Weird docking station screen artifacts

Basically, if you go to device manager and you see "Microsoft Basic Display Adapter" instead of "NVIDIA Quadro (whatever)" then you need to reinstall the NVIDIA driver. It doesn't sound like this was the case for you. (The basic display adapter would not do multiple monitors.)

This is more of a troubleshooting step, not a suggestion for a permanent solution. If you still have issues with discrete graphics output OFF then we can rule out the NVIDIA GPU as the culprit.

Your setup "should" be working fine. If Dell will replace the card then maybe that will fix it. I think it's fine to give it a shot. They might want to take their own troubleshooting steps first because it is an expensive part.

 

Ok - I think I'm doing what you suggested to determine if the issue is with the Nvidia GPU or not:

I've turned Switchable Graphics ON, and Discrete Graphics Controller Direct Output Mode OFF.

Got 5 monitors working, like this (as you said should work - it does work):

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So what am I looking for now? According to what I can see in "Advanced display settings", monitors 1, 2 and 3 are running off the Intel GPU, and 4 and 5 are running off the Nvidia. I guess I'm looking to see if I still see the issue on displays 2 and 3?

As as side issue, a GPU running a display is a completely separate function to the GPU actually processing graphics? I.e. If I'm using the Nvidia GPU to render a CAD model, it won't matter which display I'm looking at the CAD model on? I.e. a display can be running off the Intel GPU, and still display graphics that are dependent on the Nvida GPU?

Many thanks again for this!

(Also, btw, unfortunately the Ctrl+Shift+Win+B didn't work the last couple of times - the artefacts were still there after the reset)

 

Looks good, and yes, basically I'm interested to see if the issue still occurs on displays attached to the dock.

Yes, rendering can be done separately from the GPU driving a display. The NVIDIA GPU can render graphics for a process and then output the result into the Intel GPU framebuffer for display onto the screen. This is how NVIDIA Optimus works. (It can actually go the other way as well, Intel GPU rendering to NVIDIA-powered display.) The NVIDIA GPU "automatically" decides which GPU to use for which program but you can override this in the NVIDIA control panel, under "Manage 3D Settings" and then the "Program Settings" tab.

 

Great, thanks a lot. I had assumed "3D" in that context meant actual 3D display (stereo images) rather than 3D data (CAD for example) translated to a 2D image, but I guess that's the wrong interpretation...

Anyway, just woke the PC up and this is what Whatsapp looks like on display no. 3 (i.e. one driven by the intel GPU):







So does that rule out a faulty Nvidia GPU?

Thanks again mate!

 

Yeah... It makes it a whole lot less likely at least. (Especially if you're not having any trouble with displays attached directly to the laptop which would be driven by the NVIDIA GPU.)

Whew. Really not sure what to think. :-\
Reviewing the facts...
* This issue only happens with displays attached to the dock and not with displays attached to the system directly.
* This issue occurs whether the displays are attached to the NVIDIA GPU or the Intel GPU (toggling via BIOS "discrete video display output" option) — so not likely a GPU problem
* You have sort-of similar issues with two different docks of the same model

The funny thing is the manner of corruption. For example, in your very first post in this thread, in the second picture, it's your Windows lock screen with the clock. You can see that the background image is garbled but text and icons overlaid on top of it are presented fine. That makes me think it's got to be an issue with your system and not with the video output path, the dock, or the monitors; otherwise the disturbance wouldn't be so specific.

Could be some kind of bizarre software issue but I've never run into anything that causes that before. To check that I guess you could do a clean Windows install and then see if you are able to reproduce the problem. (Maybe if you have a spare drive hanging around so you don't have to throw away your main install.)

 

* This issue only happens with displays attached to the dock and not with displays attached to the system directly.
Yep - never seen it with a display that was attached directly (that I can remember)


* This issue occurs whether the displays are attached to the NVIDIA GPU or the Intel GPU (toggling via BIOS "discrete video display output" option) — so not likely a GPU problem
I've only checked which GPU was driving which display during the later steps of this troubleshooting, but I think based on my previous info you'd determined that the issue happened on displays that would have been driven by the Nvidia GPU - and now in the most recent step we've seen it happening on the intel-driven displays

The funny thing is the manner of corruption. For example, in your very first post in this thread, in the second picture, it's your Windows lock screen with the clock. You can see that the background image is garbled but text and icons overlaid on top of it are presented fine. That makes me think it's got to be an issue with your system and not with the video output path, the dock, or the monitors; otherwise the disturbance would be more uniform.
Yes - it's only ever specific parts of the display that are corrupted (as you can see in the whatsapp screenshot - the message from my mum is clear). However, with my other setup at my office, the whole screen is garbled (but in a different way:



Now, apologies, I probably should have mentioned this before - might be useful info... With my home set up (all screenshots other than the one above with the vertical lines), if I move the mouse pointer over the garbled area, it becomes clear. Or if I grab the top bar of the window and drag the window around, the contents of the window become clear. Either of those things gets rid of the garbled parts. However, I can then minimise a window and then find a garbled one behind it.

In contrast, with my office setup (the screenshot above with the vertical lines), it's really hard to get the display working again. Moving the mouse over it doesn't work, unplugging and replugging it in doesn't work, rebooting the dock doesn't work - usually need to reboot the PC to get it working again, or something drastic like that. I will however try the Ctrl+Shif+Win+B - I haven't been back in the office since you told me about that.

What's strange is that I've never seen the issue I get on my home setup at the office, and I've never seen the issue I get with my office setup at home! So if it is an issue with the laptop itself, it manifests itself in different ways depending on which of two identical model docks it's plugged into... Weird....

Thanks again!

 

This also points to a system issue (not a dock issue). Though it is so strange that it only happens with dock-attached displays.

I would personally take this to Dell support (did you get Pro Support with your setup?) and see what they want to replace first.

 

Also so strange that it only happens with displays attached to one of two identical docks?

Got Pro Support:


However, the docks I bought from Amazon - but they should still be covered by the same Dell warranty if there's an issue with them?

 

Not completely sure how this works if you don't buy them from Dell. I don't think that Dell sells directly on Amazon. I bought some Dell monitors from Amazon once and I did the warranty lookup on them with the serial number, and found that they were registered in Costa Rica or something, with a warranty start date of a few months before I purchased them. (They were out of warranty anyway when I had an issue with one of them so I don't know if Dell U.S. would have covered them or not.)

 

Well, if there turns out to be a problem with the docks I guess I can just return them via Amazon.

Anyway... I don't want to speak too soon (although I'm not superstitious) but since doing all that trouble shooting, I've set the BIOS settings back to how they were (Enable Switchable Graphics and Discrete Graphics Controller Direct Output Mode both enabled), and am no longer using the mini-DP port (setup is now as it was before, as below), and I have not seen the issue at all.

Is it possible that turning the settings off and on again etc has reset something somewhere?