-release. It’s not currently supported by Dell software and is in a “use-at-your-own-risk” stage of development. Dell will likely not have support for Windows 11 until it is officially released as stable.