@WSeda That should definitely work. As a possible workaround, if you go into your BIOS settings and set the NVIDIA GPU to be primary and have direct control of the display outputs, does that change anything? The catch is that you'll take a battery life hit since that means the NVIDIA GPU will be active all the time because it will even have direct control of the built-in display, but even just for testing I'd be curious to see if that changes anything. Also note that this setting MIGHT cause the system to operate in HBR3 mode (not entirely sure), in which case the allowed port combinations expand. But all of the combinations you listed should still work for triple QHD even if the system does operate in HBR3 when the NVIDIA GPU has direct control of the outputs.
Hello @jphughan, before attempting that change I wanted to give it another go by following the supported configurations. To say the end result has been frustrating would be an understatement.
Of the three combinations I tried, I realized that any configuration having two DP-to-DP connections would not work. Therefore, the DP1.4 + MFDP Type-C + USB Type-C TB and DP1.4 + HDMI2.0 + USB Type-C TB configurations inconsistently worked. Trying each of the two configurations worked the first time but subsequent attempts failed with the same problem as before. I suspected I needed to establish the connections in the order listed by Dell and tried that, which made things works again (yay!). However, now that I am dressing up my cables I am noticing that I am back to square one. WTH?! To make matters worse, I got a BSOD after disconnecting the XPS from the dock.
Honestly, this type of inconsistent behavior is reminding me of my time with the TB15 & TB16 docks.
@WSeda Ugh, sorry to hear you're having trouble with this. Unfortunately it seems that newer systems get plagued by firmware and/or driver issues that cause people running closer to the edge of the performance envelope (triple QHD is somewhat rare) to see issues. For example, the new XPS 13 9300 just recently got a BIOS update that completely broke a bunch of USB-C to DP and USB-C to HDMI adapters -- so something that should be zero-effort plug and play and WAS that way before suddenly became impossible to use. This world of "release it as a beta and fix with patches later" seems to be the new world order, unfortunately, and definitely not just with Dell.
Using both DisplayPort outputs should actually work, although I know from my own experience that things that SHOULD work don't always ACTUALLY work. That plus the fact that you apparently got it working for a while based on the sequence in which you connected the displays leads me to think there are firmware and/or driver issues involved here. If you haven't already, make sure the WD19TB is running the latest firmware (download page here), but if that doesn't fix it, then you might end up having to wait for firmware/driver updates for the brand new XPS 17. If you happen to have access to another TB3 system, I'd be curious to see whether your triple QHD setup works with that too, just as a data point -- in addition to what happens if you allow the NVIDIA GPU to take direct control.
Sorry again about this! If I think of anything else to try I'll let you know though.
jphughan
9 Legend
•
14K Posts
0
July 10th, 2020 07:00
@WSeda That should definitely work. As a possible workaround, if you go into your BIOS settings and set the NVIDIA GPU to be primary and have direct control of the display outputs, does that change anything? The catch is that you'll take a battery life hit since that means the NVIDIA GPU will be active all the time because it will even have direct control of the built-in display, but even just for testing I'd be curious to see if that changes anything. Also note that this setting MIGHT cause the system to operate in HBR3 mode (not entirely sure), in which case the allowed port combinations expand. But all of the combinations you listed should still work for triple QHD even if the system does operate in HBR3 when the NVIDIA GPU has direct control of the outputs.
WSeda
1 Rookie
•
3 Posts
0
July 10th, 2020 11:00
Hello @jphughan, before attempting that change I wanted to give it another go by following the supported configurations. To say the end result has been frustrating would be an understatement.
Of the three combinations I tried, I realized that any configuration having two DP-to-DP connections would not work. Therefore, the DP1.4 + MFDP Type-C + USB Type-C TB and DP1.4 + HDMI2.0 + USB Type-C TB configurations inconsistently worked. Trying each of the two configurations worked the first time but subsequent attempts failed with the same problem as before. I suspected I needed to establish the connections in the order listed by Dell and tried that, which made things works again (yay!). However, now that I am dressing up my cables I am noticing that I am back to square one. WTH?! To make matters worse, I got a BSOD after disconnecting the XPS from the dock.
Honestly, this type of inconsistent behavior is reminding me of my time with the TB15 & TB16 docks.
jphughan
9 Legend
•
14K Posts
0
July 10th, 2020 11:00
@WSeda Ugh, sorry to hear you're having trouble with this. Unfortunately it seems that newer systems get plagued by firmware and/or driver issues that cause people running closer to the edge of the performance envelope (triple QHD is somewhat rare) to see issues. For example, the new XPS 13 9300 just recently got a BIOS update that completely broke a bunch of USB-C to DP and USB-C to HDMI adapters -- so something that should be zero-effort plug and play and WAS that way before suddenly became impossible to use. This world of "release it as a beta and fix with patches later" seems to be the new world order, unfortunately, and definitely not just with Dell.
Using both DisplayPort outputs should actually work, although I know from my own experience that things that SHOULD work don't always ACTUALLY work. That plus the fact that you apparently got it working for a while based on the sequence in which you connected the displays leads me to think there are firmware and/or driver issues involved here. If you haven't already, make sure the WD19TB is running the latest firmware (download page here), but if that doesn't fix it, then you might end up having to wait for firmware/driver updates for the brand new XPS 17. If you happen to have access to another TB3 system, I'd be curious to see whether your triple QHD setup works with that too, just as a data point -- in addition to what happens if you allow the NVIDIA GPU to take direct control.
Sorry again about this! If I think of anything else to try I'll let you know though.