External USB3 display fails when directly connected; works from unpowered dock

I have a Framework with Ryzen 7840, Windows 11, 32GB RAM, 2TB WD Black SSD.

My Framework works fine, except when I try to use an Asus MB168B+, the display flickers and it’s never properly detected.

Where it gets weird is that, when I plug it into a USB dock, it powers up fine and is fully functional.

No power adaptors are necessarily plugged it; I’m using the “dock” as a dongle, plugged into a USBC port.

The device uses MicroUSB 3 (the version that has a larger USB2 half, an indentation, and a small extension, so that it looks like a narrow letter “B”). It includes a USB-A cable, but I’ve also tested using a USBC>MicroUSB3 cable as well.

I wonder if there’s not enough wattage being requested at the host port that the USBC dock is properly requesting, and if this is the case, whether there are ways to make it provision the correct wattage. It’s a long shot, but I wonder if this could be fixed in firmware as well. I don’t necessarily think it’s a defect, but more curious about whether there might be solutions available.

The issue is more likely to be USB timing related. Have you tried all 4 USB C ports of the FW? Have you tried connecting directly to the USB C port on the motherboard rather than going through the type C to C expansion adapter?