Hi everyone! Curious if other people are experiencing this issue and if there’s any advice to fix.
I’ve noticed that the USB-C expansion cards does the following:
- when I connect directly to an external monitor (no adapter/dock) via the USB-C expansion card, I see this strange flickering effect on the monitor, and the display has a lot of blue, black, and violet streaks all over.
- sometimes, I can see that the monitor detects that it has connected to the Framework, but it doesn’t detect a signal
- In the past, turning the Framework off and on again a few times sometimes fixes the issue. Sometimes disconnecting and reconnecting the TB3 cable connecting my monitor and my Framework laptop fixes the issue. But now, the issue persists, no matter which other slots I connect my USB-C expansion card into AND no matter which USB-C expansion card I use (I have 2 USB-C expansion cards. But exhibit the same issue, despite one of them typically sitting in storage rather than in the Framework laptop itself)
In addition, the HDMI expansion card
- sometimes, I can see that the monitor detects that it has connected to the Framework, but it doesn’t detect a signal
- I noticed that this tends to occur more often if I leave the computer idle that the screen turns off or it goes to sleep.
By the way, I also have everything set up so that the Framework is closed while connected to the monitor. I’ve changed the Windows settings to allow the Framework to do nothing (as opposed to going to sleep) when the lid is closed.
Hope this helps explain the situation 
thank you!
Welcome to the forum!
The USB C card is a passive card, meaning that it doesn’t do any kind of signal conversions from the mainboard. It is essentially just an extension card for the USB C connection from the mainboard.
Unless this is a signaling issue, it likely isn’t the root cause of the issue. If you want to check, you could try plugging your TB3 cable directly into the mainboard.
I would also recommend checking if the TB3 cable is the issue.
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thank you Elliot! Appreciate the extra info enlightening me on how the expansion card works
I gave the changes you recommended a try, to these results:
- When I plugged in my TB3 cable directly into the mainboard, I see that the monitor detects that it’s connected to the Framework, but it doesn’t detect a signal. So it charges my Framework, but doesn’t push to display.
- Same thing happened with other TB3 cables I have, sadly
Could it be…that the mainboard is the issue? Perhaps it’s old? I had this laptop since 2021, if that helps.
Many thanks again for your help!
Alas, I have a similar issue but with Ubuntu. I use both the built-in and an external display as an extended desktop. More often than not, the laptop on boot does not appear to send a signal to the display. Sometimes at the login screen, unplugging the HDMI cable and plugging it back in again gets a signal to the display, sometimes a reboot, sometimes turning the display on before the laptop, sometimes after. It is seldom consistent. I have tried both the HDMI and Display Port expansion cards and exchanged the respective cables too.
The display settings app can see the monitor is connected but the monitor’s OSD says “no signal detected”. Likewise when the cable is unplugged the monitor will report “cable unplugged” so each end is aware of the other. I’ve even tried with another monitor on ye olde DVI-D > HDMI cable, that too is identified in the Display Settings app but no signal is detected at the monitor.
The 11th gen motherboard has the latest firmware. The HDMI and DP expansion cards are both first-gen but AFAIK that shouldn’t be an issue.
If anyone’s got a pointer, I’d be glad of some advice.
Hey everyone, thanks to all chiming in. I got an email notification that someone with the username “amoun” posted that I think answers my specific instance of the issue. However, whenever I try opening the link in that email notification, I just can’t find it or load it up. So just in case, I’m gonna copy+paste what he said in hopes that somebody else will find it useful. Thank you!
Yes this is an issue where the monitor doesn’t negotiate with the laptop.
You could try an alternative protocol, as I imagine the USB C is looking for a PD type to supply power to the monitor but sees the monitor as the PSU
Also try searching for similar topics, there are many . . .
While this doesn’t bring us to a solution, to me it points directly to the core issue: both sides are aware that they’re connected to each other, but they fail to negotiate and recognize that it’s a monitor that supplies power.
What further tells me that this is the issue is how whenever I connect the cable (and trying different ones), every time the laptop makes the sound that something was connected, and right after makes the sound that it was disconnected, and repeats again and again. Perhaps the laptop is thinking “oh I connected! Wait what is this? I disconnected, oh wait I connected again! What is this thing? I think it’s a-okay it disconnected agai-oh it’s back.”
Curious if others are experiencing this and if they found a solution?
Good to see you around here again!
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Haha! Maybe watching some IT Crowd may help us in understanding that sarcastic tone x’D Thank you, amoun.
I’ll try the mainboard reset! I wonder if resetting BIOS to defaults is also a viable solution to try…
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